Lin Xiaolu's Mishap
Larkspur did not hide the fact that she would be participating in the assessment as "Gentian" from her juniors.
After all, she had already revealed that there might be unexpected changes in the examination room, and she had also shown that she was cooperating with the Kingdom Magic Affairs Institute. With these two things combined, there was no point in continuing to hide this matter, and the younger generation would not question her behavior of "disguising herself as an examinee".
Therefore, Lin Xiaolu and the others knew very well that Larkspur was in the Silver Gallery and had just seen the exam questions. The only difference was that they were not in the same exam room because of their different registration times.
[Little Brocade: It felt good. It was mostly the knowledge points I had reviewed, so it went very smoothly.]
[Bo Xue: It should be fine.]
[White Rose: It's alright.]
About a minute after Larkspur asked his question, the three juniors each gave their replies in the group chat.
She glanced at everyone's statements. Xia Liang's answer was consistent with her usual attitude towards studying, so it wasn't a cause for concern. Bai Jingxuan was also the kind of girl who wouldn't lie about such things; if she said "no problem," then she really meant it. Only Lin Xiaolu's "it's alright" left much to the imagination.
After a moment's thought, the Larkspur slowly typed a few words on the phone screen with its index finger:
[Larkspur: Passing grade shouldn't be a problem?]
In the final scoring process, although both the written test and the practical test have four components, their weight in the total score is different. Typically, the written test score only accounts for 30% of the final score, while the practical test score accounts for the remaining 70%.
However, although the written test accounts for a small percentage of the overall score, it serves as the first hurdle in the assessment process and helps to eliminate some candidates.
In order to pass the written exam and participate in the subsequent practical exams, a magical girl candidate must first pass all four written exams. If she fails to pass, her written exam score will be deemed "failed," and she will be eliminated.
The passing score for the written exam is not fixed. It is generally 60% of the total score, and then fluctuates based on the average score of the year. For example, if the total score for the <Rune Studies> exam is 100 points, the passing score will initially be 60%, which is considered to be 60 points. Next, if the average score of the year is high, with most candidates scoring above 90 points and the average score around 80 points, then the passing score will be raised accordingly, possibly to 70 points. Conversely, if the average score is low, at only 65 points, then the passing score may drop to around 55 points.
In each year's assessment, approximately 15% to 20% of the magical girls are ultimately eliminated due to the written exam. This effectively excludes those magical girls who are not academically gifted and do not follow the rules. However, for those magical girls who study diligently and are relatively disciplined, passing the exam is not too difficult.
Therefore, the question that Larkspur raised at this point can be said to be quite low.
[Little Brocade: Yeah, passing shouldn't be a problem, but I mainly hope for a higher score.]
[Bo Xue: Passable.]
[White Rose: Probably.]
These are the replies from three younger colleagues via mobile phone.
After these two rounds of questioning, even Xia Liang and Bai Jingxuan noticed something was off about Lin Xiaolu. Her "It's alright" and "I guess" were essentially no answers at all, which was quite suspicious.
[Little Brocade: What's the situation with 'probably'? This year's exam wasn't that difficult, was it? Most of the content was covered by the senior students before.]
[Bo Xue: Sister Xiao Lu, are you really okay?]
[White Rose: I didn't say I couldn't! It's just that I can't use Spell Formula yet, so I haven't memorized many runes.]
[Larkspur: Have you finished reading the Compendium of Fawo Runes I gave you two weeks ago?]
As soon as Larkspur sent that message, the chat group fell silent.
It was as if everyone was waiting for Lin Xiaolu's answer, so they deliberately left the stage for her to speak. After a long while, Lin Xiaolu finally answered:
[White Rose: I saw it.]
[Larkspur: Three of the five major questions this time can be found in the last three chapters of that book. Are those questions okay?]
Upon hearing this question, Lin Xiaolu fell silent again.
[White Rose: Okay, I think I might have mixed things up.]
After a long while, Lin Xiaolu finally typed this message in the group chat.
