Chapter 150 Alternative Genius
"How many points can you get?" Yao Xiuhua asked again.
"71 points." He Chengxuan had already calculated it.
"Higher score than Ning Bo." Zhao Liwei made a comparison subconsciously.
He Chengxuan shook his head. "We can't simply compare them like this. We used the college entrance examination questions, and Ning Bo answered questions that were specially made for him by teachers from USTC. The difficulty of the two test papers is different. Who gets a higher score and who gets a lower score cannot measure their math skills."
"Teacher He, how about you give Tunan a few more questions?" Yao Xiuhua was very excited. A genius boy appeared in her class. This was something she could brag about for the rest of her life. However, she was also a little curious. "Tunan's academic performance was good before, but I didn't think he was much better than other students."
"Maybe he has finally figured it out?" Before Zhuang Tunan could speak, Zhao Liwei found a reason for him. He also wanted to see what level Zhuang Tunan could reach. "Teacher He, you have also taught mathematics in college. Why don't you give us a few difficult questions to try?"
"Jiangsu Normal University cannot compare with USTC," He Chengxuan said modestly.
In fact, Jiangsu Normal University is also very good. Its predecessor was Soochow University, which has trained many well-known alumni, including Li Jishen and Zhao Puchu in politics, Rong Lao in business, Qian Weichang, Fei Xiaotong, and Tan Jiazhen in academics. If the scope is expanded to include affiliated middle schools, there are also Nobel Prize winners like Tsung-Dao Lee.
In a few years, Jiangsu Normal University will be renamed a more familiar name - Suzhou University. After all, it is a 211 prestigious university. Although it cannot be compared with USTC, it is not bad either.
He Chengxuan has been in the affiliated primary school for so many years, dealing with children every day. Now that he has met a little genius, he really wants to test him. He found an empty desk and sat down. After thinking for a moment, he began to ask questions.
During the break, a teacher came in. After hearing about this, everyone kept quiet and didn't dare to disturb him. When the bell rang again, He Chengxuan handed the questions he had prepared to Zhuang Tunan, "Tunan, right? Try to do these ten questions. They are all questions you have learned."
“Okay.” Zhuang Tunan agreed obediently. He took the question and looked at it. Sure enough, the knowledge points involved in the question were the ones he had answered correctly just now.
He did not rush to answer the questions, but read them carefully first. After reading them, he secretly praised He Chengxuan in his heart, saying that he was worthy of being a teacher who had taught mathematics in college. The quality of the questions was indeed very high.
This "high" does not mean that the questions he asks are difficult, nor are they tricky or weird. All ten questions may seem ordinary, but they really test the test taker's mastery of these knowledge points. If you have indeed mastered these knowledge points, answering them will be very smooth, otherwise it will be a headache.
To make a simple analogy, it's like a football player going for a tryout. A discerning coach will never look at how smoothly you can do a bicycle kick or a rainbow dribble. What they look at is the most basic skills of stopping the ball, dribbling, and passing. A true genius will definitely perform these basic moves differently from an ordinary player.
This actually suited Zhuang Tunan's purpose. He started answering the questions right after reading them. He spent a long time thinking about each question, but there were not many twists and turns when he actually answered the questions. He basically finished them in one go with almost no modifications.
He Chengxuan was watching quietly beside them, his eyes shining brighter and brighter, and he couldn't help but curl up his lips when he saw the last question. When Zhuang Tunan finished answering the last question, before Yao Xiuhua and the others could ask any more questions, He Chengxuan blurted out, "All correct!"
"Teacher He, what about Tunan?" Yao Xiuhua had just opened her mouth when the bell rang.
"Oh, it's time to go home, Tuanan, you should go home first. The teacher may visit your home later, so you should stay at home at night and don't run around, okay?" He Chengxuan touched his head and sent Zhuang Tuanan away.
As soon as he left, He Chengxuan closed the door and turned around to explain, "Tunan is still young, so some compliments may not be appropriate for him to hear."
Yao Xiuhua heard another meaning in his words, "So, Tunan is indeed a little genius?"
He Chengxuan immediately shook his head. "Tunan is not a genius in the traditional sense. His thinking is not agile. He is not fast at solving problems. The questions I asked are actually quite basic. Many smart people can write down the answers right away."
Just when everyone was beginning to feel disappointed, he changed the subject and said, "But Tunan has a rare talent, which is a deep understanding of mathematics. Most people learn mathematics just to answer questions. Such students can easily get high scores, but they may not be suitable for real research."
"Tunan is just the opposite. He studies mathematics not to answer questions, but because he really wants to know what these formulas and theorems are. People like him may learn slower than those geniuses with quick thinking at the beginning, but they have a very solid foundation. After a while, they can surpass the former geniuses and leave them far behind."
“For mathematicians, quick thinking or skilled techniques are important, but the extreme care and patience in repeatedly observing things are even more valuable.”
"To make an inappropriate analogy, the genius that people usually think of is like a 100-meter runner. As soon as he starts running, we can see his talent. Tunan is like a 10-kilometer runner. At the beginning, his speed seems very slow and it is not easy to attract attention. But if you continue to watch, you will find that he runs more steadily than anyone else and eventually runs farther than anyone else."
If Zhuang Tunan heard these words, he would definitely feel sympathetic, because this is the image he wants to create for himself. He does not want to learn from sharp geniuses like Terence Tao and Galois because true high IQ cannot be faked. He only has super memory but not super IQ, and it is too difficult for him to play the role of a high-IQ genius.
However, there are more geniuses in mathematics than just Terence Tao and Galois. There are also some slightly more alternative geniuses, such as the 2022 Fields Medal winner Jun-il Huh. He did not show dazzling talent at a very young age like Terence Tao, but he also won the highest award in mathematics.
Heo Jun-il did not become interested in mathematics until he was 24 years old, so he signed up for the mathematics class of Fields Medal winner Hironaka Heisuke. The mathematics class of a Fields Medal winner must be very profound, and he could not understand it at first. Gradually, he could understand some simple examples, and then he could discuss some relatively simple math problems with Hironaka Heisuke, but he still did not stand out.
Fortunately, he met a mentor like Hironaka Heisuke. The Fields Medal winner keenly noticed that Huh Jun-il was extremely meticulous and patient, and had a very pure and extreme pursuit of mathematics.
He is not satisfied with just getting a good conclusion, he will also strongly demand an accurate and clear understanding of this conclusion. Such a person may master knowledge a little slowly, but once he masters it, it will be more solid than anyone else.
Just over a decade later, Huh Jun-il repaid Hironaka Heisuke's trust with the Fields Medal, an achievement that most agile geniuses cannot achieve.
"Such a special genius must be nurtured well. Teacher Yao, where does he live? I'm going to go talk to his family tonight."
(End of this chapter)
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