The Method

"So we need to practice ahead of time."

"Practice?"

"Sort every topic that could come up this term by difficulty."

Kazehara Tetsu set down his chopsticks. "List which question types students with a C in academic ability can answer reliably, and which ones they'd only get right by luck. Once they're in there, they won't have to think it through on the spot. They can just follow the list."

"For students with a D or E in academic ability, make the list even shorter. Give them only the few types they're most certain to get right. They shouldn't touch anything else. Better to answer fewer questions than get one wrong."

Horikita Suzune listened in silence, her brow slightly furrowed.

"What about time? With your approach, the students who go in first need time to pick questions, and the ones after them need time to tackle the hard ones. If the whole class takes a turn at a hundred questions, can we still get the bonus points?"

"Yes, but we don't get greedy."

"What do you mean?"

"Forget the ten points for going over an hour."

Kazehara Tetsu said, "There's no point sacrificing accuracy for ten points. What we want is the five points for going over thirty minutes."

"..."

Horikita Suzune said nothing.

She lowered her head and looked at the food on her tray, as though running through his plan in her mind.

Only after a long while did she look up again.

"How can you make sure the students with lower academic ability find questions on their lists? The questions are in random order. What if they spend ages looking and can't find a type they know how to do? Their ten minutes will be gone."

"That's why they need to practice scanning the paper quickly. For these