Chapter 65 The Day of the Exam

To apply for the gifted class, one needed a Beijing hukou. Lin Ruoyan had already arranged this for Lin Mengxi, in X City District, at the Siheyuan address. The kindergarten he currently attended was also a public kindergarten in X City District, so his enrollment was fine.

To accommodate parents, the special recruitment exam is on Saturday.

The exam process wasn't as complicated as it is today, with no need to fill out information online or make a video. Currently, it was all in-person. The first round of exams took place in the morning, with the list of those who passed the first round announced at noon. Then, there were re-exams in the afternoon, and the final admissions results were announced in the evening.

Lin Ruoyan woke up early that day and had the family driver take her and her son to the elementary school before 8 a.m. The gifted class would be held at this key elementary school in the city, and it was only a 10-minute drive from the courtyard, not too far away.

Parents take the registration receipt and sign in to receive a candidate number.

The children were divided into groups of ten, each numbered, and entered several rooms to take the exam. Lin Ruoyan and her group had arrived early, so their numbers were near the front. A quick glance revealed that there were about ten classrooms taking the exam simultaneously, and many children were still waiting outside. Looking around, there were already over five hundred people taking the exam.

It's said that there's no restriction on which district's household registration you can take, as long as you're from Beijing. So many children from other districts are taking the exam, and some parents from far-flung counties even stayed in a nearby hotel with their children last night just to be on time today.

The children only stayed in the classroom for 40 minutes. In less than one morning, the preliminary examination of more than 500 people was completed.

At noon, the school posted a bulletin board with the numbers of the 200 students who passed the initial screening, a rejection rate of over 60%. Those who provided their phone numbers also received text messages to their parents. Then it was lunchtime, and the process resumed at 1:30 p.m.

Of course, Lin Mengxi was selected for the re-examination.

The courtyard was very close to here, so Lin Ruoyan took her son home to eat and rest, so she had plenty of time and arrived on time in the afternoon. However, while waiting there with her child, she heard from other parents that many families from far away were looking for places to eat nearby, and the surrounding restaurants were almost crowded.

Lin Ruoyan, of course, didn't dare reveal her pride in her proximity to home. She simply thought this school was good: large buildings, a formal playground, and a key city school, so the faculty must be strong. She figured that if her son didn't get into the gifted class this time, he might still have a chance in the future, using his X City household registration and paying a fee to get a nod through to enroll in this school.

When the time came, the format of the afternoon exam was announced, and it turned out to be a screening interview between parents and children. After the interview, it was basically determined whether the child would be selected for the gifted class.

Lin Ruoyan had originally thought that the children would go to the retest individually, and parents would only need to talk to the teachers. If even parents were taking the test, she thought it would hinder her son's performance.

During the lunch break, Lin Ruoyan took a relaxing nap. She didn't even think about asking her son what the test was about. He had already passed it. Now she was really anxious. There was no point in cramming. She couldn't help but ask nervously, "Son, what was the test this morning?"

Lin Mengxi could see her mother's anxiety and said puzzledly, "Our test this morning was quite simple. We introduced ourselves first, then took a paper from the teacher and wrote the answers in pencil. We could ask the teacher for explanations for words we didn't know."

"So how did you introduce yourself? What question did you draw?"

"I told my age and name in both Chinese and English, explained that I came from a single-parent family, that my mother ran a real estate company, and that my uncle also owned a group company. I also talked about the books I read in kindergarten. As for the questions, they were even simpler: a few math problems involving quadratic equations and a few fill-in-the-blank passages from ancient Chinese texts. I quickly finished the test and handed the first one to the teacher."

Lin Ruoyan felt a little more at ease. Although her son came from a single-parent family, the fact that his mother and uncle owned a company and had sufficient financial resources was a good indicator. The kindergarten had a wall of books that even adults might not understand, but her son had already read almost all of them. He was honest and knowledgeable. As for math and classical Chinese, that was beyond words. Judging by his grades alone, he was definitely a guaranteed selection.

No wonder the Yu family elders weren't worried about Lin Mengxi taking the exam. They hadn't mentioned any practice questions ahead of time. The exam wasn't difficult for their son's level of knowledge. The school was probably just checking the child's existing knowledge and controlling the minimum entry requirements.

So what would the questions be like in the afternoon's retest with the child? If she still had to draw cards to answer the questions, she couldn't guarantee that she would get them right.

Also, other people's families have both parents and they wish that the whole family, including three generations of grandparents and grandchildren, would take the re-examination together. As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang, and there is strength in numbers. Is there any question that cannot be answered?

Now that she was alone with her son entering the exam hall, wouldn't that make her look a little less impressive? If she had known earlier, she should have called her brother to come, which would have given her a better chance of success.

My son is smarter than the average kid, but he doesn’t know that the adult world is very complicated.

For example, in the morning, while the children were taking the exam, the parents were also busy. Each parent was given a form to fill out voluntarily, and was told to bring it to the retest. The implication was that those who felt their child had no chance of making the retest could skip filling it out, while those who were unsure could still fill it out after the list was posted. It was just one page, front and back, and couldn't contain more than a few words.

But this seemingly simple form holds a lot of knowledge. Before graduating in the real world, Lin Ruoyan participated in career training at school. The biggest lesson she learned was to take the forms companies ask you to fill out during interviews seriously. It's not just about writing beautiful words and filling out all the information truthfully; there are many hidden issues that can't be ignored.

Lin Ruoyan didn't rush to fill out the form after receiving it. She read it over and over again, studying the intricacies. There weren't many spaces on the form, and the questions were all common, seemingly leaving little room for parents to express themselves freely.

In addition to the child's information, this form also includes information about family members.

You can only fill in four family members here. Generally, you would write the child's parents, or legal guardian, and any surviving direct blood relatives, such as grandparents.

Lin Ruoyan knew the real name and identity of Lin Mengxi's biological father, having read the original book. However, at this point in time, it was confidential and she shouldn't know. If it was written on this form and leaked to someone with ulterior motives, it would pose a threat to both the child and the man. Therefore, she didn't fill in the name of the child's biological father.

I filled in the first line with myself, specifically indicating that I was a single mother. The child had my surname, and the word "father" did not appear at all.

However, the real daughter in the book only had a high school diploma, and could only write "high school graduate" to make up the number. This, like not mentioning her father, is actually a deduction.

Fortunately, Lin Ruoyan mentioned Lin's Real Estate Company, and she held the title of chairman. However, she was worried that the identity of a private company owner would not be as reliable as that of a civil servant or state-owned enterprise employee in the book. After all, Lin's Real Estate Company was newly established and had little reputation in Beijing. Even among the Lin Group, only business people would pay attention.

In the second column, under "relatives," Lin Ruoyan wrote "Lin Ruxu." He graduated from a prestigious domestic university and ran a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. This was the child's uncle. A nephew resembles his uncle, and having such an outstanding uncle as an influence should be a plus for the child, as he has a male role model to emulate.

Lin Ruoyan filled out other information truthfully, including the child's education, special talents, and honors. Aside from attending a municipal first-level demonstration kindergarten, her son didn't sing, dance, or play any musical instruments. His only specialty was Go, for which he currently holds an amateur 1st dan certificate. A normal child who starts Go at age four and reaches an amateur 1st dan by age six or seven is considered intelligent.

Besides these, the last column of the entire form contained notes, equivalent to three rows of the normal grid above. Lin Ruoyan saw this and suddenly realized the secret of this form. The notes section couldn't have been left blank just to make the form look neater; there had to be a deeper meaning.