Chapter 96

In terms of average score, Class A has a slightly higher score.

However, compared to the median, Class B scored two points higher at that time.

As for why this happened, the reason is actually quite simple: there were more top students in Class A than in Class B. For example, Aragaki Shun and Ichinose were the first and second place respectively in the freshman entrance exam, which relatively raised the average score.

However, among ordinary students, those in Class B do indeed have stronger overall abilities.

If you were to compare the top ten students from Class A with the top ten students from Class B, Class A would almost certainly win.

However, if you compare the bottom 30 students in Class A with the bottom 30 students in Class B one by one, the result will be more losses than wins.

"After three months of tutoring, those students who were at the bottom of our class have gradually made up for their shortcomings."

"Compared to the Small Test at the end of April, in exams of similar difficulty, our class's average and median scores have risen from just over 80 to around 88."

"Then there's the information you got from Class B. In last month's academic performance test led by Katsuragi, it was shown that a significant portion of the students in Class B not only didn't see their scores rise, but actually declined. Their class average and median scores remained just over 80 points."

"It's obvious that, judging solely by academic performance, we have completely surpassed the other three classes."

Upon hearing this conclusion, the entire classroom fell silent. Many students seemed to be discussing it in disbelief.

"I know the class's grades, but Class B's overall grades were better than ours when they first entered school. How come they haven't improved at all after all this time?"

"Wow~ This is the first time I've realized I've improved so much. When school started, my grades were nothing special in the class, but now, looking back, I've gone from the seventies to the eighties. I can't believe I've grown this much?"

"Hehe~ Your grades have indeed improved, but they're still below average. Looks like you're not working hard enough."

"Speaking of which, why are more than a dozen students in Class B experiencing a decline in their grades instead of improvement? Is it because their class ranking dropped and they were discouraged?"

Listening to the chatter in the class, Aragaki Shun waited quietly for a moment before raising his hand to signal everyone to look over.

"When students move from junior high to high school, their grades do tend to change."

"As for the specific reasons, it might be related to mindset. After all, he suddenly dropped from Class A to Class B and also incurred so much debt."

"It could also be related to maladjustment caused by changes in learning methods. Many top students in junior high school probably enrolled in tutoring classes under their parents' supervision. Now that they are in high school, they suddenly Matsushita, so it's normal for their grades to decline."

After all, these are students specially recruited from all over the country by the Advanced Nurturing Center. There are quite a few outstanding talents in the four classes of the first year, but the proportion is higher in the higher classes.

For example, Class 1-D, a notorious hotspot for flawed students, still managed to achieve an average score of 64 points in the Small Test at the end of April.

This result is based on the premise that most people didn't attend classes much that month.

Class A's overall performance was initially only slightly worse than Class B's.

Now, with their morale soaring due to their string of victories and the top-tier tutoring resources provided by the school every month, it's only natural that Class A, with such a significant advantage, would be able to defeat Class B, whose morale has collapsed and resources are scarce.

After all, students who are assigned to Class B from the beginning are at least rated as "good" by the school, and there are certainly no stupid people among them who can't learn no matter how hard they try.

"It's normal for us to beat Class B, but the important thing is not to compete with those we've defeated, but to improve our skills to the point where we can achieve our goals for further education or employment on our own."

"Kanzaki, why did you specifically bring out this information? Is there a reason?"

Aragaki Shun roughly guessed what the other party was thinking.

But this kind of thing falls within Kanzaki's job scope, so naturally he should be the one to tell the whole story.

As the class leader, Aragaki Shun's responsibility should be to listen to suggestions and then determine whether they need to be implemented.

165. Ryuen attacks Class D; Kanji Ike.

"Now that the students who were ranked lower in the class have improved their grades, it's unreasonable to make them focus solely on improving their basic academic skills as before."

Kanzaki Ryuji wrote down the ten students from the bottom of Class A in terms of academic ability and their scores in each subject on the blackboard, and then gestured for the students to look at the blackboard from the back to the front.

"Look, these ten students who should theoretically need to improve their basic academic skills, even the lowest score among them is 78, and six of them have an overall score of over 80."

"In this situation, their basic academic abilities do indeed have considerable room for improvement, but compared to the time and effort they've invested, the return on their investment is somewhat disproportionate..."

In short, it all comes down to efficiency.

The knowledge required in high school, while certainly not basic or simple, is not particularly difficult either.

For most students of normal intelligence, as long as they are willing to spend time studying diligently, they will surely achieve good results in exams.

The idea that effort is useless and that talent is required to achieve a goal is unfounded... At least high school level knowledge is not at the point where talent is required, and the average person's lower limit is not that low.

Therefore, as long as one genuinely wants to learn and is diligent and hardworking enough, even the bottom ten students in the class can gradually improve their grades to an excellent level.

In other words, I don't aim for a perfect score, but getting 90 points is still achievable.

