system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Trek 2009] During the Star Fleet Captain's test, how did Kirk cheat?

I didnt watch any of the original movies, so was it explained then?
gpt
Wrath of Khan basically just tells the broad strokes of what the 2009 movie portrayed - that Kirk somehow modified the simulation to make it winnable.

The novel "The Kobayashi Maru" (published 1989) tells a different story of how Kirk won the scenario. In this telling of events, Kirk reprogrammed the scenario so his adversaries recognized him as a famous and respected commander, allowing him to bluff them into standing down and offering assistance (so basically, he turned himself into future-Captain Kirk).

Interestingly, the book also tells a story of Montgomery Scott beating the test. He exploited bugs in the simulation that made an attack far more effective during the test than it would be in reality. He did this knowing full well it would only work in the simulation so he'd be "forced" out of Command School (which his family pressured him into) into Engineering.

Chekov activated his ship's self-destruct to take out the enemy ships with him, killing his entire crew in the process (he'd launched escape pods, but they wouldn't have escaped the explosions of the 4 ships). Sulu elected not to attempt rescue of the freighter due to the slim odds of success.