“小镇做题家”指出身小城镇，埋头苦读，擅长应试的青年学子，通过高考实现了人生的进阶，却发现现实与理想差距甚大，即使靠多年苦读，也无法追平原生家庭和出身带来的巨大差距。
《经济学人》给出的翻译是：
“small-town swot”
这里“swot”作动词表示：
“只知道一味用功学习的书呆子”
科林斯双语解释：
If you call someone a swot, you disapprove of the fact that they study extremely hard and are not interested in other things.
In 2020 a student from the countryside took to social media to describe being “lost and confused” at university after leaving the “straightforward environment” of school, where passing tests was the focus.
2020 年，一位农村学生在社交媒体上发言称，自己在离开学校这个成绩至上的单纯环境后，变得迷茫无助。
More than 100,000 students, many with rural backgrounds, weighed in, sharing their own experiences of feeling like misfits and lamenting their job prospects. They coined a new term in Chinese: xiao zhen zuotijia, meaning “small-town swot”
超过 10 万名学生留言，分享自己如同社会边缘人般的经历，感叹工作前景黯淡。他们多数都出身农村，于是创造了一个新词——小镇做题家，指的是出身小城镇，只知埋头苦读的寒门学子。
