The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 51: Prototype of an Idea
Time passed quietly, and the same scene was constantly played out in the mathematics examination rooms of 15 universities: the candidates looked at the questions on the test papers with difficulty on their faces, as if they had troubles that they could not express.

Basically, more than 5% of the people are like this, and the remaining less than % of the candidates are those who have previously been exposed to mathematical academics and have read several mathematical papers.

But even though I had read several math papers before, I still felt a little uncomfortable when suddenly faced with such a question.

However, just as Xiao Yi judged, the first clip was the one where the academicians were more lenient with the students, and there was no shortage of geniuses among the students taking the exam, especially at Shangjing University.

After all, the School of Mathematics at Beijing University has the reputation of being the best department in the best university, and the most basic requirement for their mathematics classes is that students must have achieved good enough rankings in mathematics competitions.

Therefore, gradually some students connected it to the principle of inclusion and exclusion based on the methods used in it. Then, the second, third, etc. students finally answered the questions on the test paper.

As for the first student...

"Hmm? Some students have handed in their papers at the HKUST exam hall."

Someone said in the remote proctored online conference room.

"Hand in the paper now?"

Others were confused.

The exam has only been going on for half an hour and someone has already handed in their paper?

Did he give up?

While everyone was thinking, the surveillance footage of the USTC examination room was called up and placed on the main screen in the conference room.

Sure enough, they all saw that a student had stood up from his seat and walked to the front of the examination room with the test paper.

When Academician Liao Huan of Beijing University saw this, he immediately laughed: "Hahaha, Lao Hu, the psychological quality of the students you recruited this time is not very good. Are you giving up so soon?"

However, facing Liao Huan's ridicule, Hu Guangde was not anxious at all.

He first glanced at the student, and a smile immediately appeared on his face: "Old Liao, Old Liao, you have made a mistake this time."

Liao Huan was stunned, then frowned. How come this old guy was not angry at his ridicule, but instead had an expression that showed he was sure of winning?

"What do you mean?"

Hu Guangde laughed, and then calmly introduced: "This student's name is Xiao Yi."

Liao Huan immediately remembered: "Oh, that's what you said before, your Anhui Province's top scholar this year was supposed to come to our school?"

Hu Guangde nodded slightly.

Liao Huan frowned: "The test has only started for 30 minutes, do you think he has finished writing?"

"It's not impossible. Although these two questions seem intimidating, that's only the case for freshmen. For those who have truly entered mathematical academic research and have written papers, the difficulty of these two questions is relatively low." Hu Guangde smiled and said, "I forgot to tell you, didn't I just say that I recently read a paper written by a student? That paper was written by Xiao Yifa."

"what?!"

Upon hearing Hu Guangde's words, not only Liao Huan was surprised, but the other academicians and professors in the conference room were also surprised.

A high school student wrote a paper?
This……

How can it be? !
"Are you kidding me?" Liao Huan said doubtfully, "It's just a small paper? It's even a question whether it can be published in a general journal." Hu Guangde laughed and was about to say that Xiao Yi published the paper in IHES, but then he thought that they had not yet sent Xiao Yi an email to confirm receipt, so he decided to be safe first.

So he said, "Don't worry. What I can say is that when his paper is published, it will definitely cause a stir in our mathematics community."

"Oh, right." Hu Guangde raised another finger: "Also, there is one more thing I forgot to mention. Xiao Yi finished and handed in the test paper this morning in just 20 minutes."

This once again shocked the academicians present.

Finished the morning test paper in 20 minutes?

Although the morning test papers were far inferior to the ones they set in the afternoon, the difficulty of those questions was also recognized by them.
If I can finish writing it in 20 minutes...

"Quick, send this student's answer sheet over for us to take a look." Liao Huan said immediately. Could it be that this student could really answer the questions posed by so many academicians?
"Uh... Academician Liao, this may not work." Professor Liu Min from Qinghua said, "The exam is still ongoing and has not ended yet. The test papers of the candidates cannot leave the examination room."

"However, according to the cross-examination groups we drew earlier, it seems that Academician Hu's University of Science and Technology and Academician Liao's Peking University will exchange test papers for examination, so you will still be able to see this test paper when you examine it today."

After hearing what Professor Liu said, Liao Huan had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​looking at Xiao Yi's test paper now.

However, since he couldn't read it for the time being, his curiosity about Xiao Yi's test paper only deepened.

Of course, academicians from other major universities were also very curious. This student named Xiao Yi was indeed extraordinary, as he finished this new type of question in just half an hour.
The other academicians all said to Liao Huan, "Old Liao, when you have the results when you grade the papers tonight, remember to tell us how many points Xiao Yi will get."

Seeing that others showed interest in Xiao Yi, Hu Guangde smiled.

Keep interested!

Anyway, Xiao Yi is now a student of their University of Science and Technology, so they will all envy USTC by then!
Especially Liao Huan, the old man. Seeing his impatient expression, Hu Guangde felt so happy!

……

At the same time, on the HKUST campus.

Xiao Yi, who had already finished his exam, did not know that there was an online conference room, and even a group of academicians were remotely monitoring the exams of their fifteen universities. Now these academicians were also interested in his test paper.
At this time, he was walking aimlessly in the campus.

However, his eyes showed that he was deep in thought at this moment.

At this moment, his mind was filled with the second question in the exam.

In that paper, Zhang Yitang developed a stronger version of the Bombieri-Vinogradov theorem and the method used in the "Dispersion Method" section.

Today, after carefully thinking about the passage selected by the academicians and the hints given on the test paper, Xiao Yi's once fragmented thoughts gradually formed a unified outline of an idea.

He had no idea where this unifying idea would eventually lead to.

If it weren't for this incident, he could actually leave the examination room 10 minutes earlier.

"But one thing is certain, I am getting closer to the answer to a question!"

There is wisdom flashing in his eyes.

……

(End of this chapter)