In this chapter, the narrator reflects on the eighteen years he has spent preparing for the entrance exam. He remembers only the effort he put in to excel in the memory section of the exam, and he can't recall anything else in his mind. The exam is over, and the family prepares for dinner. The narrator asks his father why he suddenly called. He tells his father that the high score on the previous exam has been lowered, and that the low scores have been raised. The father tells him that the inner-class students will be able to score 250 points, but that the students in the outer-class will only score 252 points. He says that the 260 points is a good result, but he wishes that he could have offered some words of comfort to his father instead of being so rational. He wonders how the students at the art studio could have the same scores to him. He thinks that two-thirds of the students' lives were spent on art. He asks if he could be a "standby in his father's life?"