PFC Chapter 48 Monthly Exam
Chapter 48 Monthly Exam
The training course also has monthly exams to assess the students' learning progress at the Imperial Academy over the past month.
This is not the final assessment, but the fact that the results are included in the final assessment shows how important it is to students.
The exam is divided into two stages.
The first stage is the entrance exam for regular classes, and the second stage is the entrance exam for advanced classes.
Since they study different subjects, the exam content is also different.
The liberal arts class consists of three main subjects and two minor subjects.
The main subjects were Confucian classics, historical texts, and legal documents.
Confucian classics are a foundation for moral education; they are the basics and the core of education.
Historical texts help cultivate the ability to understand current events and distinguish right from wrong.
Law and documents assess officials' ability to adjudicate judicial cases, as well as their ability to write official documents and manage archives.
These are all basic skills that an official should possess.
The two minor subjects are further divided into two categories, both of which are elective courses.
One category is professional skills, such as judicial trials, tax collection, astronomy, geography, etc., which determine which career path students will pursue in the future.
Another category is martial arts for physical fitness, such as horseback riding, archery, weaponry, and hand-to-hand combat; one of these can be chosen as an examination subject.
This is the exam content for the basic course.
While the advanced class also consists of three main courses and two supplementary courses, its content is much richer.
It not only contains essential high-level skills for officials, such as administrative management and official precepts, but also covers major national affairs such as military administration and border defense, river engineering and canal transport.
The martial arts class also has three main subjects and two minor subjects.
The main subjects were martial arts, calligraphy and mathematics, and military strategy.
Martial arts encompass physical fitness, archery, and weaponry, which are the foundation of a military general's abilities.
The books were Confucian classics and documents. Military generals also needed to read and understand principles, and they also needed to learn how to handle official documents.
Numbers are mathematics.
Warfare is all about logistics; you have to learn how to calculate food and fodder consumption, supply routes, and weapon repair and maintenance.
As for military strategy and tactics, regardless of the dynasty, it was a required subject for military generals.
The two minor subjects in the martial arts class are also elective courses.
The curriculum includes military-related skills such as military geography, astronomy and meteorology, and command and management; students choose two of these skills.
This is an essential lesson for them to learn as they progress from ordinary generals to commanders.
The exam items for the advanced class are basically the same, only the content is more advanced.
In addition, the advanced class also has a test item of a large-scale joint exercise, simulating the game between two armies on the battlefield.
Both regular and advanced classes attach great importance to this monthly exam, as it will directly reflect their learning progress at the Imperial Academy.
This was also an important beginning for them to enter officialdom or the military later in life.
On the day of the exam, the Imperial Academy was heavily guarded. Every student entering the academy had to have their identity verified to prevent cheating.
In addition to the previous examination admission ticket number, the Prime Minister's Office also prepared a personal identification card.
This identification sticker is undoubtedly from the Qin state, and it contains the student's name, portrait, and examination room seat number.
The Prime Minister's residence divided the identification card in two, with one half in the student's possession and the other half in the Prime Minister's residence.
When entering the Imperial Academy, the two must be perfectly aligned to be allowed entry.
The examination room was also the classroom where students usually attended classes. Each student had a seat and a table without any spacing, but a guard stood at each of the four corners of the classroom to supervise the examination.
In addition, officials patrolled the area to prevent cheating.
Although the examination room was spacious and bright, the serious atmosphere inspired awe.
The students entered the examination room, found their seats, arranged their writing brushes, inkstones, and other supplies, began grinding ink, and waited for the examiner to distribute the examination questions.
The exam questions were inscribed on bamboo slips. After the examiners distributed them, the students quickly opened the slips to examine the questions.
The first exam consisted of Confucian classics, including fill-in-the-blank questions on the *Tie Jing* (a type of classical Chinese text), short answer questions on the *Mo Yi* (another type of classical Chinese text), and poems and essays.
The scope included Confucian classics, and the examination tested literary talent. There were no special skills involved; it was all about rote memorization, which is what students excelled at.
As the drumbeats resounded, the examiner lit incense, and the students quickly picked up their pens, dipped them in ink, and began to write furiously.
The examination room was completely silent. Even when the chief examiner came to patrol, the students did not notice, focusing all their energy on the exam questions in front of them.
It is said that the guards in charge of supervising the inspection were all top-notch archers with keen eyesight, and any slight abnormal behavior of the students was under their surveillance.
