if i recall correctly, the biggest perk of passing the kobayashi maru test is being promoted to ensign. nobody have ever passed it before as it has no winnable situation. kirk "cheated", although it is within parameters, but not apparent yet during the trial. while the trial is still pending due to the attack by nero, he was promoted to first officer by captain pike. with the absence of captain pike and spock out of commission, he was the acting captain for a brief period of time where he excelled.
yes, this version of kirk excelled much faster than the original kirk.
by the way, this film does have its scientific merits, it's just not embedded in the movie. i've just bought the 4 issue comic miniseries, and it does give u a more detailed idea of what's going on, where and how certain things came the way it is. if u're interested:
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issue #1
in the future, ambassador spock uncovered an inevitable phenomena on the hobus star. it was going supernova. during its expansion, it will consume romulus, the home planet of romulans, and eventually remus (home of remans) and vulcan. he presented this to the romulan council, but was rejected. his idea that the romulans request assistance from vulcan technology was considered preposterous. nero, representing the mining guild, expressed concerns on the councils ignorance and tried to convince them to listen to spock. but he too failed.
nero and spock joined forces to try to find a way to stop the star from going supernova. nero's motivation is to save his wife and his unborn child. spock agreed to go behind the council. during the discussions, they came under attack by the remans. however the enterprise led by captain data managed to save the day.
issue #2
after defeating the remans, spock and nero discussed their plan to data. data representing the federation agreed to assist. they traveled to vulcan homeworld and were reunited with ambassador picard. they tried to convince the vulcan high council to lend the technology to assist romulans, but they were reluctant. feeling rejected, nero decided to go back to his home planet. before he left, he left spock and the federation with enough decalithium to create red matter, a powerful substance that could create an artificial blackhole.
meanwhile, romulan's imperial science council eventually found out that spock was telling the truth and his findings was grounded. however, they only had several weeks to save their planet. they now believe that the vulcans possess a technology that could assist them, but in light of the recent tension between the two cultures, the romulans prefer to use military might and acquire the technology force. so they started to assemble their forces.
back on the narada, nero's standard mining ship, nero was very concerned about his family. he fears for their safety. however, as he arrives on romulus, he was just in time to see his home planet devoured by the supernova.
issue #3
nero and his crew were consumed by grief. a while later, several federation ship approached the narada offering assistance. they have been there to assist the evacuation of the home planet. grief turning into anger, nero destroyed the federation ships for failing to assist the entire population. the narada was then approached by a shuttle housing the romulan high council. when they beamed aboard, nero killed them for failing to acknowledge spock's initial findings. he interrogated the rest of the survivors and acquired access to a secret military base. during this time nero and his crew shaved their heads and painted tattoos on their heads as a sign of love and loss.
on vulcan, spock and picard finally convinced the reluctant vulcan high council to lend the technology. they managed to synthesize decalithiums into red matter, and proposed using the jellyfish as the best ship to house it. engineer laforge, the designer of the jellyfish, came back to lend a hand at modifying it for the mission. during this time, picard and spock got wind of nero's wrath on the federation ship and the romulan high council and feared the worst.
meanwhile, the narada arrived at the vault, the secret romulan military base. nero announced they are now a representative of what's left of the romulan high council. commander d'spal, incharge of the vault, agreed to upgrade the narada with a borg-romulan technology. this in turn makes the ship immensely larger, more powerful, with advanced cloaking device and destructive weapons. it is now the pride of romulan military technology. suddenly the narada came under attack by a fleet of klingon warbirds led by general worf, intend to find out what the romulans are doing in klingon space.
issue #4
the fleet of warbirds were defeated single handedly by the narada. nero summoned general worf from the disabled warbirds. however, being klingon, worf and his men did not intend on surrendering. they attempted to board the narada with a small landing party. however, nero was cunning and launched a surprise attack on worf. worf was impaled and suffer critical injury and his men defeated.
back on vulcan, laforge finished the modifications on the jellyfish. although at first he planned to deliver the red matter into the hobus star himself, spock convinced him otherwise. so spock proceeded with the mission to destroy the star, while picard and the enterprise went to stop the rampaging nero.
they came out of warp into a field of debris of klingon warbirds. nero hailed them, enticing them to save the critically injured worf. his cunning plan almost worked, but he underestimated the strength of the enterprise. the enterprise was damaged and their warp drives disabled. nero then proceeded to find spock, the next item on his revenge list, leaving enterprise to lick its wounds.
near hobus star, spock launched the red matter into the star. it created a miniature blackhole that consumes the star. he tried to leave the area when the narada warped in. realizing that spock managed to save planet vulcan, it made nero even more furious. the loss of romulus was even more painful. however, the crew realized they were too close into the event horizon of the blackhole. nero could not exert his vengeance, but swore he would find spock and make him pay. the narada vanished into the blackhole. the interference distracted spock's escape. the jellyfish too was consumed by the blackhole.
the enterprise, having recovered its warp capabilities, were too late to save spock. spock, nero and his crew were presumed dead.

kirk didnt actually pass it however and was put on suspension. but yes the chain of command seemed non-existant. pike decision to promote kirk from nothing to something. command was passed to so many people so many times...
Okay now it starts to make some sense... I will need to read this comic mini series.