Chapter 61: Monthly Exam Results Announced
The results of the monthly exam were all out, including both class rankings and grade rankings.
Class 3 of Senior Year 1 had a total of 22 students. Gu Qinghuan ranked 11th — right in the middle.
But looking at the grade ranking, among all 252 students in Senior Year 1, Gu Qinghuan unexpectedly placed 91st — almost breaking into the top ninety.
Gu Qinghuan was surprised. “I thought I did really badly!”
“You’re the type whose grades are very balanced,” Jiang Chuchu said, flipping through Gu Qinghuan’s report card. “And you perform steadily. So for the first monthly exam, this ranking is pretty normal.”
After all, they had just entered high school. Many students hadn’t adapted yet — some were biased toward certain subjects, and others had underperformed.
At times like this, Gu Qinghuan’s stable mindset really stood out. It made sense for her to get this result.
But honestly, if she stayed like this, her ranking would gradually slip later on.
Jiang Chuchu ranked 4th in the class this time and 54th in the grade — just missing the top 50, which left her a little disappointed.
As for the class’s study committee member, Yu Xin, she ranked 1st in the class and 4th in the grade.
Gu Qinghuan did a quick calculation: Sophomore Year 1 had a total of 12 classes. From this, Class 3’s overall performance seemed pretty good.
Qin Yue, who scored two points higher than Gu Qinghuan in English, got lower scores in every other subject. The differences weren’t big, but adding them up, his total was more than 20 points lower, instantly dropping his class rank to 17th and his grade rank to 153rd.
“Our class’s sixth-from-the-bottom can still rank 153rd in the grade?” Gu Qinghuan took the chance to “redeem her pride.”
Qin Yue just grumbled and stayed silent, letting Gu Qinghuan rub it in.
“There are probably a lot of tied scores. Mingde High’s system gives the same rank to people with the same score, but the ranks after them skip the corresponding number of people,” Jiang Chuchu explained.
For example, if first place has 100 points, and second place has 99 points but two people tie, those two are both ranked 2nd. The person with 98 points would be ranked 4th.
It was the same for this monthly exam — few ties at the top, but more and more ties further down.
Qin Yue flopped onto the desk and complained: “Mingde High has so few students, why bother splitting into so many classes? My grades aren’t even bad, so why am I sixth from the bottom?”
“When your family asks tonight, remember to say your grade ranking first, then your class ranking,” Gu Qinghuan advised kindly.
Qin Yue continued playing dead, but after a few seconds suddenly looked up: “Wait a second — didn’t we say we’d start going to Su Lin’s tutoring sessions right after the monthly exam?”
Now it was Gu Qinghuan and Jiang Chuchu’s turn to look deflated.
Jiang Chuchu’s face stiffened. “The results just came out. Isn’t it a bit too soon?”
“No, you don’t get it,” Qin Yue said seriously. “If I tell my mom today that I want tutoring from the grade’s top student, she’ll be pleased. Even if I didn’t do well, she’ll think I’m reflecting and trying to improve. So when I get home, even if she criticizes me, it won’t last long.”
“You’ve really got this whole parental psychology thing down,” Gu Qinghuan couldn’t help admiring Qin Yue for a few seconds.
Qin Yue raised his chin proudly. “My brother taught me. He says as long as he’s got my back, I could coast through life doing nothing. But he also says — I can be bad at things, but I can’t refuse to learn. A bad attitude is what worries my mom the most.”
While they were talking, Yu Xin, who had just been called to the office by the homeroom teacher Chen Zelin, came back.
Qin Yue immediately waved. “Top student! Let’s talk about the ‘study god’ tutoring plan!”
Yu Xin was momentarily confused. “Oh, you mean getting Su Lin to tutor us?”
“What did the homeroom teacher say to you?” Gu Qinghuan asked.
“Nothing much. He just praised me for doing well this time. But of the three main subjects, I scored worst in his — English — and he minded that a bit,” Yu Xin said, a little embarrassed.
Chen Zelin taught English. The fact that the class’s top student did worst in English was clearly a little heartbreaking for him.
“You got 135 in English and that’s ‘worst’?!” Gu Qinghuan felt thunderstruck — she had the lowest English score among the four of them.
For reference, the highest English score in Class 3 was Xie Xiangxue’s 146, tying with Su Lin for first place in the grade for the subject.
“Also, he said that he had asked you before about Su Lin, and just now he asked me again — now that the results are out, is it time to find Su Lin for tutoring?” Yu Xin continued.
Qin Yue immediately shouted: “Yes, yes, yes! I want tutoring! I love tutoring!”
Jiang Chuchu “spat” at him playfully.
Gu Qinghuan scratched her cheek. “So what did you tell the homeroom teacher?”
“I said I’d talk to Su Lin during lunch break to confirm, and of course, check with you guys too,” Yu Xin said.
Gu Qinghuan thought for a moment, then said honestly: “I’m fine with after-school tutoring — we did agree on it before. It’s just… starting right after the results come out feels a bit sudden. I’m not mentally ready.”
“How about this,” Jiang Chuchu suggested, “we send all our scores and wrong questions to Su Lin first. Once she sees them, she’ll know where our weak points are.”
“After she’s sorted it out, she’ll also know how to start teaching us. That way we’re not in such a rush, and Qinghuan, you can prepare yourself too.”
“My old tutor used to do this — before coming over, they’d ask for several of my past test papers and use the mistakes to plan targeted lessons.”
Jiang Chuchu’s tutor had even made custom practice papers for her, but asking Su Lin to do that might be too much trouble, so she didn’t mention it.
“That’s good!” Gu Qinghuan agreed immediately.
Qin Yue thought it over and also agreed. Telling his family this way would still make him look serious about improving.
The important thing was… he also didn’t want to start tutoring this soon.
Once the four of them decided, they started compiling their wrong-answer collections from the monthly exam. During breaks, they all buried themselves in writing.
Xu Xinghe, curious, came over to see what the four of them were doing — and was shocked. “Class rep, are you guys seriously studying this hard?”
Gu Qinghuan thought for a second, then explained: “Remember when Xin Bao donated money to the family of the top student in Class 2? They’re tutoring her in return. The rest of us are tagging along, but we’re preparing our wrong questions so it’ll be easier for her to teach us.”
“Oh, that top student from the other class,” Xu Xinghe immediately remembered. “Getting guidance from the ‘study god’… kind of jealous.”
Though a little envious, Xu Xinghe knew it was thanks to Yu Xin’s donation and her friendship with Gu Qinghuan’s group that they got this privilege — he couldn’t just join in.
Still, as the top scorer in Chinese in the class, Xu Xinghe’s mind worked fast. “Class rep, if I have the same questions wrong as you, could you explain them to me after Su Lin teaches you?”
Explaining questions isn’t just about knowing the correct answer — teachers already give that out.
The important thing is to learn someone else’s problem-solving thought process. By comparing it with your own, you can see where you’re lacking and improve.
And Su Lin’s thought process — the grade’s number one student — was definitely worth learning.
Gu Qinghuan blinked. “Sure, just organize your questions too. If we have the same ones wrong, I’ll explain them to you.”
Xu Xinghe immediately got to work organizing his wrong answers. The small careless mistakes could be skipped — the focus was on big questions he didn’t understand.
But by the end… Gu Qinghuan had a total of 18 wrong-question notebooks stacked on her desk.