With such tight surveillance, it's better to focus on answering the questions than to go to great lengths to cheat.
Moreover, if caught, they will be expelled from the training program and never hired again.
As the incense sticks in the examination room slowly moved down, the students remained focused on answering the questions.
But their expressions gradually changed.
Although the answers were based on rote memorization, the sheer volume and breadth of the content left them somewhat exhausted, their backs drenched in sweat.
Under such high pressure, forgetting things or making spelling mistakes is inevitable, and thinking about and correcting them takes up a lot of time.
This delay made the time even more pressing, and looking at the densely packed questions behind them, it was an invisible drain on the students' mental energy.
An hour passed quickly, and as the incense burned out, the clanging of gongs made the students' hearts tighten.
"Time's up, stop writing, collect your papers!"
As soon as the examiner finished speaking, all the students in the examination room immediately stopped writing.
If anyone makes any further moves, this result will be invalidated.
Many students looked dejected, watching the examiners collect their exam papers with resentment.
There is only one exam in the morning, and the second exam will be held after lunch, with a break of about two hours in between.
After a quick lunch, most people began to bury themselves in their studies in preparation for the upcoming exams.
With the experience of the first exam, the students figured out the exam patterns and had a clearer goal when reviewing.
The second exam was on historical theory, with the topic "The Zhou dynasty emphasized external affairs over internal ones, while the Qin dynasty emphasized internal affairs over external ones; each has its merits."
When the students saw the question, they were initially overjoyed, but then their hearts sank.
This topic concerns the relationship between the imperial court and local powers.
Taking the Zhou Dynasty's enfeoffment system, which weakened the central government, and the Qin Dynasty's excessive strengthening of central power through the prefecture-county system as examples, the two contain contradictory and opposing relationships.
The Zhou Dynasty was a feudal system that lasted for eight hundred years before being unified by the Qin Dynasty.
The unified prefecture-county system of the Qin Dynasty only lasted for two generations before it disappeared.
The contradictions and conflicts involved are extremely complex, and without in-depth study of history, it would be difficult to get a high score.
Moreover, this question is deceptive.
On the surface, it talks about "each has its own merits," but in reality, it tests how to use history to discuss current affairs and how to deal with the relationship between the central government and local authorities.
For a moment, the students in the examination room gasped in surprise.
Whether they were confident or distressed, they all tilted their heads and pondered the question, but no one picked up a pen.
Only when the drums sounded and the incense burned did I begin to write.
At first, everyone wrote fluently and found it easy to discuss the past; the key was to work backward from the result.
But things are different now. Everyone has different perspectives and directions, so the answers will naturally be different.
So at this point, some people stop to think, while others start scratching their heads, impatient and restless.
This was much more grueling than the first exam.
Compared to the liberal arts class, the first day's exam for the martial arts class was relatively easy.
The first day's test consisted of physical fitness and martial arts skills, and the test venue was Xue She Mountain.
This place was formerly a racecourse for royalty and nobility, but now it is being used as an examination venue for students.
The charge of warhorses, the hit of arrows, the clash of fists and feet—each action drew cheers.
This was in stark contrast to the silent and solemn atmosphere in the classroom.
Zhang Bao rode his tall horse, preparing to begin his equestrian exam, a crucial step in whether he could graduate from the regular class and smoothly enter the military.
Equestrianism is divided into three parts: horse archery, horse spear, and horsemanship.
Horse archery involves aiming and shooting an arrow while riding a galloping horse.
The horse spear, on the other hand, is used to stab the straw man in a vital spot with a long weapon while riding at high speed.
"Royal horse" refers to the skill of riding a warhorse to overcome obstacles and make turns.
"Xingguo, I didn't expect you to make it to the final round."
Zhang Bao turned his head and saw Guan Xing riding up beside him.
Not only Guan Xing, but also other second-generation officials such as Zhao Guang, Huang Chong, Li Feng, and Li Yi arrived slowly.
They were all the ones who ultimately advanced in this riding test, and they were also among the top riders in the regular class.
The pressure on Zhang Bao to get into the top five from this group is immense.
He took a deep breath and stroked his beloved horse with his right hand.
The horse seemed to sense its master's feelings, and lowered its head, neighing softly.
The examiner re-examined Zhang Bao's hard bow, quiver, and eighteen-foot spear.
"The equestrian test shall begin."