Chapter 169: An Unexpected First Place
At this point, the only person who could possibly have scored better than Yang Jiayi was Chen Mo.
Sure enough, Su Yuqing soon saw He Xiaoyun glance in Chen Mo’s direction.
"For this midterm exam, someone in our class actually ranked first in the entire grade. Their score is incredible. Of the four major subjects—Chinese, Math, English, and Comprehensive Science—three were passed with a perfect score. Only Chinese had points deducted, losing fifteen points between the essay and reading comprehension."
He Xiaoyun was a master of suspense, revealing the scores before announcing the student’s name.
By now, all the students’ curiosity was piqued.
They never would have imagined that even though their class’s top student, Yang Jiayi, had only placed seventh, someone else had managed to take first place in the entire grade.
That’s just too incredible.
What was even more ridiculous was that they had perfect scores in three subjects.
Since He Xiaoyun was facing Chen Mo’s direction as she spoke, many students also turned to look that way.
In that corner of the room, only Su Yuqing was known for having the best history grades.
But Su Yuqing’s grades were only considered above average in the class. It was hard to imagine her scores improving so drastically that she would jump straight to first in the grade.
At this point, even Huang Mao and Zhao Yuanyuan were exceptionally curious.
Chen Mo had recently gathered them all for a study group, and he was clearly very skilled when it came to math.
But they hadn’t really seen what he could do in other subjects.
Naturally, it was hard to imagine that Chen Mo, who had always been a middle-of-the-pack student, could possibly rank first in the grade.
Seeing that she had the entire class’s curiosity piqued, He Xiaoyun finally announced with a smile, "Let’s congratulate Chen Mo for achieving the top rank in our grade for our class, with a total score of 735, a full 15 points higher than second place!"
Chen Mo knew exactly who the second-place student He Xiaoyun mentioned was. He was in Class 1 and his grades were excellent.
In their year’s college entrance exams, his score would be high enough to get him into Kyoto University.
Chen Mo had only managed to score higher than him by relying on his advantage as a transmigrator.
Of course, this was also related to Chen Mo’s own exceptionally strong memory, cautious attitude, and the powers of observation he had developed over many years as a criminal police officer.
Even if a normal person had studied diligently in high school, looking back ten years later, there wouldn’t be much they could still remember.
But because of that unforgettable period in his past, Chen Mo remembered everything from his high school years with crystal clarity.
Coupled with his inherently strong memory, a brief review was all it took for him to recall the knowledge he had learned in high school and apply it.
However, that alone wouldn’t have been enough to get perfect scores in three subjects.
Getting a perfect score often has little to do with your breadth of knowledge.
After exams are graded and handed back, many top students can glance at their mistakes and know instantly what they did wrong and how to fix it. They don’t even need the teacher to point it out; they can correct it themselves on the spot.
This proves that they knew the material. They didn’t make mistakes because they were ignorant, but because it’s only human to err.
It’s especially easy to make mistakes under the time pressure of an exam, when your brain is working at high speed.
Therefore, to get a perfect score, you need not only sufficient knowledge but also an extremely cautious attitude and sharp observation skills.
The ability to quickly and accurately review your answers after finishing is another crucial factor that affects the final score.
This was where Chen Mo had an edge over the other top students of his time.
Where other top students might have enough time to check their work once after finishing, he could check it several times.
As a result, Chen Mo’s chances of making errors on the exam were far lower than those of his peers.
The reason Chen Mo was able to get perfect scores in three subjects this time was the result of his meticulous reviews.
For Math, English, and Comprehensive Science, he had found and corrected mistakes during his review process.
If he had turned in the test after his first pass without checking anything, his score probably wouldn’t have even broken 700; he’d have gotten around 690 at most.
That’s the difference between a thorough check and no check at all.
The second-place student was actually in the same boat. Without checking his work, his score would also have been around 690, not much different from Chen Mo’s.
After hearing the name from He Xiaoyun’s lips, WOW!
The entire class was in an uproar.
Because that name was so far beyond their expectations.
Someone who had always been a middle-of-the-pack student had suddenly transformed and taken first place in the entire grade?
It was just too absurd.
Chen Mo, however, wasn’t too concerned with his classmates’ astonishment.
He could have deliberately scored a little lower to avoid attracting so much attention.
But having just come back, Chen Mo wasn’t entirely sure of his own abilities. Now that there was finally a major exam, he naturally wanted to test himself, to see how his scores compared and whether he had forgotten any of the knowledge stored in his memory.
Clearly, after returning to school and reviewing all his high school material, all the insane hard work he had put in back then had not been in vain.
He had successfully applied the knowledge he once learned.
Hearing his results, Chen Mo himself felt a sense of relief and gratification.
After announcing Chen Mo’s score, He Xiaoyun said with a smile, "We haven’t rearranged the seating in this class for half a semester. So, next, we’re going to adjust the seats. This time, the new arrangement will be based on exam scores."
He Xiaoyun quickly put a new seating chart up on the projector.
Everyone saw that with this new arrangement, the high-scoring students were basically all paired with other high-scoring students as deskmates, and the low-scoring students were paired with each other.
After all, with only half a year left, the teachers didn’t want the struggling students to negatively affect the top students’ studies.
However, that didn’t mean they had completely given up on the underperforming students.
After displaying the seating chart, He Xiaoyun continued, "If any students wish to change this seating arrangement, you can come see me privately. I will make adjustments for you based on the situation."
He Xiaoyun’s meaning was simple: if someone genuinely wanted to study hard, she would certainly make arrangements for them as she saw fit.
In the past, she had tried pairing high-achieving students with low-achieving ones.
She had hoped that the better students would be able to pull up the struggling ones, improving everyone’s grades together.
But reality was often contrary to her hopes. Not only did the good students fail to raise the poor students’ scores, but the distractions from the struggling students often caused the good students’ own grades to drop.
From then on, He Xiaoyun had adopted this more extreme seating arrangement to ensure that the good students could positively influence one another and improve together.
If the underperforming students showed the will and desire to improve, she would rearrange their seats accordingly. She wouldn’t truly give up on them, but the prerequisite was that they genuinely wanted to get better.