Top Student at Their Peak
Chapter 53 - 53 53 Being Manipulated

53: Chapter 53: Being Manipulated 53: Chapter 53: Being Manipulated Whether or not the third-year students are ready, the high school entrance exams truly came after the Dragon Boat Festival.

Probably because each province’s examination institute sets their own questions and schedules, the high school entrance exam doesn’t draw nationwide attention like the college entrance exam does.

But for parents everywhere, the anxiety is similar.

Especially in the Star City District, according to authoritative data from the education department, the elimination rate for ordinary high schools in previous years has been as high as 55%.

In other words, only 45% of students taking the exam will have a high school to attend.

Those who don’t pass can only choose vocational high schools or the so-called 3+2 joint bachelor’s program.

So in reality, the competition for Star City’s high school entrance exam is several times fiercer than the college entrance exam.

After all, according to big data, if you include all junior colleges, the college entrance exam admission rate can reach an astonishing 90%.

Qiao Yu thinks this is the reason why college students are becoming less and less valuable these days.

Just shove them all in, be they man or ghost, and see about it later.

Apart from the well-known universities, ordinary universities don’t even have the courage to hold students back from graduating.

Looking further forward, as society progresses and grapples with the pain of declining birth rates, it’s highly likely that on this land of Huaxia, competition will persist, only large numbers of schools will vanish into the long river of history.

Many people think that if the population of Huaxia decreases, things won’t be so cutthroat.

Qiao Yu has always held a pessimistic view on this.

A reasonable societal layout will never allow everyone to easily become elite, and it’s always been this way since ancient times.

Because the greatest sense of happiness and the driving force behind striving for humans has always come from comparison.

If everyone is a billionaire, it also means everyone is dirt-poor.

So even though Qiao Yu put in all his effort for this exam, he still feels very frustrated.

The frustration comes from the exam questions being way too simple, especially in physics and chemistry.

During the exam, Qiao Yu felt like he had done a good deed with bad results.

If Zhou Shuang hadn’t taken a break from school, with just one month of effort, she might really have passed the line for ordinary high school.

Who would have thought that there wouldn’t be a single challenging question in the multiple-choice section for physics and chemistry?

The entire exam was based on fundamental concepts.

With this level of difficulty, Qiao Yu felt like it didn’t matter whether one had brains or not, as long as they weren’t handicapped in their hands.

And indeed, that was the case.

After the exam, the Rocket Class students complained that the test was difficult, but they only focused on mathematics and mentioned nothing about other subjects.

Even the Rocket Class math teacher said that this year’s math exam was the toughest in recent years for Star City’s high school entrance exam.

However, Qiao Yu clearly had a different opinion on this.

Math was equally easy.

The first few questions were standard, and only the last two had a slight increase in difficulty.

Probably just took five more seconds to think through; if this was called difficult, they might as well not take the test.

Of course, Qiao Yu wasn’t inclined to discuss such things with others.

After the exam, there were many people concerned about Qiao Yu’s scores.

For example, whenever they returned to school, the good guy would always ask Qiao Yu to send him the answers while he still remembered them.

Of course, for the big questions, just a general idea would suffice.

Once exams were completely over, the good guy directly took responsibility for keeping Qiao Yu’s student handbook and admission ticket safe.

Of course, all this was agreed upon by Qiao Yu.

It’s not that Lan Jie didn’t trust Qiao Yu; it was mainly because he was also under a lot of pressure.

What teacher can withstand the school’s leadership making three phone calls a day, urging him to take a more proactive stance to ensure that key students’ applications are error-free?

Although no names were mentioned, among the key junior high students, if they sought him, a high school teacher, the key student must be specifically referred to.

The exams had just ended, but there was still over half a month before the application deadline, and the higher-ups were already anxious.

Lan Jie truly had no alternative.

He was a high school teacher, tasked with such duties, and had no one to reason with.

