He didn't have any advantages other than his imbalanced knowledge, so he decided to spend the next year cultivating diligently for as long as possible, if he wasn't wrong Xu Zhao Ting who had no advantage other than his Lightning element managed to get high scores and was second or third in the Annual exam and joined the Elite Class for the second year.
He was sure that the only reason Xu Zhao Ting outperformed the rest of the class was his hard work and since he knew Lightning element was as good as it got in the basic level he was very motivated for the future and since he knew how good light element could get he could replicate this guy and he just needed to not die by the hands of .. hands of well a hundred thousand things that could kill him now, preposterously he had to careful with civilians as well since Basic mages were quite fragile and Basic light mage was as bad as it got.
The Basic spell of the Light Element was neither offensive, defensive or even movement oriented, it was a blinding spell that had purifying effects in the higher level.
He also had establish good relationship with Mo Fan and Mu Bai. Mo Fan obviously because he was practically even more of a son of the plane than Wentai, and Mu Bai because the snobbish green tea man would change in the future and more importantly through him he had a good opportunity of a cheat in the backwater that was Bo City.
Thus he spent the entire year cultivating, learning other knowledge that he lacked like wilderness survival, monster beasts, plant life forms and simple common sense he couldn't know previously as a reader, while also becoming close to Mo Fan through Zhang Xiao Hou and Mu Bai through Zhao Kunsan.
Indeed peer recommendation is often important in situations like this and when Mo Fan and Mu Bai found that he was friends with the other he decisively betrayed the others thoughts like Mu Bai's considerations for Mu Ningxue and Mu Zhuoyun, Mo Fan's nickname for Mu Bai and such. During this time he also became friends with every other student in the class and often used the excuse that he was friends with every one to placate these lucky stars quite successfully.