Chapter 44 Examination

After Yang Xingwu finished his haircut, he stood up and let Li Aiguo take his turn. Before long, all four of them were done.

"Uncle Zhang, how much is it?"
"Twenty cents a head. Since you are students, I'll knock two cents off for each of you. Jiefang, the college entrance examination is coming up soon, right? Are you feeling confident?"
"Thanks, Uncle! It's almost time, just half a month left until the exams!"
"Well, you've got to study hard and do your best! Once you get into college, you'll be eating the state's grain—sheltered from wind and rain, earning thirty to forty a month, plus an official cadre status. On top of that, college is tuition-free, and the monthly stipend is quite generous!"
"Uncle, I know. Here's your money!"

As Liu Jiefang chatted casually with Uncle Zhang, he handed over the money.
Haircuts were relatively cheap back then—twenty cents for adults, and ten cents for children. Considering that Liu Jiefang and his friends were students, Uncle Zhang gave them a two-cent discount.
Society generally showed a certain level of preferential treatment toward students in those days!

After chatting with Uncle Zhang for a little longer, the group headed back to the school.
Upon returning to the school grounds and reaching the entrance of their dormitory, they saw the water pump in the courtyard. Liu Jiefang walked over to it, picked up the ladle left beside it, poured a scoop of water down the pipe, and with just a few pumps, clear water gushed out.
"Come on, wash your hair. Those tiny trimmed hairs are really prickly. You guys wash first!"

Hearing this, the other three didn't stand on ceremony. They bent over directly, thrusting their heads forward to rinse under the pumped water.
Helping each other out, all four of them rinsed their hair, instantly feeling the oppressive summer heat recede quite a bit.
After finishing, they filled the water ladle back up, put it back in its original place, and finally returned to the dormitory.
Back inside, Yang Xingwu and the other two handed their share of the money to Liu Jiefang.

After having lunch, everyone took a short nap, and once awake, they headed to the classroom for self-study.
The next day, Monday, was the day of the monthly mock examinations.
The preliminary exams had already eliminated nearly sixty percent of the students. Now, some classrooms had only twenty or thirty students left, while others had barely ten-odd.
They could take the exams right at their desks inside the classroom, avoiding having to sit out in the scorching sun on the playground—with weather this hot, it was all too easy to get heatstroke!

The first subject, Chinese, started at eight o'clock in the morning. With a duration of two and a half hours, it would run until ten-thirty.
At this time, the college entrance examination still commenced at eight in the morning. It wasn't until 1986 that the exam schedule shifted to nine o'clock. While it might seem an hour later, it was actually the exact same relative time!
The reason for this change was that China began implementing Daylight Saving Time in 1986.
So-called Daylight Saving Time is a system where local time is artificially advanced to save energy. The uniform time adopted during the implementation of this system is called "Daylight Saving Time."

Generally, in summers when dawn breaks earlier, advancing the clock by one hour encourages people to rise and sleep earlier, thereby reducing lighting requirements and making full use of daylight resources to save electricity.
China began practicing this system in 1986, usually moving clocks forward by one hour at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday of mid-April (based on Beijing Time), shifting the hands from two to three to start Daylight Saving Time. Then, at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday of mid-September, the clocks were turned back by one hour, moving the hands from two to one to end it.
During periods of energy shortage, Daylight Saving Time saved a considerable amount of electrical power, but it also disrupted certain production orders, causing significant impacts on people's lives and factory operations.
Consequently, this policy was abandoned after running for just six years.
Once Daylight Saving Time ended, the college entrance examination permanently shifted its start time to nine o'clock in the morning, which effectively delayed the schedule by an hour for good.

Early Monday morning, Yang Xingwu and his friends got up.
After washing up, they had breakfast at the cafeteria, crammed some ancient poetry for a final temporary boost, and then headed to the classroom to get ready for the exams.
Upon arriving, the students piled all their textbooks and review materials onto the windowsills and the podium, then rearranged their desks into five rows of six columns each!

As eight o'clock approached, Xu Wenhua walked into the classroom carrying the Chinese examination papers. Standing at the podium, he held up the papers to show the class.
"Good morning, students. We are now beginning the Chinese examination. Please check the papers to ensure the sealing tapes are completely intact."
Following the standard protocol of the national college entrance exams, Teacher Xu first displayed the sealing strips to guarantee the confidentiality of the exam papers.
This procedure was performed precisely to familiarize the students with the rhythm and process of the real college entrance examination, which was why the school and teachers put forth their utmost effort during this monthly mock test!

After displaying the papers, Xu Wenhua explained the examination procedures and precautions before finally unsealing the papers.
Once the papers were distributed, Xu Wenhua walked around the classroom, checking each student's admission ticket one by one. Satisfied that everything was in order, he returned to the podium and sat down.
The morning Chinese exam flew by. Putting the humanities subject first, with a test format whose difficulty wasn't immediately glaring, effectively helped alleviate the examinees' anxiety.

The bell rang at ten-thirty, and Xu Wenhua stood up and called out:
"Time's up, put down your pens. Anyone continuing to write will be considered in violation of the rules, and their score will be voided. Everyone stand up!"
As Xu Wenhua's voice faded, all the students in the classroom stood to their feet.
His gaze swept across the room. Seeing the students' compliance, he felt a silent surge of satisfaction before stepping down from the podium to begin collecting the papers.

After gathering the papers, Xu Wenhua checked them once more to ensure no errors before leaving the classroom.
The moment the teacher left, the students started moving about. Having sat through a two-and-a-half-hour test, they took care of personal needs, exchanged a few casual words about the questions, and then plunged right back into studying for the afternoon.
The afternoon subject was chemistry, starting at two-thirty.
The three-day monthly mock exams flashed past, and the students weathered them safely. After all, since the purpose was to boost student morale, the questions naturally wouldn't be excessively difficult!

It is worth noting that because the science track required testing in seven subjects, the exams spanned three days.
This resulted in a tight schedule where three subjects were crammed into a single day.
On the second day of the mock exams, after finishing mathematics in the morning, the afternoon session was advanced to start at two o'clock.
Following that exam, there was a half-hour break before plunging straight into a biology test, which lasted for just one hour.

At 4:30 PM on June 20th, after the foreign language exam concluded, the monthly mock tests came to an end.
Watching many of his classmates beaming and discussing the test papers in a relaxed tone, Yang Xingwu could tell that most people had done quite well!
It had to be said that this monthly mock exam had successfully diluted the tense atmosphere left by the preliminary exams, allowing many students to finally breathe a sigh of relief and feel that their hard work over the past month had been worthwhile!
The school's approach had essentially served a parting cup of encouragement to the students marching onto the battlefield of the college entrance examination!

However, this parting cup of courage was perhaps a bit too optimistic. One could only wonder how many students would still have the stamina to press on with the exams after taking the mathematics test on July 8th. Let us simply hope that not too many students suffer a complete mental breakdown by then!