Time quietly passed. In the Math Class examination halls of fifteen universities, the same scene kept playing out: candidates looked at the questions on their papers with troubled expressions, as though they had grievances they could not voice.
Basically, more than 95 percent of them were like this. The remaining fewer than 5 percent were those who had previously encountered academic mathematics and read a few mathematical papers.
But even those who had read several mathematical papers before found themselves somewhat unaccustomed to suddenly facing questions like these.
However, just as Xiao Yi had judged, the first section was ultimately one where the academicians had gone relatively easy on them. Among the students taking the exam, there was certainly no shortage of all kinds of geniuses, especially at Shangjing University.
After all, Shangjing University's School of Mathematics bore the title of the top department at the nation's top university. The most basic requirement for its Math Class was that students had achieved sufficiently high rankings in the Math Olympiad.
Thus, some students gradually connected the methods used in the problem to the Principle of Inclusion-Exclusion. Soon, the second, third... students finally began writing answers on their papers.
As for the first student...
"Hm? A student at the USTC examination hall has handed in their paper."
Someone spoke in the remote proctoring online meeting room.
"Handing it in already?"
The others were somewhat puzzled.
Only half an hour had passed since the exam began, and someone had already submitted their paper?
Had they given up?
As everyone pondered this, the surveillance feed from the USTC examination hall was pulled up and placed on the main screen of the meeting room.
Sure enough, they saw a student rise from their seat, carrying their test paper toward the front of the examination hall.