So everyone was busy cultivating for one reason or another. While they were doing this, information about them was collected from supervisors and lecturers in the lecture hall and collated by the personnel hall.
This information was mostly for the sect to keep track of the progress of their disciples and to spot talented people that the sect might have missed during the regional sect examination. But the information was also used to create things like the ranking list.
Six months went by like this, but there weren't many changes to the newbie ranking list. The only change to it was that the number of people on the list had increased greatly.
The people on the newbie ranking list had all reached the second mortal coil. How quickly they reached the second mortal coil determined their position on the list.