Because they looked rather petite, and there were more boys than girls in the class, the girls did light work such as wiping windows, tables, and sweeping the floor. Many hands make light work. In those days, there were no electric fans or lights, and even the windows were only on the top row. With a quick wipe and sweep, they cleaned the classroom inside and out in less than half an hour.

The male homeroom teacher's surname is Zhang. Because his mother's surname is Liang, his given name is a combination of his parents' surnames, which made him easy to remember.

Mr. Zhang teaches physics and is the head of the first-year high school class. Class 1 is the best class in the grade, so the teaching staff is naturally the strongest.

"Don't think that everything will be fine just because you've gotten into Class 1. Let me make this clear: we'll be reassigned to different classes after every monthly exam. Whether you stay here or not depends on your abilities!"

Xiao Jiu was surprised and quickly glanced at Zhu Hongqi. "That's so strict! Classes are reassigned every month. You have to be on your guard!"

Zhu Hongqi also felt the pressure come on immediately. "That's right, no wonder it's a key high school. The management here is really strict."

After the books were distributed, the teacher explained the course schedule and the daily morning and evening class times to them.

"I'll be waiting for you on the playground at five o'clock tomorrow morning. We'll have half an hour for morning exercises, five-thirty to seven o'clock for morning reading, and seven to eight o'clock for breakfast and cleaning. Okay, now stand outside according to your height, and let's arrange the seats first."

Because of her height, Tao Tao naturally sat in the middle of the first row, right under the lectern, which was the best spot.

Although she would ingest chalk dust, she quite liked this spot, especially since she didn't have a deskmate. She had her own desk, the classroom was large, and there weren't many people—only thirty in a class—so even though she had her own desk, it felt spacious.

After the seating was arranged, everyone was asked to come up on stage and introduce themselves. Tao Tao was afraid that people would bring up her age, so she didn't mention it at all. However, the teacher called her aside and gave her a special introduction.

"She's only ten years old and already in the first year of high school. Compare yourselves to her level and see if you should work hard or if you feel any sense of crisis. Besides, she only got in by ranking ninth in her grade in the high school entrance exam. We will have an entrance exam tomorrow. I hope you can improve on your existing level and let me see if you have been slacking off during this holiday."

Alright, even if she wanted to keep a low profile this time, she probably couldn't. Didn't Teacher Zhang see that she didn't want to be so high-profile?

Sure enough, as soon as get out of class ended, all the students surrounded her.

younger sister.

Little sister.

My dear sister!

They called each other whatever came to mind, acting all affectionate, as if they really had so many older brothers and sisters!

They immediately ask about your learning methods and how you did it. How much of that was due to your intelligence?

What percentage of intelligence is attributed to IQ?

Xiao Jiu looked at the mustachioed classmate who had asked the question, both amused and exasperated.

"If I said I relied on the books my older siblings used and the notes they compiled, and that I didn't have time to study, so I just memorized the books, would you believe me?"

Can you really get into a top high school just by memorizing the textbook? Is that true?

Seeing the doubtful look on the other person's face, Xiao Jiu wasn't in a hurry to explain.

Time will tell whether what I said is true or not.

When she finally managed to crawl out of the classroom with her books, she was surrounded by her roommates.

"You really memorized the whole book? What about English? English is so difficult, how did you learn pronunciation on your own?"

Tao Tao: "My family has a radio, so I practice with the tapes. My older brother and sister found me tapes with synchronized teaching materials, and I listen to them every day."

That's true. Because her older siblings also needed to learn English, they did spend a lot of money on cassette tapes back then. There were many children in the family, so when one was used up, another could be used. When they were learning, she also listened to them. Compared to later generations, the pronunciation of this era, how should I put it, is standard, but it just doesn't feel right!

"If you hear it enough times, you'll learn it, won't you?"

"Wow, your family is quite well-off. You even have a radio with both receiver and recorder? And you can even buy cassette tapes? I heard that cassette tapes for textbooks are hard to find; you have to go to a big city."

"Yes, my brother made a special trip to the provincial capital to buy it."

At that time, my family had just sold a house, and my older brother specifically asked for money to buy it. I heard that a cassette tape cost 1.8 yuan, which was quite expensive!

However, at that time, foreign languages ​​were not just English, but also S language, and they were all very simple to learn, equivalent to some daily conversational exercises. The exams were limited to the content in the textbooks, and were collectively referred to as foreign languages. The exams did not account for a high percentage of the total score, between 30 and 50 points, and they were optional. That is to say, you could participate, and if you participated in the exam, you would get extra points for your answers. If you did not participate and gave up, then you would not get a score for that subject.

Fortunately, her family has a certain economic foundation; otherwise, they really wouldn't have the means to support so many siblings in learning foreign languages.

