I have a monthly exam tomorrow.

We have monthly exams tomorrow. There are only four subjects, and they’re all done in one day: Chinese at 7:50 AM, physics at 10:40 AM, math at 2:00 PM, and English at 4:20 PM. School gets out at 6:20 PM (PS: Why do we even have evening self-study?)

I’m pretty confident about the other three subjects, but Chinese? Right now, I’m sitting at my desk staring at my textbook and notes, completely clueless.

Today’s physics review went pretty well. I focused on problems involving echo ranging—I always struggled with those before. You calculate the time for sound to go out, then the time for it to come back, and there’s also the relationship between speed and time in the middle. I could never figure out which formula to use. Today, I found a bunch of similar problems and did seven or eight of them. Slowly, I realized the patterns: either the time is split evenly, or you have to divide the total time by two. After doing enough of them, it felt much easier. At least tomorrow I won’t stare blankly for five minutes when I see such a problem.

For English, I came up with what I think is a pretty useful trick—I made my own test using Zxxk. Not just randomly picking questions, but taking all the grammar points, key words, and common sentence patterns we’ve learned lately and acting as the test maker. After finishing, I took it myself and noticed a few blanks where I hesitated—those were my weak spots, so I fixed them. This way is more fun than just grinding through endless exercises, and it clearly shows where I’m lacking.

Then there’s Chinese.

The problem isn’t that I don’t want to study—it’s that I have no idea what to study.

I only know the exam covers modern texts and basic questions. Will they include stuff from last semester? Do I need to review ancient poems? I’ve forgotten most of last semester’s content, so if a question comes up, I might just freeze.

Then there’s the book Red Star Over China. The teacher assigned it over summer, but I read a few pages and never touched it again. Right now, all I remember is that it’s about the Red Army. I have no idea about the specific people, events, or details.

Even worse, this year marks the 90th anniversary of the Long March. If they ask about it, I might end up turning in a blank paper. What’s the Four Crossings of the Chishui River? Where was the Zunyi Conference held? I know the names, but I couldn’t explain them properly.

Tonight, I plan to quickly look up the main content and characters of Red Star Over China and memorize a few key events of the Long March. If it comes up tomorrow, at least I can make something up. It’s not much, but better than doing nothing.

I hope all the teachers will go easy on me tomorrow. Amen.