Chapter 32: Take the Exam Seriously

Elaine remembered what Luther had told her on the phone yesterday. She twitched her mouth and lowered her voice, saying, “But her grades are bad.”

“Basically, students who get transferred with the help of interpersonal connections usually have bad grades. Anyway, my class won’t take such students. This is the students’ final year in high school. No one wants a bad student in the class. She will only bring the whole class down.”

Cameron agreed, “Yeah.”

Teachers had performance reviews, and their annual bonuses were closely tied to their students’ grades. No one wanted to lose money for no reason.

Elaine sped up, quickly took out her class materials from a stack, held them in her arms, and said to Cameron, “I have finished sorting out the materials for the beginning of school. Cameron, take your time, and I’ll go first.”

Seeing Elaine leave, Cameron stopped and looked at her in surprise. He tried to get Elaine to stay. “The transfer student is coming. Don’t you want to see how the placement test goes?”

Elaine had promised Luther she would stop Myrna from going to her class. She didn’t care much about Myrna’s grades, and she didn’t think Myrna could get into Class B.

“No. My class has a meeting this morning. I’m going to tell them some good news.”

Cameron had heard the news. He looked envious and said, “Is the news that Stephanie will get into Hebbury College of Art? It’s all over the school BBS. You are the big star’s class teacher now. Don’t forget about me when you are successful.”

“Thank you. Bye.”

Next to the sofa, the director found the placement test paper, a pen, and scratch paper for Myrna. He said, “The principal hasn’t yet arrived. You take the test here. When you finish, I will mark it. The principal will come later and determine which class you are going to.”

“Okay.”

Myrna took the test paper and glanced at it. As she had expected, the questions were all meaningless. She found the test paper tedious. But test questions were always boring and useless in real life.

The director of teaching and discipline thought the test was too hard for Myrna. He said in a rarely gentle tone, “There are questions for each subject. You have 90 minutes. Don’t be anxious. You can do it slowly. Accuracy matters more than speed.”

Myrna nodded and casually lifted an eyebrow. It looked like she had taken the director’s advice. She put down the paper and didn’t use the pen given by the director. She took another black rollerball pen out of her bag.

“Take your time.”

Seeing Myrna start the test, the director and the other teachers returned to their work. They weren’t worried that Myrna would cheat. There was a camera and a lot of teachers in the office. If Myrna cheated, she would be both dishonest and stupid.

Time passed. Soon, it was half an hour later. Myrna put down her pen and suddenly said, “I finished it.”

Hearing that, the director was surprised. He walked over. “So soon? Aren’t you going to make a second check?”

Myrna put the lid on the pen. Her eyes were deep and cool. “No need.”

The director didn’t know what to say. He bent down to pick up Myrna’s paper and glanced at it. Myrna had answered all the questions. The director was a good teacher. He said, “Myrna, this will decide which class you go to. You must be serious.”

Myrna looked very confident. “I know. I took the exam very seriously.” At least, Myrna had never taken an exam so seriously before.

Seeing that Myrna wasn’t going to make a second check, the director sighed, “Fine. I’ll mark your paper right now.”

Hearing that, the other teachers all came over out of curiosity. They wanted to know how good the new transfer student’s grades were.