You Didn't Leave a Margin

The countdown to the exam was on the screen. Song He waited silently, closing his eyes to recall the knowledge he had learned.

He opened his eyes just as the last three seconds ticked down!

3, 2, 1!

The exam began!

The questions appeared on the screen, of moderate difficulty, and still in the form of multiple-choice questions.

During the past few days of doing practice papers, Song He had figured out the pattern. The range of knowledge tested in each question was fixed, and the points allocated to each piece of material were also fixed.

So, he was now able to do the questions with ease, able to accurately predict the approximate range of the next question, almost with the illusion of memorizing the layout of a game.

Missiles, armored units, information warfare, resources transportation, intelligence...

Unconsciously, he had completed most of the questions, and the difficulty began to rise, entering the final stage of difficult problems!

Song He's hand, clicking the mouse, slowed down, his face as if facing a formidable enemy, like a bomb disposal expert weighing which wire to cut.

In the past two days, he had learned a lot of extra knowledge in order to solve the difficult problems, but the more he learned, the more confused he became. There seemed to be an endless amount of related theories, and it was difficult to learn exactly what the questions were testing. He could only rely on on-the-spot performance and luck.

Relying on the vague feeling in his heart, and the far-fetched calculations in his head, he answered the last question in a sweat. There were still five minutes left in the exam time, and there was nothing to check, so he submitted the paper!

[Your score is 78 points!]
[Comment: You have a certain understanding of using troops to fight, and you can command a battle in a proper manner, but occasionally you will expose fatal flaws. Perhaps the things in books can no longer teach you anything. What you lack is something outside of books.]

In the recent mock exams, he had scored around 80 points, so this time was considered normal.

But he did not dare to slack off, and quickly opened the [Score Ranking]!

The screen was quite lively, with students submitting their papers one after another, and the scores rushing out with a whoosh, so the rankings changed repeatedly, up and down.

As soon as the exam time was up, the screen shook violently, and then stabilized!

At the very front was still a series of perfect scores, neat and tidy, exuding pressure!

Song He frantically scrolled down the mouse, found his ranking, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

410th place! He had advanced this week!

Searching for Xiang Xiaotong's name again, he quickly found it. Her score had actually risen to 92 points, and her ranking had also rushed to 237th place!

The gap was a bit big. Song He couldn't help scratching his head. Looking forward from his position, he could only see a large group of dark heads, and he couldn't see Teacher Xiang's shadow at all.

A message popped up in the group.

Xiang Xiaotong: "The exam is over, please check your rankings. Comrades in the bottom 100, please consciously leave the group. @All Members"

A few seconds later, the number of people in the group dropped like an avalanche, changing every second, from 600 to 500 in just half a minute!

Even though it was only in the group, Song He watched the number of people decrease and actually felt a sense of the originally narrow space becoming wider, like a group of people getting off the bus after arriving at a station.

Cruel, too cruel!

But this cruel elimination had only just begun.

After all the eliminated people left the group, Xiang Xiaotong threw a large pile of study materials into the group again.

Compared to last week's materials, the newly issued study materials were more confidential, and there were some replay files of small-scale exercises. Most of the time was thirty years ago, but even so, the tactics that appeared in the exercises were surprisingly diverse, enough to study for a long time.

Xiang Xiaotong: "This round of study focuses on tactics and strategies. The exam will be held at 7:00 p.m. next Wednesday. The bottom 100 will still be eliminated. Please do your best!"

On Saturday, Song He took the first mock exam of the second round.

The number of multiple-choice questions was halved, and programming questions appeared.

The programming questions were similar to the electronic sand table, giving a local map, showing the intelligence of both the enemy and us, and requiring the drawing of an attack route map according to specific tactics, while entering commands such as fire support in sequence.

The first time he got started, Song He was at a loss, feeling like he was trying to write a program for the first time after reading a C language textbook. He had the theory in his head, but he didn't know how to operate it.

The score plummeted to 42 points, mainly from the multiple-choice questions, and the programming questions were terrible!

