44 — The gift I gave him

This second stage was very similar to the first. The fifty-six people were split into groups again, and this time I'm in group C with Kevin. But that's not a good thing, as the second stage is an elimination one.

There was a test of ten questions more difficult than the previous one. In each room, there was a giant timer that stopped every time a candidate finished the test. So to pass, you not only need to finish the test in the allotted time (one hour) and before ten other people, but also achieve the minimum score.

It's really quite a tough contest, even for me, who is used to pressure and complex equations like that. Still, I wasn't the first in my group — it was a guy called Alfred Johnson, who finished in a surprising fifteen minutes and got all the questions right. I confess that I felt slightly intimidated, especially when his eyes were on me several times.

The second to finish was Kevin, with twenty-one minutes, and also all the questions correct. I was happy for him, of cour