Because some part of me has always wanted to write an ordinary boy meets girl story.

There will therefore be zero reference to real life. Also, you will have to join me in pretending that Ga In is the same age as Kwon. (It’s too difficult to write otherwise (and I can forget about all that respecting your seniors that comes with Korean culture. Not that I bother very much to start with, but yes :>). I will use Western ages, since I can’t wrap my head around Korean ones.

This aims to be a funny and fluffy fic about ordinary students from the gifted programme. Hence the title, because one is intelligent amongst the similarly intelligent. So you become just ordinary.

It’s very difficult to find literature on Korean gifted programmes in English. It appears that there are multiple entry points and many different variations of gifted programmes in Korea. The names of their programmes are somewhat similar when translated into English, so I can’t actually tell what is what.

Either way, for what I speak of, admission is through a series of tests in grade 3. The cut off is generally top 1-2% of students, and grade 3 is the only entry point. These gifted schools exclusively house gifted students all the way from grade 4 to 12. These gifted schools, I believe there are only a handful, take in Koreans regardless of background and which part of Korea you come from. However, the schools in Korea’s big cities. If you live more than a daily commute away from the gifted school, they provide accommodation in school.

There is a reduced emphasis on rote learning and repetitive drilling, trading that in favour of some degree of independent learning beyond the curriculum, critical and creative thinking. Students will be stretched with much more challenging content and learn things that are beyond the curriculum. The school has a fair bit of authority in deciding what to cover beyond the standard national curriculum, and teachers are also specially trained.

Students are dismissed at 3pm instead of the normal 8-9pm in normal schools—the mandatory self study after classes is done away with.

There are occasional reevaluations, which assess your ability to stay within the gifted programme. However, these are generally very doable as long as you are not completely slacking off in school. They have exceedingly high passing rates.

In terms of qualifying for universities, generally, they are assessed on national examinations and receive no preferential treatment. Maybe unless you win some International Olympiad, are an idol, or your father is overrun with cash. (This applies just about anywhere though.) Yes, you can look at it that you are learning lots of extra nonsense for nothing, since eventually the test that determines your fate is the national examination.

It is generally viewed as an honour to qualify. However, gifted schools are looked down upon as they do have a negative reputation of being ‘slack’—due to the reduced emphasis on rote learning, drilling and mandatory self study. Which is probably why such an elitist concept of an exclusive gifted school still stands without major backlash in Korea.

As such, the gifted schools are never fully enrolled, because the number of students who qualify is much greater than the number of students who eventually take the offer. The other part of the reason is if one is gifted but you live far away from the school, it’s a bit much to ask a child of 9-10 years old to live apart from their parents.

One thing about the gifted enrollment. Typically, there will be more boys than girls who make the cut. This is just about universal, especially if they’re testing at a young age, with some degree of focus on Mathematics or Logic. Academics debate endlessly if this is because boys are inherently better at critical thinking and logic, or if it’s because of the entrenched gender roles. How skewed the gender balance can vary very wildly, but barring exceptional circumstances, boys will always outnumber girls.

Most of the time, the girls will adapt to be more outspoken, confident and participative. Nope, gifted education is not the place to be looking for trophy wives. However, this is not a fic about gender equality.

A huge part of the reason why I’m writing this is because the Korean gifted programme sounds so appealing. It genuinely sounds like somewhere I would really like to be. It sounds like so much fun! I wish there was a similar programme where I live! :3 I would completely lust for it :> 

To be honest, this is off the fly, and I don’t even know how the first chapter is going to look like. Much less how it's going to end. I don’t even know who my characters are going to be aside from Kwon and Ga In. I don’t know if I’m going to be writing in first person or not. 

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Mid 1997

“Are you going to sit for the gifted test?” Gyuri asks as she sits down. She is the first person from class to ever approach me regarding the gifted programme.

“Yup. Are you?”

“Mummy wants me to sit for it…” she just lets the sentence hang there.

“So do you want to sit for it?”

“I don’t know. Will you go if you get in?” she throws the question back at me.

“I don’t even think I can get in.” I heard that only the top one to two percent of people get in.

“That’s why! We sit for enough tests already. It’s so tiring to have to sit for a test on a Saturday.”
“At least it doesn’t count. So I’ll treat it like a game.”

“Still my Saturday morning gone!”

“Do you want to get in?”

“Not really? I don’t know. It’s nice here.” for sure it is good. Gyuri is really popular among classmates, and she gets very high marks for the exams.