Physical Ability: Calculated based on evaluations from physical education classes, activity in clubs, and evaluations from special exams, etc.
Adaptability: Calculated based on your ability to adapt to society around you. This includes things such as how many friends you have, your position in your social circle and your communication skills, whether you can think on your feet, etc.
Societal Contribution: Calculated based on a variety of factors, such as your attitude in class, including any lateness or absences on your record, whether you’ve exhibited any problematic behavior, contributions made to the school via membership on the student council, etc.
Overall Ability: Student’s overall abilities are derived from the four values above. However, the effect that the Social Contribution score has on this calculation is reduced by half.
*Note: Method for calculating overall ability
(Academic Ability + Physical Ability + Adaptability + Social Contribution x 0.5) ÷ 350 x 100 (Rounded up to the nearest whole number)
I see. Based on the criteria, it made sense that my adaptability score would be lower than the others. And when it came to the number of friends I had and my communication skills, well, I wasn’t exactly flourishing there. If the other scores were evaluated based on what they typically saw from me, those numbers seemed reasonable, too. There were also fields for my scores for my second- and third-year evaluations in addition to my first year, but those were currently blank.
“Right now, only the scores for your first year are displayed. But now that you’ve begun your second year, your new evaluations will be given to you as they are assessed by the school, the scores being updated as time goes on. Scores will be updated at the beginning of the month, just like with Class Points. For example, Sudou, your current academic ability score is E. However, if you happened to get a perfect score on the next written exam, you would be given an A+ on your second-year evaluations page,” said Chabashira.
Which meant our second-year evaluations would be separate from the first-year evaluations. Our scores for this year would be evaluated based only on the events of this year. This also meant our scores over the course of the year were constantly being recorded. Even if Sudou got a perfect score in a written exam in April and got an A+ for his academic ability score, if he got a zero on the next written exam after that, he’d end up with a C rating.
That was how things would be over the course of the year. And then, our final average scores would be calculated at the end of the year. One of the things worth noting about this app was that we weren’t just able to check scores for our own class, but could look up the other classes, too. Up until this point, I couldn’t know anything about students I’d never interacted with unless I directly went out and gathered that information. But now, with only a glance, I could see names, faces, and what kind of scores someone had, regardless of what grade level they were in.
Incidentally, the data for the new first-year students seemed to be based on information from their third year of junior high and from their entrance exams. So, academic ability, physical ability, and societal contribution rankings aside, it was possible their current adaptability scores might not be all that accurate.
A handy tool for checking grades… Well, no. There was no way that was all there was to it. It was obvious this was going to play some kind of key role.
“I’m sure that the students who got rather unsatisfactory results aren’t thrilled about the idea of having their records retained like this. However, those students simply need to come to terms with the fact that they were the ones who spent their first year that way,” explained Chabashira.
Basically, the closer your precious academic and physical ability scores were to E, the more disgraced you would be.
“However, your first-year scores are nothing more than a past record. They will have no effect whatsoever on how you are assessed in the future, as second-year students. Which means it’s especially important that those of you who got disappointing results in your first year take this opportunity to reevaluate your priorities. By visualizing your scores this way, we’re hoping you’ll be encouraged to grow into your best selves,” she added.
I supposed that if our individual scores were going to be continuously recorded in an app that anyone could see from this point onward, many students would want to make an effort to make themselves look better. I was sure that would be effective to a certain degree when it came to prompting students to get their grades up, as Chabashira had said, but…
“Sensei, why is the evaluation metric for societal contribution a little bit different from the other three items, though?” asked Hirata Yousuke.
The effect of our societal contribution score on our overall ability score was half as much as the others. Hirata had his concerns about that, which was why he asked that question.
“Academic ability, physical ability, and adaptability. The school considers those three categories to be extremely important. Societal contribution, on the other hand, is a little different,” said Chabashira. “It is fundamentally based on ‘morals’ and ‘manners.’ It’s an assessment of how you conduct yourselves as students, examined from every possible angle. Things like how influential your voice is in a group, or how often you’re correct. Things like how you talk to and behave in front of your teachers, and whether you have any tardy arrivals or absences on your record. Whether or not you comply with various rules. Because these are basic skills and common courtesies you should naturally be striving toward anyway, their impact on your overall ability score is reduced.”
So unlike the other three categories, which you couldn’t dramatically improve overnight, we could greatly improve our societal contribution scores if we changed our attitudes from this day onward. That was the difference.
“This app is impartial. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a higher or lower-level class. Everyone is assessed similarly. Right now, if a student has a high overall ability evaluation, it’s safe to assume that person has successfully achieved something worthy of praise.”
The list was arranged in order by name, but there was a ‘sort’ feature, too. So I didn’t need to look at each student one by one to know who had the highest overall ability scores in Class 2-D. After trying out the sort function, I saw Yousuke had the top score.
2-D Hirata Yousuke
First Year Results
Academic Ability: B+ (76)
Physical Ability: B+ (79)
Adaptability: B (75)
Societal Contribution: A- (85)
Overall Ability: B+ (78)
You could understand Yousuke’s excellence with just one glance at his scores. These scores were nothing to scoff at. He was above average in every area. If he hadn’t openly exposed the weakness in his heart towards the end of our first year, his scores might have even been a little higher.
On the other hand, after choosing to sort students in descending order of overall ability, I saw Ike held the number one spot. His overall ability score was 37. He was actually tied with Sakura Airi, who also had an overall ability score of 37.
Sudou, who was considered by many to be the most likely candidate for the lowest score, actually appeared to have scored better than several students.
2-D Sudou Ken
First Year Results
Academic Ability: E+ (20)
Physical Ability: A+ (96)
Adaptability: D+ (40)
Societal Contribution: E+ (19)
Overall Ability: C (47)
His academic ability and societal contribution scores were quite low, thanks in part to his unruly behavior in the first year. However, his high physical ability assessment was enough to compensate for that, letting him avoid being the worst-ranked student. I did a little digging in the app and found he was the only student in our grade level that had gotten an A+ assessment in the physical ability category.
Sudou’s academic ability had improved since he had started school here, and he’d also been demonstrating mental and emotional growth. It seemed likely his scores would greatly improve from this year onward.
“Also, though this has nothing directly to do with Class D, a certain exception has been made for someone in your grade level. Sakayanagi Arisu, from Class 2-A, will have her physical ability score set at the same value as the student with the lowest score in the grade level,” explained Chabashira.
Sakayanagi Arisu had a physical disability that required her to use a cane to walk around normally. Meaning, even if she wanted to exercise, it wasn’t something she could really do. I supposed it wasn’t like they could entirely omit her physical ability score and still calculate her overall score, so it was a reasonable decision to place her at the bottom of the rankings.
At any rate, this tool for visualizing abilities might be considered essential to implementing the true meritocracy Nagumo had been advocating for.
“I’m sure this app will serve as a valuable tool, not just in getting you to change the way you see your grades, but also by getting you to interact with your fellow students, since you’ll be able to familiarize yourself with their names and faces regardless of grade level. However… Well, in my opinion, that’s not all. This is just my personal speculation, but… I’m thinking students who fail to keep their overall ability score above a certain level may be hit with a certain penalty, or something to that effect,” said Chabashira.
“Penalty… Wait, you couldn’t mean expulsion, do you…?”
“That is a possibility. But, as I just said, that’s just my personal speculation. It may not be true. Still, I think it’s fair to assume that the closer your overall ability score is to E, the greater the risks you face,” said Chabashira.
At this current point in time, Ike and Airi had the worst scores in class, with an overall ability score close to E. If they spent this year like they had the last one, they’d be in imminent danger.