Examination

Last night, I managed to sleep fairly well, though I went to bed a bit late. Exams really cost a lot of money, especially since hotels turn into a seller’s market during exam periods and inevitably raise their prices. Many hotels have hiked their rates to such an extent that they might as well be publicly shamed on a lamppost. Candidates are truly pitiable—most of them don’t even have stable jobs. The exams themselves are hard enough, and yet they still have to endure being exploited by these people. ...

Tomorrow, I have an exam in Guiyang for a public institution under the Department of Transportation, so today I’m rushing to catch a bus to Guiyang. As I left the house, I overheard two kids talking. One of them said: When I was little, I thought if a mouse got sick, it should take rat poison. Exams are truly expensive, especially since hotels turn into a seller’s market whenever there’s an exam—price hikes are inevitable. Many hotels have raised their rates so much that they practically deserve to be publicly shamed on utility poles. ...

09:04 Woke Up My habits have been quite poor lately—I often find myself mindlessly picking up my phone to scroll through videos on Bilibili or Douyin. This behavior wastes a lot of time and significantly harms both my eye health and my normal routine. I need to be more mindful. I believe this is achievable because I didn’t used to have this habit, and I’ve also realized that most of the time I spend watching these videos, I’m not even happy. ...

09:31 Started Studying Just finished debugging the code. There are always so many things to do in my own room—thinking about folding laundry, taking out the trash, what to eat for lunch… Before I knew it, a lot of time was wasted on these little tasks. 21:41 Finished a Vocational Aptitude Test Scored in the top 35%. It was okay—still plenty of room for improvement. This afternoon, I completed a set of “Comprehensive Application Ability” exercises, then cooked some rice and went grocery shopping in my pajama pants. Bought a lot of stuff: strawberries, choy sum, cabbage, tofu, and pork belly. Originally planned to make it last two days, but I got greedy and wanted to eat everything. Ended up not being able to finish it all by myself, so I called my brother over to share the meal. ...

The weather is so nice today! Yet I didn’t step outside all day. I was sluggish in the morning, fiddling with this and that, and before I knew it, the morning was gone. The printer keeps acting up a little—I’ll send it back and try a replacement. Today, I worked through a set of practice tests. The Administrative Aptitude Test was manageable, but I still need more practice with summarization and synthesis for the Comprehensive Application Ability section. I should also familiarize myself with the basic formats of various writing styles. Tomorrow, I’ll tackle a few more test papers specifically to sharpen those skills. ...