
Man this sucks for her. I kinda feel like with proper preparation she could have handled the test better. It seems like she was just tossed into a class on the last week of school and expected to ace the test. Of course she would do badly. It's odd that the emperor didn't realize that that is what would happen. Now he's going to have to save her which would make the situation worse. What he should have done is had her tutored for a while until the test during the following year or semester or whatever. Not just toss her to the wolves.

exacly, she was able to avoid being last despite the tight scheduled! she had only 5 days worth of reading. no prior preparations. but she still avoided being last!
that school is a great school right? so everyone who gets in should have a good level of talent, thee guy who is angry is not much above her anyway. imagine being put in such a spot and still only be 'almost the last one', that is a win in my books lol. the emperor probably didn't expect her to do any good right now, she need time to study and catch up. he simple didn't calculate the pressure that would be when she get there. he probably only expected her to not break down in the first week due to some exams where she had no preparation. there is nothing to expect there, it is crazy if anyone who knows her background expect much from her without giving her time.

Sure she has self esteem issues and that plays into how she's handling the situation. But put the bog standard person in her shoes. Person A gets forced to enroll into a prestigious college or whatever a week before midterms... Yeah that's gonna either stress person A out or cause them to do nothing in protest. I guess the emperor is lucky hes the emperor? Otherwise he'd get a real talking to at the least for being overbearing.

what was he thinking, right? i would have broke down even more, one's talent has nothing to do with the result, even if her talents were differently, but being put in such spot, with no prior studies, it is simple too much. one will either break down due to not wanting to be there or by not understanding anything and being pressured too much (one can only be lost). idk, even him making her prisoner alone in a library would be better than this. but i still think giving her a private tutor wouldn't cost anything, don't he considers her talents amazing? taking in consideration her lacks of prior studies, giving her a private tutor, so she can 'catch up' and make good use of her talents would be the logical outcome of this. she is put in a school, can they even teacher her in a way that takes in consideration her rare talent? they aren't trained for that, schools are there for teaching in an average way that benefits 'the most'. for her, she needs something else more 'sculptured to her', something that can take more results out of her being different.
I like... I know what's gonna happen and morbid curiosity is making me read. Just so see if the writer will really pull the same trope.