Of course, as Xiao Jiu grew up, she secretly taught them a lot. When asked, she said she learned by following the recording. So, in order to show off her natural language ability, she often accompanied her older siblings when they were learning foreign languages, and would also read along from time to time. Over time, she also learned some simple S language.

This language was completely unfamiliar to her, unlike Japanese and Korean. She had followed anime and Korean variety shows when she was in college, so her fluency in spoken Japanese and Korean was much higher than that in English. Moreover, she felt that the pronunciation of English was not easy to master.

During the high school entrance exam, she chose English instead of S language, which is why she did well. Without English as a component of the exam, her score probably wouldn't have been so high.

She will definitely choose English for the college entrance examination because she has never been exposed to S language and does not have time to learn it well.

Now, when her roommates ask her questions, her half-truthful answers only make them believe her more.

"What about math, physics, and chemistry? How did you study them? And Chinese, I think it's so hard to improve in those subjects!"

"For math, physics, and chemistry, just do lots of practice problems, keep a good notebook of all your mistakes, and repeatedly review your problem-solving strategies. This method works really well; my older siblings all did it this way. As for Chinese, it's all about memorization. You need to memorize all the basic knowledge. To improve your writing, you need to read more books, memorize more good articles, and flip through the dictionary whenever you have free time to build up your vocabulary."

Tao Tao shared her experiences accumulated over two lifetimes with her roommates one by one, but the only thing she couldn't share good solutions for was politics.

"Don't ask me about this. I barely passed. Besides memorization, a lot of it requires understanding. Also, you need to read newspapers, listen to the radio, and pay attention to national affairs. The more you know, the more examples you'll have to give when answering questions. Actually, I didn't do well in this subject. It's the kind of frustrating situation where if you give me the book, I don't even know where to copy from..."

Perhaps it was because Tao Tao's words were so down-to-earth that everyone else burst out laughing.

"So you have subjects you're afraid of too? We really thought you were an all-rounder!"

Tao Tao blushed slightly. "Don't flatter me like that. Nobody's perfect. If I were really that outstanding, I would have been admitted to a good high school long ago. Why would I be here in high school?"

That makes sense. Everyone looked at each other and laughed.

Carrying the books back to the dorm, I thought, "What am I going to do? I don't have any materials to wrap them up!"

"Oh? You came back with books just to cover them up? I thought you wanted to browse through them. I have some newspapers here, do you want some?"

"Oh, you have newspaper? Quick, bring it over right away, I need it to cover my books."

"But the newspaper isn't sturdy enough!"

"It's okay, we'll just have to make do with this for now. Where are we going to find so much kraft paper or calendar paper for wrapping things? Those kinds of papers are very precious and hard to find."

Although newspaper covers are neither attractive nor durable, their advantage lies in their low cost; you can simply replace them when they break.

Hearing what they said, Xiao Jiu thought it made sense. The six girls huddled together, took out scissors and glue, and started making book covers for the new schoolbags that had just been handed out. With their help, Xiao Jiu didn't even have a chance to do anything; she only contributed the materials.

Zhou Shengnan and Gao Mingxia were the most capable with their hands. In less than half an hour, they quickly and efficiently wrapped all six people's books in an assembly-line style.

Xiao Jiu also brought a calligraphy brush and smelly ink to write the cover. Each of the six people wrote a character, and in the end, they unanimously decided to let her write the cover.

"Your handwriting is very good, you write it!"

Traditional Chinese characters are actually not easy to write, especially calligraphy, which she doesn't use often. But she knew this was her weakness, so she practiced a lot. The main purpose of buying those newspapers was to practice writing large characters.

She discovered that there were calligraphy classes every week in this era, and the students had to write large characters, so she had prepared brushes and ink.

My roommate only remembered this when he saw the calligraphy brush and ink she took out.

"Oh no, I forgot mine! Quick, check the timetable for a large-print class?"

"Yes, I specifically wrote down the class schedule. There's a class on Saturday afternoon, and we still need to go buy it!"

The reason for having calligraphy classes is that in earlier times, there was a habit of using a brush to write homework. It was only the early 1960s, and many of these habits have been well preserved. Anyone who values ​​students' handwriting would suggest adding this course.

Xiao Jiu is the same. She is used to writing in simplified characters and is not used to traditional characters. Although she has been exposed to traditional characters since she was a child, it has been ten years now. But when you look at her own casual writing practice, she still writes mostly simplified characters. This habit is really hard to change, so she forces herself to practice. Unexpectedly, she has actually improved her skills over time. At least among these people, her handwriting is considered to be quite good.

"It's okay, it's not like you're the only one who forgot to bring one. I reckon there are quite a few others in the class. We can just ask for leave and go out to buy a set."

Pang Weiwei's words brought wry smiles to the other girls' faces: "The money was allocated before we came, and there was no extra expense like this. Besides, it's not just about buying brushes and ink; we also need to prepare Xuan paper. Calligraphy class is the most expensive class. If we don't go... that won't work. We'll see later."