From child prodigy to chief scientist

Compared to the last monthly exam, Xu Xiao's academic level in each subject has improved to varying degrees.

He scored over 80 points in every subject, especially in mathematics, where he even exceeded the requirements for the college entrance examination.

Seeing such progress, Xu Xiao still felt quite accomplished.

"The effort I put into reviewing the basics of each subject has definitely paid off."

If you're studying science, memorizing formulas and properties may not directly equate to getting a high score.

However, for subjects like English, as long as you have a sufficient vocabulary and a good grasp of tenses, grammar, and other knowledge, your score will definitely not be low.

After turning off the lights at night, Xu Xiao immediately climbed into bed, ready to go to sleep on time.

Having enough energy is essential for achieving good results in the midterm exam.

At 6 a.m. the next day, Xu Xiao got up on time, washed up, ate breakfast, and then prepared to take the exam.

After eight hours of sleep, Xu Xiao felt much better and was eager to take the exam.

Similar to the monthly exams, the midterm exams will also be completed in one day, with little time for students to rest in between.

This time, however, Xu Xiao will definitely not put in the same effort to answer all the questions as she did during the monthly exams.

After the Chinese exam began, Xu Xiao, as planned, proactively turned off the vocabulary focus and answered the questions in a normal state.

Although this doesn't allow Xu Xiao to better understand and analyze the text on the exam paper, the impact is relatively small.

After finishing the two-and-a-half-hour Chinese exam, Xu Xiao felt physically tired, but not mentally exhausted.

For the next math exam, Xu Xiao stopped slacking off and decisively started focusing on the relevant vocabulary.

With the added benefit of focusing on key terms, Xu Xiao's problem-solving efficiency improved noticeably.

Xu Xiao finished all the questions in just one hour, and didn't even feel much pressure.

After experiencing the intensity of a competition, tackling ordinary high school math problems feels like a high-level player easily grinding monsters in a beginner's village.

Even the most challenging problem above is as easy for Xu Xiao to solve as eating a meal these days.

In the afternoon exams, Xu Xiao continued to allocate her energy reasonably, only focusing on vocabulary in the science exam, while dealing with English in a normal state.

As the last exam ended, everyone left the examination hall.

"Finally, the exams are over. It was quite tiring today."

Although Xu Xiao had tried to manage her energy very carefully this time, she still didn't feel particularly relaxed after a whole day.

Of course, this is a very normal situation. Even just making an eleven-year-old sit in a chair all day is a torturous thing.

However, at least Xu Xiao didn't completely exhaust himself like he did during the last monthly exam, which is already a significant breakthrough.

"I think my score this time will be better than the monthly exam."

Even if each exam score is only a few points higher than the last, it will accumulate into a huge improvement by the time of the college entrance examination.

After dinner, Xu Xiao took a walk alone on campus, exercising her body and clearing her mind.

To be honest, after these days of non-stop studying, Xu Xiao still feels a bit tired, and sometimes she really wants to let loose.

But thinking that all she had done was to achieve a higher level of self-pursuit, Xu Xiao still felt that all her efforts were worthwhile.

If I just grit my teeth and persevere for a little longer, I'll soon see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"I haven't finished my ten hours of study time for today. I'd better hurry back and continue studying."

After a brief moment of relaxation, Xu Xiao quickly returned to battle mode, clearing away all the negative emotions in his heart.

Meanwhile, after the midterm exams ended, teachers of all subjects began grading the papers.

Sun Yifei, who was attending evening self-study, was one of them. This time, he unusually did not occupy the time to teach, but instead made the most of the time to grade math test papers.

Because math exams have more problem-solving questions, grading them takes more time.

If I finish grading the papers sooner, I won't have to work overtime all night.

During the grading process, Sun Yifei's brows were furrowed the whole time, and he seemed to be dissatisfied with some students' answers.

Although students' names are covered during the grading process.

However, based on the students' handwriting, Sun Yifei was still able to recognize some of their exam papers.

"Their math scores this time were generally not very good."

Many students who previously scored 140+ in math only scored 130+ this time.

Even Luo Yinqiu, who usually gets full marks or is one or two points away from full marks, actually got half of the questions wrong this time.

Of course, Sun Yifei also had to admit that the midterm exam questions were indeed more difficult than the monthly exams, and some of the questions were also a bit off-topic.

However, these types of questions are not entirely untaught, and Sun Yifei felt that the students' scores were unacceptable.

As he continued reviewing the documents, Sun Yifei recognized another handwriting that seemed somewhat familiar.

"This... should be Xu Xiao's exam paper."

Sun Yifei had only seen Xu Xiao's handwriting in the last month or two.

However, Xu Xiao's impression on him was indeed too deep.

Especially last time, Xu Xiao solved the inequality problem that even Zheng Qinhong and Qin Wei couldn't solve, which made Sun Yifei remember Xu Xiao's handwriting.

Xu Xiao's handwriting is nothing like that of an eleven-year-old child; the characters have a very mature feel, which is very consistent with his and others' impressions.

However, even though he recognized Xu Xiao's exam paper, Sun Yifei will definitely still grade it completely objectively.

Xu Xiao answered all the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions correctly, including the most difficult fill-in-the-blank question 16, where all three solutions were correct.

Even in the top classes, not many students can get a perfect score on multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions.

For the subsequent problem-solving questions, which involved partial credit for the process, Sun Yifei slowed down his grading speed somewhat.

Sun Yifei didn't find any problems with the first few challenging questions on trigonometric functions, sequences, solid geometry, and probability.

However, the most difficult questions were the conic sections and functions at the end, which were also the questions where students generally lost the most points.

After seeing Xu Xiao's solution, Sun Yifei couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

"The process of solving this maximum area is really quite elegant."