Zhi Ying wasn't concerned about her grades in other subjects, but composition indeed proved to be her weakness.
In the past, she was able to muddle through writing essays and compositions from middle school. However, in high school, the content of the compositions had deepened, and the requirements for what students have to write also increased.
Zhi Ying's frustration mounted with each critique of her compositions. She questioned her ability to grasp the nuances of writing, her mind racing with doubts about ever mastering the art of storytelling convincingly.
As if that wasn't enough, the top class itself already had more tests than ordinary classes. In less than a month, Zhi Ying had already been called by the language arts teacher for guidance several times.
The teacher said that her writing was cold and unrealistic. It was full of the straight-line thinking logic present in the brains of science students.
The language arts teacher, known for his patience, elaborated on Zhi Ying's need to weave personal experiences into her essays. "Your writing lacks the warmth of personal connection," he noted. "Try infusing your essays with anecdotes that resonate with your reader."
The language arts teacher of Class Two once took out a piece of Zhi Ying's composition and showed it to other language arts teachers, but they couldn't understand it. The chemistry teacher cracked the composition and identified it as an example of chemical synthesis.
It wasn't that these examples couldn't be used; it was just that others would not delve into the principles. They would just put the results of chemical synthesis on the composition and finally come to a conclusion.
As for Zhi Ying, she wrote a lot of principles in her composition, which was nothing short of excessive and only decreased the quality.
Her brain probably had a shielding function for all compositions. She had a good memory, and everything she had read would be deeply ingrained in her mind.
In that regard, her composition was no exception, but when it came to writing, she would just write something randomly and could not remember the content at all.
"Jiaojiao, can I borrow your language arts test paper?" Zhi Ying requested because she still hadn't given up.
A week before the upcoming exam, she sorted out all of Han Jiaojiao's essays and learned from them. She even asked the language arts teacher for help multiple times.
Zhi Ying's various achievements were quite notable.
So, it was impossible for the language arts teacher to let this subject hold Zhi Ying back. Naturally, he gave her detailed guidance and pointers. Otherwise, not only would he feel sorry, but even the principal would scold him.
It could only be said that the reason why a weakness was considered a weakness was because of congenital insufficiency and innate insensitivity to the aspect.
Zhi Ying stared at the Chinese characters and listened to the language arts teacher's words about writing skills. She felt dizzy as if she was on a bus all day.
The language teacher could probably see Zhi Ying's confusion and finally sighed as he gave up, "The first paragraph should introduce the topic. The middle paragraphs should give examples, and finally, the conclusion at the end. As long as the middle example is not too outrageous, you should still be able to pass."
Zhi Ying nodded firmly at the words as if they were some holy gospel.
…
In the blink of an eye, it was the first monthly exam.
As Zhi Ying entered the exam room, a hushed silence fell over the air thick with nervous tension.
The rows of desks stretched out before her, each meticulously arranged, bearing witness to the impending academic challenge.
Nervous glances and the soft shuffle of paper filled the room, creating an atmosphere of palpable tension.
Navigating her way to her designated seat, Zhi Ying didn't even spare the other a glance. To her, they were a bunch of students with pixelated faces, after all.
The exam room seats were arranged according to the students' grades when they entered high school.
Thus, Zhi Ying was, of course, seated in the first seat, and because Jiang Wei was a transfer student from another province, he was placed in the last chair in the exam room.
As there was no division of subjects in the first year of high school, the exams were required for both liberal arts and science, with a total of nine courses.
Generally speaking, except for the writing exam, Zhi Ying believed the test was relatively easy. It was not much different from the past.
When the students began taking their second exam, the teachers had already started to grade the exam papers from the first exam, so the results would come out very quickly.
The exams lasted over 4 days and it finally ended on Friday.
Just as the students were about to relax for the weekend, the results were posted on the bulletin board in front of the school building on Monday. Many students formed their cliques or tried to go inconspicuously to check out the results after class.
Usually, each class had its own score sheet, and the bulletin board in front of the school building only posted the top 100 of the entire grade.
Just like other students Zhi Ying wanted to look at the results, mildly nervous about her composition exam, hoping she at least passed it.
After the second period, she strolled out with Zhao Qian to buy cakes and eat together. As the duo walked downstairs, they found the area near the bulletin board was already full of eager students.
When the two came back after having their fill, the crowd had almost all scattered.
After all, irrespective of the results, no one liked to keep looking at it. They would only feel depressed if they scored less and gloat upon others if they scored more than their expectations.
On the other side, Zhao Qian carefreely finished eating his cake by dividing them into three and five pieces as he joked, "Guess who is first?"
"Me," Zhi Ying said without modesty, biting the carrot cake with her head down.
Zhao Qian didn't find anything wrong with her claim and turned to run in the direction of the bulletin board to check the ranking.
Unbothered, Zhi Ying held the cake in her hand, and walked over slowly. She gave a cursory glance at the bulletin board at random, and was suddenly stunned.
She immediately narrowed her eyes, wondering if they were playing tricks with her.
The result, however, remained the same as she rubbed her eyes before confirming the results once more.