Chapter 70: Final Exams
The seven-day break quickly passed, and before long, the day of the final exams finally arrived.
The weather was great today. The sky was clear, and sparrows were chirping cheerfully outside early in the morning.
Although the winter sunlight was not especially warm, it still felt comfortable when it shone on the body.
Because of the exams, Li Nuo got up early and made a simple breakfast by himself.
For breakfast, he prepared one sausage, two eggs, and a cup of hot milk for each person.
The meaning behind it was obvious. Even though he was not a superstitious person, he still did it anyway.
After breakfast was ready, An Ran'er also woke up and came out of her room.
However, these days she always changed into her school uniform before leaving her room, instead of wandering around the living room in pajamas like before.
It was obvious that she was still bothered by what had happened a few days ago during their study session.
After washing up, An Ran'er sat down at the dining table and looked at the breakfast.
"Why did you cook two eggs today?" she asked.
"One sausage and two eggs. Isn't it obvious enough?"
Li Nuo pointed at the arrangement on the plate. The sausage was on the left, while the two eggs were lined up on the right.
"Tsk. You're not a little kid anymore. How can you still believe things like that?"
An Ran'er peeled an egg while mercilessly teasing him.
"W-Well... just think of it as my wish," Li Nuo said with an awkward laugh.
"The idea is nice, but the exam isn't even out of one hundred points." She muttered while chewing on the egg.
"My standards aren't that high. I'll be happy as long as I pass every subject."
"You really don't ask much from yourself."
"I guess."
Li Nuo laughed foolishly.
After breakfast, the two checked their exam materials before leaving, including their student IDs, exam permits, pens, and other necessities.
Since they had a math exam in the afternoon, they also needed drawing tools such as rulers and compasses.
After confirming that they had not forgotten anything, they left for school.
Like most ordinary high schools, Nanqin High School's final exams were spread over three days.
The first day consisted of Chinese in the morning and Math in the afternoon.
The second day had Chemistry, Politics, Geography, and Biology in the morning, followed by Physics and History in the afternoon.
The third day was English in the morning, and after that, the vacation officially began.
Because the exams were arranged by class groups, they were not assigned to the same classroom.
Li Nuo's exam room was in the second-year section, while An Ran'er took hers in a third-year classroom.
Although the exam officially started at nine o'clock, students were usually required to enter the exam room by eight-thirty.
Each room had two teachers supervising the exam.
Before entering, one teacher checked student IDs and exam permits, while another used a metal detector to make sure students were not carrying electronic devices.
Only after passing the inspection could students enter the classroom.
Most students left their phones and watches on a table outside before being checked.
However, there were always some who tried to hide small electronic devices in private places and sneak them inside.
Unfortunately for them, most were caught and forced to hand the devices over under the teachers' watchful eyes.
Even for the few who managed to get past inspection, it was still difficult to cheat during the exam.
As long as the supervisors were responsible, one would sit at the front and the other at the back, closely watching everything in the room.
In that situation, even the smallest movement from a student could attract attention.
Of course, there were occasionally irresponsible teachers who went into the hallway to chat during exams, allowing students inside to cheat freely.
Fortunately, such situations were rare.
At exactly nine o'clock, the classroom speakers announced the start of the exam.
The teachers then handed out the test papers along with blank scratch paper.
For most students, scratch paper was only useful during Math and science subjects that required calculations.
Humanities subjects rarely needed it.
At most, students would use it to write a character several times if they were unsure how to spell it.
Sometimes, however, the more they wrote it, the stranger it looked.
Because of that, Li Nuo rarely used scratch paper during humanities exams.
Only after finishing the paper early would he sometimes doodle on it to pass the time.
Although students were allowed to hand in their papers thirty minutes early, most homeroom teachers told their students beforehand not to leave early and instead spend the remaining time checking their answers carefully.
For Chinese, however, there usually wasn't much extra time.
While filling in classical poetry questions was fairly quick, the three reading comprehension sections and the 800-character essay took a lot of time.
By the time Li Nuo finished writing his essay, there were less than five minutes left.
Looking at the densely filled answer sheet, he felt quite satisfied.
Chinese was not particularly difficult to pass.
The hard part was getting a high score.
After estimating his performance during the final five minutes, Li Nuo felt he would probably score around 100 points.
Since the paper was worth 150 points, that was only slightly above the passing line.
The Math exam would not start until three in the afternoon.
Besides eating lunch, students still had time to do some extra review.
For Math, memorizing formulas was important, but understanding problem-solving methods and techniques was even more important.
Fortunately, Li Nuo had saved all the review notes An Ran'er had taught him on his phone.
After lunch, he took them out and reviewed them several more times.
Although mathematics relied on flexible logical thinking, simply memorizing solution methods for common question types could still be useful when preparing for an exam.
This time, Li Nuo again left no question blank.
For every problem, he wrote down whatever he knew, even if it was only a small part of the answer.
As for his final score, that would depend on luck.
Still, after all the tutoring An Ran'er had given him, he felt he should at least score somewhere between seventy and eighty points.
Passing was finally within reach.
Maybe.
After finishing two of the three major subjects, especially Math, the remaining exams felt much easier.
The four subjects tested on the second morning were all filled with multiple-choice questions.
They could be completed rather quickly.
Most of the answers could also be found simply by memorizing textbook content.
History in the afternoon was similar.
Physics, however, once again required logical thinking.
After that exam, Li Nuo's head hurt.
He often mixed up the many physical laws named after famous scientists.
By the time English arrived on the third day, most students were already thinking about where they wanted to go during the vacation.
Unlike the other exams, English included a listening section.
The audio recording usually started playing through the speakers shortly after the papers were handed out.
Once the English exam ended, the month-long winter vacation officially began.