From child prodigy to chief scientist

After receiving the test papers, no one dared to delay and immediately began to look at the questions.

The national finals of the math competition are held over two days, with three major questions each day and a time limit of four and a half hours.

The number of questions may seem small, but judging from the long exam time, one can imagine just how difficult they are.

The questions set by Ma Junfeng this time are based on the standards of the first day of the national finals, and the difficulty level will be simpler than the questions on the second day.

After glancing at the three questions, Xu Xiao felt a little disheartened.

"Oh no... I don't seem to have any ideas for any of these questions."

Xu Xiao had barely done any of the questions in the national finals before, and his knowledge of the relevant topics was only preliminary and did not form a systematic framework.

But in any case, Xu Xiao certainly wouldn't hand in a blank paper easily.

Xu Xiao selected a question that seemed relatively simpler and began focusing on that question, deciding to tackle it first.

He Muzhou was much better prepared. After reading the first question, he was very sure that he could solve it.

Before He Muzhou even started writing, Tao Kewei had already begun writing down the process, appearing even more confident than He Muzhou.

Time passed by, and before we knew it, three hours had gone by.

Over the course of three hours, Xu Xiao finally managed to solve a problem by focusing on the key terms.

However, after his energy was greatly depleted, he was unable to refocus and his attention had become somewhat scattered.

In this state, it's definitely impossible to solve the other two more difficult problems.

Meanwhile, most of the students in the examination room were not even as advanced as Xu Xiao.

Some of them only had some ideas about the problems, but none of them could solve a single problem completely.

Even worse, some students have absolutely no clue about any of the questions, but they don't want to submit a blank paper, so they can only write something that is somewhat related to the questions.

Only Tao Kewei and He Muzhou are making slightly better progress, and they are still struggling with the problem.

Tao Kewei had just finished the second question, but after looking at the third question, he frowned deeply, seemingly unable to come up with a good solution.

He Muzhou solved part of the second question, but got stuck for a long time, constantly trying various possible methods.

Finally, the clock struck 12:30.

"Time's up, everyone stop writing!"

Upon hearing this, the team members immediately put down their pens and stopped answering the questions.

After handing in their papers, everyone looked utterly hopeless, slumping into their seats as if they were completely exhausted.

This kind of high-intensity mental activity lasting four and a half hours is indeed a great test for them.

The pain and despair of not being able to solve the problem is an additional form of torture.

At this moment, the team members finally understood that what Ma Junfeng said yesterday—that the difficulty of the national finals questions far exceeded that of the league questions—was not an exaggeration at all.

With their current skill level, they are simply incapable of handling such difficulty and intensity.

What people don't know is that Ma Junfeng was quite satisfied with their performance this morning.

No one handed in their paper early for this diagnostic test.

Even if they had more time, they might not have been able to solve the problem, but everyone persevered until the very last moment.

Emerging from the training room, the students complained bitterly about the diagnostic test.

"What kind of questions are these? I feel like I didn't get a single one right."

"Oh no, oh no, I hope I don't really get a zero this time."

"Anyway, Teacher Ma said that no matter how many points we get on this diagnostic test, we won't be criticized for it, so what's there to worry about?"

"Who knows if he's telling the truth or not? Even if he doesn't criticize us, it's embarrassing enough to have our grades read aloud in public."

Meanwhile, while the students were taking their lunch break, Ma Junfeng had already started grading the exam papers.

Unsurprisingly, the student who did the best on the exam was Tao Kewei, who was first in the province during the league.

Tao Kewei did well on the first two big questions, but he barely got any points on the last question.

To reach this level before the training camp even started is indeed quite impressive.

Next up was He Muzhou, who got about one and a half of the three questions right, which was fairly average.

But what surprised Ma Junfeng the most was Xu Xiao, who only got one question right.

Although it may seem that getting only one question right is nothing to brag about.

But at such a young age, to be able to solve a national-level problem without any systematic training is absolutely incredible.

It should be noted that most of the remaining team members only answered half a question correctly, and some even had virtually no points to be scored on the test paper.

After lunch break, the team members regrouped in the training room.

"I've finished grading the morning's exams. You can come and collect your papers."

As promised, Ma Junfeng did not criticize anyone further, nor did he publicly announce everyone's achievements.

Nevertheless, everyone's expressions were somewhat somber after seeing their results.

Before this, they were all top math students in their respective schools, often getting full marks in math, and even competition problems were mostly no challenge for them.

But this time, most of them only scored failing grades, some even close to zero, a result that was indeed hard for them to accept.

"Now you all have a pretty good idea of ​​where you are. In the next month, I hope that each of you can truly reach the level required to participate in the national finals."

After the initial shock, the team members showed a spirit of self-reproach and determination, giving their all in the training camp.

However, once the training camp officially began, everyone quickly realized just how intense it was.

Compared to the league, the national finals are at a completely different level of difficulty, and the examination of various knowledge is much more in-depth.

Therefore, in order to deliver the necessary knowledge within a limited time, it is necessary to improve teaching efficiency as much as possible.

Xu Xiao also felt how fast Ma Junfeng's lectures were. Compared to that, the training camp at Yucai was really nothing.

Even when he had put himself into a state of focus, he could only barely keep up, and there was no time to think deeply about some details.

However, it must be admitted that Ma Junfeng's teaching skills are indeed very good; he can explain complex knowledge in the most concise language.