Chapter 102 - 73: 3 Test Papers
It was 1:55 PM in the office building of the School of Mathematics.
Dressed in crisp casual wear, Chen Lin appeared at the door of Professor Gu Ming’s office right on time.
He raised his hand and knocked. Gu Ming’s enthusiastic voice immediately came from inside.
"Come in!"
Chen Lin pushed the door open and entered. Gu Ming was sitting behind his desk. Upon seeing Chen Lin, a warm smile immediately spread across his face, and he stood up to welcome him.
"Chen Lin, you’re here! Come in, have a seat!"
Although this was only their second formal meeting, Gu Ming’s enthusiasm hadn’t diminished in the slightest, as if he were seeing his most prized student.
He gestured for Chen Lin to sit on the guest sofa while nimbly getting a cup of warm water from the water cooler and handing it to him.
"So, how have you been? Did you get a good rest these past few days? Are you still living in the school dorms?"
"No, I’ve moved off-campus now."
"Oh, that’s good. Are you getting used to the new place?"
"It’s great, thank you for your concern, Professor Gu," Chen Lin replied with a smile, taking the cup.
After a few pleasantries, Gu Ming got straight to the point. He pointed to an adjacent door and said, "My office is a bit small. Let’s go to the small conference room next door. It’s more spacious there."
"Alright."
Gu Ming led Chen Lin into the conference room next door.
It was indeed much larger than the office. A long conference table, large enough for a dozen or so people, sat in the center. At the moment, the room was empty save for the two of them.
"Chen Lin, wait here a moment. I’ll go get the test papers."
After saying that, Gu Ming turned to head back to his office.
"Professor Gu, wait a moment," Chen Lin called out, stopping him.
"Hm? What is it?" Gu Ming turned back, confused.
Chen Lin looked slightly embarrassed as he said, "About the tests... there are five of them, and it might take a long time to finish them all at once. Would it be possible to split them into two sessions? I could do three today, and we could schedule another time for the other two."
’Back when he was taking gigs online, Chen Lin had timed himself with graduate-level problems, solving eight in an hour. These were undergraduate-level questions, so ten per hour should be no problem at all.’
’Though most of the time was just spent writing down the answers, he still had to stick to his self-imposed three-hour time limit for using ’Little Mathematician.’’
"Of course, no problem!" Gu Ming agreed readily without a second thought. "I was actually worried you’d be under too much pressure. Alright, we’ll do as you say. Three subjects for today!"
An appreciative look appeared on his face, and his internal evaluation of Chen Lin rose yet another notch.
’Neither arrogant nor rash, but steady and methodical. Many students who weren’t even at Chen Lin’s level lacked this kind of attitude.’
Soon, Gu Ming returned with three brand-new test papers. He laid them out one by one on the table in front of Chen Lin, the paper making a faint RUSTLING sound as it touched the tabletop.
"Let’s start with these three subjects today," Gu Ming said, pointing to the papers. "Algebra, Mathematical Analysis, and Topology."
Chen Lin nodded, his gaze sweeping over the tests. The header of each paper was printed with the words "Yannan University School of Mathematical Sciences, Class of 20XX Core Curriculum Credit Examination (Special Exemption)," making them look quite official.
"Alright, let’s begin." Chen Lin picked up the gel pen already on the table and uncapped it.
Seeing this, Gu Ming prepared to turn and leave to give him a quiet environment for the exam.
But he had only taken a single step when the sound of a pen tip scratching across paper from behind him made him instinctively stop and turn around in surprise.
Chen Lin was sitting perfectly straight, pen in his right hand. Without even glancing at the prompt for the first question, he had put pen to paper in the answer section.
His movements were fluid, without the slightest pause for thought, as if he had already rehearsed the complex proofs in his mind a thousand times over.
Gu Ming’s eyes widened slightly, a look of surprise on his face.
’He... doesn’t even need scratch paper?!’
’These three subjects weren’t like high school math, with its routine calculation problems. Algebra and Topology, in particular, were filled with abstract concepts and logical deductions. Every step of a proof required rigorous formulation.’
’Forget undergraduates—even graduate students tackling these problems would have to work through them repeatedly on scratch paper, clarifying their line of reasoning before they’d dare to transcribe the solution onto the test paper itself.’
’But the way Chen Lin was tackling it, he looked like he was just filling in the blanks for a first-grade addition and subtraction worksheet!’
Gu Ming stood frozen for several seconds before suppressing his astonishment.
He didn’t make a sound to disturb him. Instead, he quietly slipped back into his office, grabbed a stack of blank A4 paper from the printer, and tiptoed back into the conference room.
He didn’t hand the scratch paper directly to Chen Lin, but placed it on the desk next to himself.
’Confidence is a good thing for a young person,’ he thought.
’When he gets to the more complex problems later and finds himself stuck, he’ll naturally need the scratch paper.’
’I’ll hand it over then. That will save him any embarrassment.’
Once that was done, Gu Ming sat down in the chair opposite Chen Lin, opened his laptop, and prepared to read some of the latest academic papers while informally "proctoring" the exam.
For a time, the conference room fell silent, with only two sounds remaining.
One was the incessant SCRATCHING of Chen Lin’s pen as it moved at a steady pace across the paper.
The other was the occasional sound of Gu Ming tapping his keyboard and scrolling his mouse.
Gu Ming watched Chen Lin from the corner of his eye while reading the papers on his computer screen.
He was also making a silent calculation in his head.
’These three tests I’ve brought out today are by no means easy.’
’Each test consists of new problems I devised myself after reviewing key questions from the mathematics department’s past final exam banks.’
’By my estimation, if a top-tier Yannan undergraduate like Shen Yan were to work on one of these for two hours without distraction, even getting a passing score of 60 would be a remarkable achievement.’
’Of course, my expectations for Chen Lin are certainly higher.’
’After all, this is a genius even Academician Liang Tianshi holds in high regard.’
’Last time, at the competition, Chen Lin fully demonstrated his intuition and flexibility when it came to solving mathematical problems.’
But today, Gu Ming wanted to use this opportunity to assess another aspect of his abilities.
From the algorithmic solution Chen Lin had provided to Shen Yan for the modeling competition, it was clear he had dabbled in many mathematical topics typically reserved for graduate students.
Gu Ming wanted to use this assessment to gain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the breadth and depth of Chen Lin’s knowledge within the vast field of mathematics.
’A person’s energy is finite, after all. Many geniuses tend to specialize; they might be exceptionally gifted in one area but relatively weak in others.’
Gu Ming needed to identify Chen Lin’s strengths and weaknesses to tailor his guidance for his upcoming graduation thesis.
At this thought, Gu Ming’s gaze once again fell upon Chen Lin.
The young man was still writing furiously, his expression so focused it was as if the rest of the world didn’t exist for him.
Gu Ming nodded in satisfaction and turned his attention back to his laptop.