However, it takes much more time and effort to improve a score from 80 to 90 than to improve it from 70 to 80.

Over the past three months, those students who were at the bottom of the class have indeed worked hard, resulting in significant improvements in their grades across all subjects.

However, Kanzaki could also clearly see their lack of follow-up strength.

Compared to the rapid progress in the first month, they continued to make progress step by step in the following two months, but the growth rate slowed down significantly.

"According to Aragaki, academic ability and physical fitness are ultimately just the foundation, deficiencies that need to be addressed."

"Now that everyone has a solid foundation and can completely suppress the other three lower-ranked classes, should we adjust the weekly tutoring focus for the lower-ranked students in the class, so that they also start to focus on further education and employment?"

Kanzaki Ryuji looked at Aragaki Shun and earnestly offered his suggestion.

According to the previous tutoring plan, Class A needs to take a test at the beginning of each month, and then select the ten students with the lowest academic performance in the class. The primary task for these students this month is to improve their academic performance in the tutoring class.

Then Kanzaki will lead the remaining students to conduct physical tests according to the standards for boys and girls respectively, and select the ten students with the lowest physical strength. The task of these students is to make up for their physical deficiencies according to the plan.

Prior to this month, this plan was naturally without any problems.

Because there are basic exams like midterms and finals that result in expulsion if you fail, the most reasonable way to improve the overall strength of Class A and ensure that no one is expelled is to first ensure academic ability and then address any physical deficiencies.

But now, even the student who ranked last in Class A has improved their overall score to 78, which is close to good.

The passing score for the Final Exam is half the average score. In this case, even if everyone in the class gets a perfect score, the highest passing score is only 50.

In other words, Class A is now safely out of the risk of being expelled for failing grades.

"... If we continue to allocate tutoring tasks according to the previous ranking method, then no matter how much we address the gaps in knowledge, there will inevitably be twenty students at the bottom of the ranking who will need to continuously invest their time and energy in basic academic skills and physical fitness."

"This is actually somewhat unreasonable. Now that everyone's grades have improved to a certain level, I think they should be given the same rights as the top twenty students, so that they can also choose the tutoring programs they want to follow according to their own interests and career plans."

After fully explaining his suggestion, Kanzaki Ryuji glanced at the blank, expectant, or thoughtful expressions on the faces of his classmates, and finally asked Aragaki Shun for permission:

"What do you think, Aragaki?"

"Strategies need to be adapted to different times. If the initial goals are achieved, then it is appropriate to adjust the plan according to the actual situation."

Gently stroking his chin, and meeting the gazes of the crowd, Aragaki Shun nodded after considering it.

Whether it's improving academic ability or improving physical fitness, as long as it hasn't reached the point where talent is required, the key lies in diligence and self-discipline.

Both of these factors are related to mindset.

If students are interested in the relevant knowledge, they will definitely be able to learn it. Conversely, if they feel impatient as soon as they see the learning content, no amount of coaxing from outsiders will help.

The students who rank at the bottom of the class, whose grades are lagging behind and whose progress is gradually slowing down... that can only mean that they are not very interested in tutoring in basic academic skills and physical fitness.

Since that's the case, let's give them the opportunity to do what they want.

"However, I think we still need to set a benchmark. Only those who score above this benchmark can prepare for their future employment and further education according to their own interests."

"Okay, let's set the benchmark at 85 points. Before graduating from Third Year, no student in the class can score below this mark."

The average score of all students in Class B is now over 80, so 85 is not considered high by Aragaki Shun.

After all, in three years, they are to become Advanced Nurturing qualified talents who will be promoted to prestigious universities and companies. If they can't even achieve this small goal, it would be too embarrassing.

"85 points?" Kanzaki Ryuji glanced at the scores written on the blackboard and nodded naturally. "That's reasonable, and not difficult to achieve."

Among the ten students in the class with the lowest academic performance, the tenth from the bottom scored exactly 85 points.

In other words, there are currently only 9 students in Class A who have not yet reached this standard.

The physical fitness aspect is a bit of a problem. If we follow the previously set percentage standard, a total of 12 people will fail to meet the physical fitness test score.

But that's nothing to worry about. There's still a long time before we graduate in our Third Year. With a few more months of hard work, we can make up for the remaining gaps.

"There's one more thing I need to emphasize."

Aragaki Shun glanced around at everyone in the classroom. "That means the class rankings will continue indefinitely!"

"The 20 students at the bottom of the list, once their scores reach the passing grade, can freely choose the type of tutoring they are interested in, just like the top 20, to prepare for further education and employment."

"But their tutoring is mandatory. Except for normal leave due to special reasons, these people cannot completely give up tutoring and give up entirely, no matter what the reason is."

Conversely, students ranked in the top 20 of their class who feel that there are no tutoring or extracurricular classes that meet their needs can directly apply to Kanzaki for Private Points to create their own growth plan.

