Volume 1: Student Life Chapter 57: Excellent or Showy?
Today's main class is only Xu Shaowen's Chinese class, where he continues to teach the true meaning of answering questions.
For other subjects, as soon as the class started, the teacher handed out the test papers from last night's mixed test.
All the test papers of the mixed exam were marked just one night later.
The first subject Chen Zhou received was mathematics, in which he scored 94 points.
Because the number of questions has been reduced, the full score of the mathematics paper is 100.
The same goes for comprehensive science, with a full score of only 200 points, including 80 for physics, 70 for chemistry, and 50 for biology.
Looking at this bright 94, Chen Zhou wondered, does this count as excellent?
After all, calculated by score, it exceeds 90% of the full score.
Of course, he was just thinking about it, but he had an idea in his mind.
For an incomplete math test paper, it is impossible for the system to count him as having achieved his small goal.
Chen Zhou turned to the end of the test paper and looked at the final function question that required advanced mathematics knowledge to solve.
Wang Xuehui gave 14 points, full marks, without a single point deducted.
The corners of Chen Zhou's mouth curled up slightly, showing a little pride.
Zhang Yifan noticed Chen Zhou's expression, followed his gaze, and wondered in his heart, "Isn't it just the last question that I solved? Is it that serious? This question isn't that difficult..."
However, when Zhang Yifan carefully read the answer Chen Zhou wrote down on the last question, a string of question marks popped up in his mind: "What the hell is this? Lagrange's mean value theorem? Who is Lagrange? How could he know this? Is this correct?"
At the podium, Wang Xuehui began to explain the topic, and Zhang Yifan had to temporarily suppress his doubts and concentrate on listening.
When the class was over, he immediately went to Chen Zhou and asked him, "Chen Zhou, what are you writing about? What is this Lagrange theorem? Can you solve the problem this way?"
Chen Zhou was slightly stunned and glanced at him.
Just as he was thinking about how to explain, Li Xiang heard Zhang Yifan's voice, turned around and asked, "Yifan, what are you talking about? What Lagrange? Who used this theorem?"
Zhang Yifan pointed at Chen Zhou's test paper.
Li Xiang grabbed Chen Zhou's paper and searched through it.
"The last question."
"Oh." Turning to the last question, Li Xiang became more and more surprised.
After he finished reading it, he looked up at Chen Zhou, the admiration in his eyes becoming even stronger.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Chen Zhou got goose bumps all over his body.
"Brother Chen, you are amazing!" Li Xiang said excitedly, "I only knew that you were good at Chinese and English before, but I didn't expect that Brother Chen, you are also so good at math!"
Zhang Yifan was shocked by Li Xiang's exaggerated expression and tone, and couldn't help asking: "No, Li Xiang, what's wrong with Chen Zhou? What do you mean?"
At this time, Chen Haining also turned around and looked at him with curiosity.
Li Xiang picked up Chen Zhou's test paper and placed it in front of Zhang Yifan. He pointed to the "Lagrange Mean Value Theorem" and the corresponding formula written by Chen Zhou and explained, "This theorem is something you can only learn after entering college. It belongs to advanced mathematics knowledge. Most high school students don't know it at all, let alone use it to solve problems. Moreover, if you use advanced mathematics knowledge to solve high school math problems, you must ensure your proficiency in the relevant knowledge and cannot make any mistakes, otherwise you will not get a single point."
"What the hell?!" Zhang Yifan looked at Chen Zhou, then at Li Xiang, and asked, "Li Xiang, how do you know all this?"
"I also know this theorem, but I dare not use it because I am not familiar with it and I am afraid of making mistakes..." After Li Xiang finished speaking, he looked at Chen Zhou deeply, his eyes full of admiration.
Zhang Yifan and Chen Haining looked at each other, and Chen Haining asked again: "No, according to what you said, this is not something we can understand now. Where did you learn it from?"
Li Xiang thought for a moment and asked, "Does IMO know? Have you ever understood it?"
Zhang Yifan and Chen Haining shook their heads.
Li Xiang asked again: "Do you know about the National High School Mathematics Competition and the China Mathematical Olympiad?"
The two nodded: "But what does this have to do with advanced mathematics?"
Chen Zhou also looked at Li Xiang with interest, waiting for his explanation.
After all, Chen Zhou didn't know what the connection was.
Li Xiang continued, "The National High School Mathematics Competition is a relatively high-level mathematics competition in China's high school mathematics discipline. You can understand it as having a higher status than the mathematics competition organized by our Anhui Province."
"Then, about 400 students who excel in this national competition will be eligible to participate in the China Mathematical Olympiad, or CMO, hosted by the Chinese Mathematical Society."
"Then, about 60 students with excellent performance in CMO will be able to enter the national training team. After the selection of the training team, the six top performers will enter the Chinese national team to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad, or IMO..."
Chen Haining couldn't help but interrupt, "It sounds impressive, but what does this have to do with the theorem?"
"Don't be impatient." Li Xiang glanced at him and continued, "Why am I talking about IMO? Because the advanced mathematics knowledge that ordinary high school students cannot access is very common knowledge among IMO contestants. They have learned countless advanced mathematical theorems in advance for the competition. For example, the Lagrange mean value theorem used by Brother Chen is knowledge that these contestants must master."
"Anyway, apart from the IMO contestants, I haven't seen many people who can fully use these theorems. Even if others understand them, they are not proficient in using them. Like me, they are only half-baked. So, do you understand?"
After saying that, Li Xiang looked at Chen Zhou with burning eyes.
Chen Haining and Zhang Yifan were a little slow to react, and immediately blurted out "Oh shit".
So this person is a contestant participating in an international competition?
Chen Zhou looked at the others' eyes. He really didn't expect Li Xiang to say this. IMO players... I overestimated them...
After thinking for a while, Chen Zhou said, "Don't look at me like that. I really haven't participated in this IMO. These... I said I learned them by myself. Do you believe me?"
Seeing the three people's suspicious looks, Chen Zhou said again: "Uh... think about it, if I were an IMO player, would I still come here?"
This sentence reminded the three of them, and when they were about to interrogate Chen Zhou again, the class bell rang.
The three of them had to give up temporarily and prepare for class.
Chen Zhou heard Chen Haining still whispering to Li Xiang.
"Li Xiang, is this IMO really that strong?"
Li Xiang: "If you still don't understand, go back tonight and check the value of IMO and you will know."
Chen Haining asked again: "So you are also an IMO player?"
"No, I'm..." Li Xiang paused before saying, "a preliminary contestant..."
"Oh, that's good. You are the same as me and Yifan." Chen Haining asked again, "So, do you think Brother Chen is really an IMO player? But he doesn't look like one..."
Li Xiang replied: "Does it matter? Do you think it matters whether he is an IMO player or not if he can learn these advanced mathematical theorems and apply them skillfully?"
"Also, why did I say that if you use this theorem to solve problems, you will lose any points if you make a mistake? In fact, this is the protection of the college entrance examination for ordinary students. Not everyone can access this knowledge. For the sake of fairness, it must be restricted and not used indiscriminately. If you want to use it, you have to master it proficiently, otherwise just do the questions honestly. You have to know that mastering it proficiently and not making any mistakes is much more difficult than learning this theorem..." Li Xiang said this, and tilted his head to glance at Chen Zhou.
Chen Haining was stunned for a moment, then he suddenly realized, "That's right. It seems that Brother Chen has completely left us behind... I used to think that Brother Chen was only good at Chinese, but later I found out that his English was also quite good. Unexpectedly, his math was even better than his Chinese and English, and he was even good at advanced math in college..."
Chen Zhou: “…”