[Larkspur: Did you carry the string of beads?]
Without questioning her daughter, Larkspur simply confirmed the situation with Lin Xiaolu in plain language, as if she had heard something quite ordinary. And soon, she received the answer:
The problem was that Lin Xiaolu had never specifically studied the Fawo Runes before. She hadn't reached the Leaf Rank and couldn't use the Spell Formula, so she had no way to verify the runes' effectiveness. With this in mind, she kept putting off the task of memorizing until a week before the exam.
During this week, Lin Xiaolu had to review far more than just Rune Studies. Even after memorizing the book, she still couldn't match the meanings of many runes and phrases. This resulted in her only knowing that there was such an answer when taking the test.
The answer must have appeared in the book, but she herself wasn't sure if it was the answer to this question. It's very possible that she filled in the answer to question one in question two, and the answer to question three in question one.
If that's the case, then even if everything she fills in is from the book, there's still a possibility of widespread errors.
After hearing Lin Xiaolu's account, everyone in the chat group was at a loss for words.
After much deliberation, Larkspur finally sent a message:
[Larkspur: If you've mixed them up, there's nothing you can do about it. Don't dwell on it. Let's focus on preparing for the next exam.]
[Larkspur: Even if there are any problems, don't worry or be sad. Just focus on the upcoming exams, and I'll figure something out.]
[Larkspur: Let's have lunch first, but don't eat too much. I'll take you out for dessert tonight. [Rose]]
To be fair, if this were a few years ago, and Larkspur were to handle this matter with the attitude of Lin Yun, who was in her early thirties at the time, she would probably have reprimanded Lin Xiaolu.
But as time went by and after experiencing many things, Larkspur has now decided to no longer treat her child with such wishful thinking.
Perhaps Lin Xiaolu did make some mistakes in this matter, and it's very likely that she'll cause another blunder, but even so, at least she did go and endorse the book.
Larkspur knew very well that her daughter was not a very studious child. Unlike those "other people's children," Lin Xiaolu was playful, a bit lazy, and liked to act spoiled and unreasonable. This was her innate personality, which she couldn't choose.
But based on this personality trait, the preparations Lin Xiaolu made for the assessment over the past year were evident to everyone in the Fangting City Squad. Regardless of how hard she worked, she at least completed all the tasks assigned by Larkspur.
This time was no different. She was tasked with memorizing the Rune Studies textbook. Although she procrastinated, slacked off, and had problems with the execution, at least she did memorize it. For a child like Lin Xiaolu, this is already a significant improvement.
Since that's the case, it's impossible for Larkspur to reprimand her seriously anymore.
The first subject exam has just finished, and the performance in the remaining three exams is equally important. The most important thing is for Lin Xiaolu to stay calm and pass the remaining three exams.
As for her Rune Studies score, it would be best if Lin Xiaolu didn't make many mistakes and failed. If she really made too many mistakes and failed... well, if all else fails, she can go to the Green Faction's magical girl and see if she can get a leniency.
Of course, this only applies to situations where you only fail one course, and the difference in score isn't too significant.
The qualification certification exam is, after all, a very serious exam. Even if it were done by someone within the Magic Affairs Institute, there would be many restrictions, and such leniency could only be exercised in a very limited scope.
For example, if the passing score is 75, and a candidate scores 74 or even 73, they can still try to use connections to improve their score. However, if the score is too low, even the Education Selection Office itself would have to shake its head.
As for the remaining three courses, if Lin Xiaolu makes any further mistakes, then there will be no way to salvage the situation, and she will have to go home and try again next year.
As Larkspur pondered this, she suddenly froze, realizing that her thoughts had unknowingly veered into the realm of "abuse of power for personal gain."
Things she used to hate, she can now consider naturally.
With a somewhat helpless sigh, Larkspur didn't dwell on it too much and walked towards the public dining hall of the Silver Gallery.
After all, this isn't something to worry about.
If it's for the sake of her child, she would never hesitate to become the "bad person."