However, in the past few months, only three members of the class's management— Aragaki Shun, Kanzaki Ryuji, and Ichinose Honami —have used this right to completely avoid attending cram schools.

Aragaki Shun doesn't need it at all, while Kanzaki and Ichinose are too busy with classwork and Student Council duties to enroll in tutoring classes.

Of course, given their grades, a few extra tutoring sessions each week wouldn't make a difference.

Other students, perhaps to fit in, or perhaps because they felt they still needed to work harder, didn't choose to give up tutoring, even though they were ranked in the top twenty.

Therefore, no one in the class felt there was anything wrong with what Aragaki Shun emphasized.

"This shouldn't need to be emphasized," Ichinose said with a smile. "Everyone in the class has been working hard and making progress over the past three months, and the situation of students giving up that Aragaki-kun was worried about is completely unfounded."

"That's right, the tutoring funds were sponsored by Hoshinomiya-sensei, so we definitely won't waste them."

"It's alright. Anyway, I don't have anything else to do on the weekend, so it's normal to take some time to go for tutoring."

"My parents enrolled me in tutoring classes when I was in elementary and junior high school, and now that I'm in high school, it's no different."

Hearing the enthusiastic responses from the class, Aragaki Shun remained noncommittal, simply stating calmly, "We must first establish the rules."

People are naturally prone to laziness, so those students who rank lower need strong supervision from the whole class, while those who rank higher should be given more freedom to learn to make their own choices.

However, the class conducts an academic and physical fitness test at the beginning of each month, so the rankings are constantly changing.

This creates a difference in treatment between the two groups of students, which can slightly boost everyone's enthusiasm.

"In short, the monthly tutoring plan will be adjusted based on this standard for the time being."

"Kanzaki, you lead everyone in a two-month trial run. If there are any unreasonable aspects, we can find ways to correct them then."

"I understand." After three months of hard work, Kanzaki Ryuji had completely gotten used to Aragaki Shun's exploitation, so he wasn't surprised that these tasks would be assigned to him. "Anyway, everyone has to be tested this afternoon. Let's finalize this month's rankings first."

"Yes, you can arrange it yourself. Everyone trusts your abilities in this regard."

For the next few days, the entire first grade remained quiet.

Class A is progressing steadily, Class B's Katsuragi is Koenji Rokusuke, and Classes Class C and Class D are both studying hard to prepare for the Final Exam... It seems that no one has any intention of causing trouble.

In this situation, most people assumed that the peaceful atmosphere would continue until the summer vacation, and many people therefore lowered their guard.

But they didn't expect that some people had been deliberately minimizing their presence during this period in order to create such an opportunity.

The stage is now set up, and another great show is about to begin...

Time flew by from Monday to the weekend. Aragaki Shun was still enjoying the reading atmosphere with Shiina in the library when he was suddenly called to the Student Council by his Bun-haired Senior.

"So, it seems Ryuen Kakeru really hasn't settled down."

After receiving the report submitted by the Ryuen Class from Tachibana Akane, Aragaki Shun glanced at the details of the matter and couldn't help but let out a sneer.

"They're actually using a honey trap, and the target is Kanji Ike. One side is truly stupid, the other truly wicked."

Shaking his head, Aragaki Shun handed the report to Horikita Suzune, whose face was grim, and then looked at Ibuki Mio, who had a tense expression on her face.

"Ryuen is outrageous enough, but is that girl from Class C really that outrageous? She's actually willing to seduce the notorious idiot from Class D for the sake of the class. Doesn't she feel physically uncomfortable?"

Teasing her like that, Ibuki Mio's face darkened instantly. The girl glared fiercely at Aragaki Shun, then turned her head and snorted, "Don't ask me, I don't know anything. Ever since you dragged me into the Student Council, Ryuen has never let me participate in class affairs."

"Hehe~ Isn't this good too?"

Ibuki's straightforward personality is relatively likable, but it would be a pity if she were corrupted by Ryuen's despicable methods.

"Now is not the time for you to leisurely chat."

Tachibana Akane- senpai, who had been standing to the side, seemed somewhat dissatisfied with the two's leisurely conversation, so she stepped forward to remind them to focus on their business.

"The report from Class 1-C has been submitted. They accuse Kanji Ike, a student from Class D, of inappropriate and indecent harassment of Kinoshita Minori, a student from Class C, on Saturday morning."

"This is an internal matter for the first-year students. The president asked me to hand it over to Vice President Aragaki. I wonder if you have any instructions on this?"

The Bun-haired Senior had a frozen expression, seemingly reluctant to assist a junior two years her junior.

But there's nothing we can do. Right now, the Student Council only has two secretaries: herself and a second-year student who belongs to Miyabi Nagumo's faction, so naturally, she won't come to assist Aragaki Shun.

As for Ichinose Honami and Horikita Suzune, they had only been in the Student Council for a short time, and they needed her guidance as a senior to know how to handle many matters.