Of course, this could only be blamed on Qiao Yu for showing off some experience-based principles in front of the principal for no reason.

Fortunately, Qiao Yu wasn’t bothered by these details.

He even straightforwardly entrusted the good guy to fill out his applications for him.

This way, it saved him one more thing to do.

According to previous years, Star City’s high school entrance exam results would be announced at the beginning of July, followed immediately by the college application process.

Qiao Yu, in early July, also had to prepare for the finals of the Little Alibaba Math Contest.

This was the most important matter, given that it involved a prize of 30,000 US Dollars.

At the current exchange rate, that’s 220,000 RMB, and all it required was spending eight hours in front of a computer with the air conditioning on.

From the perspective of a minor, it’s extremely cost-effective.

There’s also good news: Xia Keke’s estimated score for this exam is between 655 and 665.

Based on last year’s high school entrance exam admission cutoff scores in Star City, Changjun Middle School’s line was 677, and Shida Middle School was 675.

But considering last year’s total score for Star City’s high school entrance exam was 720, without any surprises, this score should be enough for Xia Keke to get into these two schools.

Even taking a step back, just in case she doesn’t make it into Changjun or Affiliated School, she would most likely get into the other two top schools.

But this doesn’t mean that Xia Keke will have a complete and happy summer vacation, because in the vast majority of high schools in Star City, especially prestigious ones, there’s inevitably a class placement exam before official enrollment, and the content of the exam is generally harder than the high school entrance exam.

So, Xia Keke’s family had already enrolled the girl in a summer Advanced Class earlier on.

In the past, Xia Keke might have been dissatisfied with such an arrangement.

But ever since she agreed with Qiao Yu to continue as alumni at top universities in Beijing in the future, she has quietly accepted this arrangement.

Although passing the high school entrance exam to get into one of the four top schools in Star City is equivalent to having half a foot in the door of a 985 institution, if the goal is to attend Huaqing or Yanbei, then being in the key classes is truly more reliable.

Performing excellently in prestigious schools might even earn a direct recommendation to Qingbei.

So the time before the release of scores and college applications became Xia Keke’s happiest period.

The summer Advanced Class wouldn’t officially start until July 8th.

With no academic pressure, Xia Keke could call Qiao Yu downstairs early every morning, and together they’d go for breakfast.

Then, while the morning sun wasn’t too intense, she would drag Qiao Yu around nearby, wandering aimlessly.

She called it balancing work and play, and appropriate exercise to ensure learning efficiency, and Qiao Yu, who was always buried deep in the study of algebra and number theory, thought Miss Keke’s words were very true.

“Qiao Yu, the class monitor called yesterday saying they’re planning a class reunion tomorrow night, everyone splits the bill for a meal, and then goes to KTV to sing.

Are you going?”

“Call me brother.” Already dizzy from the early morning sun, Qiao Yu casually replied.

“Oh, brother, are you going?”

“Not going!

Even if I join a class reunion, it would be with Class 13.” Qiao Yu decisively refused.

“Oh, okay then, I won’t go either.

Then can I join your Class 13 reunion?”

“Of course, but no one’s organizing it.”

“Why not?

Doesn’t your class monitor have any team spirit?”

“Because classmates in Class 13 don’t mess around.

If the class monitor actually dared to organize a reunion, with a few drinks, and if conflicts break out, everyone would definitely take action.

By then, if a fight breaks out, it could end up wrecking the KTV.

If you were the class monitor, would you dare to organize it?”

Qiao Yu answered lifelessly.

“Really, that’s such a pity.

If someone organizes it, you must bring me along.

If they really start fighting, you can just grab me and run like when we were kids!” said Keke naturally as she took Qiao Yu’s hand.

No wonder this girl doesn’t mind the heat, her hand’s actually cool…

Wait a minute, that’s not right, I’m being taken advantage of again.

Noticing the key point, Qiao Yu’s body stiffened; this is broad daylight!

And that girl even squeezed his hand twice…