The only objective metric given was a score, that is literally merit. In the simplistic example (necessarily so, that’s not a criticism of it) there is not muc

The only objective metric given was a score, that is literally merit. In the simplistic example (necessarily so, that’s not a criticism of it) there is not much more to go on. You can assign merit to doing homework on the bus etc, but the fact is that both those boys went into an exam at the end and one scored more than the other. I love an underdog but that doesn’t wipe away objectivity either.