Why do many students in the library study hard for the postgraduate entrance examination, but most of them fail to pass the entrance examination?

When I opened Zhihu, this question popped up in the hot search list. My first reaction was:

Don't use "tactical diligence" to cover up "strategic laziness".

Postgraduate entrance examination is not only an exam, but also a choice.

The college entrance examination is almost based on grades. Scores are obtained first, and then volunteers are filled. Unless it is a special school, most of the time there is no interview. But the postgraduate entrance examination is different. Postgraduate entrance examination is to choose the goal first, and then prepare for the exam, so the sense of goal is stronger. Sometimes, the choice of the goal determines half of the success or failure.

Which school to choose, which major to choose, and whether there is a target tutor, you need to check it out yourself.

In fact, it is a targeted review, preparing for the exam.

In fact, it only took me 3 months to take the postgraduate entrance examination. Compared with most of the classmates who started to grab the library in March, I only got the idea of ​​taking the postgraduate entrance examination in September. However, I was indeed the one who passed the final exam.

I don't mean to brag here, I just want to share some ways of doing things that I discovered during the postgraduate entrance examination.

First, about the choice of schools, majors and mentors.

My undergraduate major is software engineering, which is a subdivision of computer science. Because I often participated in competitions during my sophomore and junior years, I had a good relationship with professional teachers.

I had an occasional opportunity to learn that the information security major is going to rise, and the pilot program will start from graduate students—yes, that year, there were no undergraduate students in the information security major, and even graduate students had not yet graduated. A school with such resources dares to open this major.

At that time, the teacher asked me if I was interested. I thought about it for a while and felt that it was indeed too "ordinary" to take the "software engineering" exam to find a job, and information security sounded very special and challenging, so I agreed.

In this way, I have determined the direction of my postgraduate entrance examination, and under the teacher's recommendation, I have met my future tutor in advance.

My situation is actually not an exception. When I met graduate students later, I learned that more than half of the people were "recommended" in this way.

It's just that there are people like me, who happened by chance, and some who took the initiative to create opportunities.

My roommate, Xiaoling, is a very smart person. She and her boyfriend were only second-degree students at the time, and they were majoring in the edge of computer science. They were interested in "information security" because of their job prospects.

Xiaoling told me that she wanted to join the bank, so she had been looking at the various recruitment information of the bank, and found this one in the position linked to the computer, and then looked at the schools and majors with this major, and found that it was very new, then It means opportunities, because there are not many people paying attention to things that are too new, so there is little competition pressure, not only for postgraduate entrance examinations, but also for job hunting later.

Moreover, she is a girl, even if she does not take a technical position in the future, there are many training and personnel management jobs in "information security", which is very suitable for her own development.

You see, this is also a method, the goal is very clear.

Definitely not rushing to "graduate students must be employed", but carefully "market research".

Second, use the right review method.

Once you've chosen your goals, it's time to review.

Many people feel that the postgraduate entrance examination is very hard, and the library must be lined up to grab a seat. I don't deny this, but if you don't choose the right "exam strategy", no matter how hard you study, it will be in vain.

As I mentioned earlier, it took me only three months to study by myself. Judging from the date, it is "three months", but judging from the review time, it is not necessarily less than the students who started to live in the library in March.

After I had the intention of taking the postgraduate entrance examination, I also did a few things.

First, determine the score of the written test and allocate the time invested in the review.

This is something that is overlooked by many people. After you have determined your major, it is easy to find the grades of previous years. This is a basic reference, which means that you need to allocate time in different subjects.

Let me give a simple example. Among the majors I took in the exam, mathematics scores were required to be high, and I focused on investing time; but last year's English score was 52 points.

Take another look at the English test paper, and you will find that: except for reading comprehension, it is no problem to get 50 points after completing multiple-choice questions and composition. For a 2-hour test, reading comprehension is the most time-consuming, the most difficult, and the least accurate.

Since I am going for grades, my review goal in English is very clear: to ensure high scores for questions other than reading comprehension.

The same is true when doing simulation training. I will do the basic questions, then write the essay directly, and then do reading comprehension with the rest of the time.

In the end, I still crossed the line with 60 points, a little higher than the expected 55 points.

The benefits of doing this are very obvious. First, it reduces the difficulty of the English test for me, and the pressure on my heart is also reduced; second, it saves the time invested in English subjects, and I can concentrate on reviewing mathematics. difficult.

Of course, in addition to English, politics also requires a lot of memory, so if you don't memorize words in the morning, you can use it to memorize politics.

Second, prepare review materials.

Since I started a lot late, many students who had bought materials and applied for classes gave up at this time, so I just asked my classmates, and I got some "gifted" materials and courses, and also cleared mines by the way. , and eliminated the data that generally reflect invalid data.

These are for public subjects, and for professional courses, it takes a little brains.

I found the course schedule of this major on the official website, and then went to the target school to find the contact information of the senior sister who just entered the first year of graduate school.

At this time, they are also new graduate students, and they are very willing to answer the inquiries of "junior" like me.

With my humility to ask for advice, not only did I share with me my experience of successful postgraduate entrance examinations, but also gave me some professional course materials that were not thrown away.

This made my review very focused, with few detours.

Two days before the exam, when I was familiar with the exam room and had to book a hotel room, these "future sisters" also helped me a lot.

Later, before I learned that I passed the exam and could prepare for the interview and re-examination, I went to the school to invite them to dinner, and learned about the research methods and characteristics of several teachers.

Therefore, rather than reading various postgraduate entrance examination suggestions online, it is better to go to your target college and get to know these "successful" people.

Learn from successful people, these experiences are what you need.

Third, adjust your work and rest.

In the month of the final sprint for the exam, there are not many students who are left to review together.

During this time, I strictly planned my schedule:

Get up at 6:00 every morning, go to the activity center in the dormitory building, and review the contents to be memorized such as English or politics;

Go to the cafeteria for breakfast at 7 o'clock, then go to the library at 8 o'clock.

Finished at 12 noon, after lunch, on the bench, rested for 20 minutes in a meditation-like manner. I would wear earphones and a blindfold, which I later used for exams.

Get up at 1:30 to go to the library, review until 2:30, rest for a while, and then from 3:00 to 5:30.

From 7pm to 11pm. Go to bed before 12 o'clock.

In this way, I persisted for a month without pulling a day, so that my schedule completely matched the rhythm of the exam, so that I would not feel too intense on the two days of the exam.

As a side benefit, it made me get into the habit of getting up early.

In the end, make a choice and walk with your head down.

The final time for postgraduate entrance examination is also the time when most people give up.

On the one hand, the review front is too long, and many people are tired;

On the other hand, there are too many students who are "looking for a job" who have received good news, making them feel that "it is not necessarily better to be admitted to graduate school", so their determination is shaken.

I prefer a sentence: look up at the road, then walk with your head down.

Choosing whether or not to take the postgraduate entrance examination is a process of seeing the road; the subsequent review is "walking with your head down". The two roads are not in the same direction, wandering back and forth, and in the end it is very likely that they are just standing still.