[Final exams and special talent recruitment?]
Lu Sheng paused, standing by the kitchen counter as she replied to Lan Yu’s text.
Today is Monday, Shengjing should be having classes now, but Lan Yu still responded quickly, probably sneaking around with her phone during class.
[Yes, Beijing University and Qing University have special talent quotas in each province every year.]
[Their talent recruitment policy targets two types of talents, the first being all-round talents, and the second being special talents, with different selection methods for each.]
[You, for example, are like the first type of all-round talent; they want someone who excels in every subject beyond the high-school level, and whose performance far exceeds those of ordinary students.]
[So, Beijing University and Qing University will specifically prepare a set of highly difficult exams for talent selection, and send them to the top three ranked high schools in each province, with each school having one slot.]
[Students who want to participate in the talent recruitment will not take their school’s exams this final term, but directly take the exams provided by Beijing University and Qing University. The top-ranked student will be selected based on the results.]
[And the person selected will be directly admitted to Beijing University or Qing University. No need to take the college entrance exam, you can start in September and choose any major you want.]
Seeing Lan Yu’s words, Lu Sheng was slightly surprised: [Direct admission and choice of any major?]
[Yes, students who can rank among the top few dozen in the top three high schools of the province are pretty incredible scholars, they could get into Beijing University and Qing University even through regular entrance exams.]
[So the main appeal is being able to choose any major. After all, some of the top majors at Beijing University and Qing University are extremely competitive and hard to get into, it’s not just about having good grades.]
[Not needing to take the college entrance exam and being able to enter any major at the nation’s top universities, who wouldn’t be tempted by that?]
[Both Beijing and Jiang City are municipalities directly under the Central Government, equivalent to provincial level, so they each have three spots. The top three high schools, for instance in our Beijing are Beijing First Middle, Ninth Middle, and Twenty-Fifth Middle. In your Jiang City, they are Shengjing, Linzhong, and Fourteenth Middle.]
[So you see why I mentioned the atmosphere in Class A has been incredibly tense these days.]
[Originally, Class A was made up of the students with the best grades in grade twelve at Shengjing. This morning the class teacher came to tally up registration, and aside from you not being there, everyone else in class signed up for the talent recruitment exam.]
[Even though registration just started today, the students had begun preparing much earlier. Not knowing how difficult the exams from Beijing University and Qing University will be, some are already working on university-level calculus and such, ridiculously hard-working.]
Lu Sheng asked Lan Yu: [Are you saying you, Fourth Brother, and Huo Yu, you all signed up?]
[Right, Huo Yu wants to go for Computer Science at Beijing University. Fourth Brother, he’s applied for Qing University, I heard from Han Jing that he’s particularly interested in Applied Mathematics at Qing University.]
[As for me, I’ve always wanted to go into Finance at Beijing University. But my student registration is with Beijing First Middle, so even though I take the exam here at Shengjing, my ranking will be compared with those from First Middle.]
[I guess the class teacher will contact you at noon to ask about your intentions. You’re definitely going to participate in this talent recruitment examination, right?]
Seeing Lan Yu’s question, Lu Sheng paused.
Then she typed back on the screen: [I’m not participating.]
[??? You’re not participating?]
Three consecutive question marks showed Lan Yu’s shock.
Actually for Lu Sheng, no matter how difficult the exam papers from Beijing University and Qing University would be, it was a piece of cake for her.
Currently being a high school senior, she definitely planned to take the college entrance exam to get into university. If she could skip this through the talent recruitment, it would save time and effort.
If it had been earlier, she might’ve signed up. But just now Lan Yu mentioned that Lu Youming and Huo Yu had also registered.
Each school only had one spot.
Lan Yu was not using Shengjing’s quota, but Lu Sheng didn’t want to compete against her own Fourth Brother or Huo Yu.
She, Lu Youming, Lan Yu, and Huo Yu, all four of them were members of K.A, naturally having top-notch IQs.
But in terms of academic grades, only she and Lu Youming were strong in all subjects. The talent recruitment exam covered nine subjects, with Lan Yu leaning towards humanities and not so good in physics, Huo Yu leaning towards sciences and weaker in literature.
Fourth Brother probably registered feeling the same as her, believing that going through the talent recruitment would simplify the college entrance exam process. As for Huo Yu, he might not be confident in getting into the top Computer Science program at Beijing University through the regular entrance exam.
One was her own brother, and the other a friend who had helped her many times; she just hoped both of them could perform well.
[I won’t be going through the talent recruitment, I can get into the university and major I want either way, participating or not.]
[Since you three are taking it, I won’t. I’ll be there to cheer you on.]
This statement sounded a bit like bragging.
However, Lan Yu knew Lu Sheng meant every word.
This semester, during the school-starting exams, Lu Sheng scored 700 points.
The school-starting placement exam was relatively easy, and everyone generally scored high, with the criterion for Class A being between 700-750 points. So, scoring exactly 700 points got Lu Sheng into Class A by a narrow margin, placing her at the bottom.
But in reality, Lan Yu knew Lu Sheng scored 700 points because she left a 50-point essay blank. 700 points was the maximum score excluding the essay, not Lu Sheng’s actual limit.
However, while in the classroom, Lan Yu suddenly remembered something.
[Hey, I just remembered, didn’t you participate in the China Piano Competition and won first place before?]
[Shengsheng darling, you could totally go through the special talent recruitment!]
[...Special talent recruitment?]
Lu Sheng paused, what was that?