On Sunday, he took the mock exam again. Song He had finished studying the new materials, so he took 5 exams in one go, practicing by doing problems. The effect was significant, and the score of each exam rose slightly, eventually settling at 67 points!

On Monday, he took the exam all day long, desperately drawing various attack routes, and tirelessly issuing attack commands. The highest score rose to 73 points!

Tuesday, another full day of exams.

In the morning, Song He seemed thoughtful after finishing each set of practice problems.

But by the afternoon, his face grew increasingly grim, and he even couldn't help but slam his mouse, staring angrily at the computer screen in impotent rage.

After doing practice papers until eight in the evening, Song He finally couldn't resist pulling out his phone to send a message to Teacher Xiang:

"Teacher, I'm very confused, can I come over and ask you some questions?"

"Come on over."

Song He got up and left the dorm, knocking on the door next door. Xiang Xiaotong opened the door, still wearing a pure cotton white nightgown, with a snow-white facial mask on her face.

"Teacher, can I see the rankings for this week's mock exams first?" Song He asked anxiously.

"You're ranked 351st, still pretty stable." Xiang Xiaotong sat down at her computer desk and clicked the mouse to open the rankings.

Song He moved a small chair over and sat down next to her, curiously scrutinizing everyone's scores. The top 150 were still a group of unshakeable perfect scores, practically a bunch of deities. Teacher Xiang wasn't far from becoming an immortal either, she was ranked 180th with 97 points!

"Teacher, I don't understand!" Song He asked in confusion, "For those big questions where we have to draw the attack routes, I'm clearly doing them according to the requirements in the data, so why don't I get full marks on every question? Why do they always deduct a few points?"

"I can't directly see your answers here, do a question for me on the spot and let me take a look." Xiang Xiaotong clicked the mouse and quickly pulled up a set of practice papers, opening the big questions.

Song He took a deep breath, his eyes quickly scanning the question, and ideas quickly emerged. He rapidly typed in combat commands.

"I understand, you're not leaving enough margin for error!" Xiang Xiaotong narrowed her eyes, thought for a moment, and immediately said.

Song He was stunned, his pupils slightly shaken, and his expression immediately showed understanding!

"Although you're doing simulations on the computer, you also have to take into account real-world situations." Xiang Xiaotong began to lecture.

"For example, in this question, although the intelligence shows that the enemy's information warfare capabilities are crap, you have to consider the possibility of faulty intelligence. What if, halfway through your high-risk, turn-based fishing-for-artillery operation, the enemy suddenly pulls out information warfare equipment and starts interfering?"

"Have you considered weather changes? Have you considered the possibility of unmanned weapons malfunctioning? Sometimes, even when simply traveling, weapons and equipment can break down a lot, so you must leave a large margin for error to ensure that nothing goes wrong!"

"Also, our exercise mode has always been to overestimate the enemy. Last year, the Blue Army's level was that they could measure the trajectory of your Missile 10 seconds after you fired, calculate your position simultaneously, and then take another 10 seconds to adjust the firing parameters and fire back, leaving you only the flight time of the Missile to run away. No one on our planet is that fast right now, but that's the requirement in the exercises, and you have to do the problems according to that requirement."

Xiang Xiaotong rambled on and on.

Song He suddenly understood, feeling a sense of clarity as if he had been enlightened!

"I understand, Teacher, my problem is that I'm calculating too precisely, always trying to achieve the greatest results with the smallest cost, but this kind of saving mentality can actually lead to greater waste." Song He nodded repeatedly, a look of joy on his face. "I get it, Teacher! I feel like I can get over ninety points too!"

"Ninety points isn't something you can get casually." Xiang Xiaotong smiled. "The exam is tomorrow night, it's too late for you to change your thinking now. I suggest you take the exam with your old way of thinking first, and steadily advance, then re-cultivate your habits next week."

"It's okay, Teacher, I can change my habits quickly, one day should be enough!" Song He stood up, his face confident.

"Really going to take the risk?" Xiang Xiaotong said, "Don't blame me for not warning you!"