The Qualifying Exams Are Over!

Note: This article was actually written on August 12, 2026. At the time of writing, Xiǎomī was undergoing the Great Memory Restoration Technique.

A week has passed since Time to Start Studying for the Qualifying Exams!. Nothing worth recording happened in between - or perhaps the Great Memory Restoration Technique failed to restore it.

This morning, Xiǎomī (小咪) completed his final qualifying exam.

• Electrodynamics: Of the five days since he began studying, Xiǎomī spent four concentrating on this exam, which made passing it a matter firmly in hand.

• Quantum Mechanics: Xiǎomī spent at least a little over one day preparing for this exam, and the material was somewhat less complicated besides, so this one posed no great problem either.

• Classical Mechanics: The most thrilling of the lot. In theory, this was the foundation of the other subjects; so long as one’s brain was functioning normally, one ought not fail it. Before this exam began, Xiǎomī had slept only three to four hours a night for three days running. Dazed with exhaustion, he decided to stop reviewing and simply sit the exam. The self-proclaimed examination specialist opened the paper - and was dumbfounded at once. He could not write a thing for the first problem. It was not that Xiǎomī had forgotten how to solve equations; he had forgotten how to set them up. The second problem looked somewhat easier, but when the stalled brain of Xiǎomī reached part (b), or perhaps (c), it could produce no answer. His brain began calculating whether what he had written could possibly amount to 30%; if not, he would be unable to pass. Yet as Xiǎomī continued, he managed, after much alarm but without disaster, to complete the second problem - which was also the final one - and, after much alarm but without disaster, obtained a final score above 60%.

• Statistical Physics: Xiǎomī was gloriously exempt.

Xiǎomī had finished the exams, and had gloriously passed them too (such was the eventual result). Next, he was to set out on a three-night journey by way of rewarding himself. For the particulars, see the food diary.