Welcome to the fifth issue of "Weekly Insights." This week's topic is "How to efficiently prepare for graduate school entrance exams?"
Topic: How to Efficiently Prepare for Graduate School Exams?
Recently, I found myself becoming increasingly lost while doing practice problems for the graduate school entrance exam math section. The further I progressed, the more problems I couldn't solve.
The reasons for not being able to solve problems come down to two things:
- Increased difficulty of problems
- Weak foundation
Last night, I stopped doing new practice problems and started reviewing the problems I had gotten wrong before. I also asked a high-achieving senior for advice.
Here are the senior's preparation tips. I also asked which problem set he was using. He said he hasn't started doing practice problems yet and is still solidifying his foundation. His progress: only probability theory left in math, while my progress: calculus up to definite integrals, with linear algebra and probability theory not yet started. I felt anxious and resolved to speed up my review pace starting tomorrow. Here's the advice the senior gave me.
But don't rush things too much either. Maintain your own pace and don't be influenced by others. Just because the senior is progressing faster doesn't mean I should rush through everything trying to catch up to his speed. Just make sure each day of review is fulfilling and you have no regrets.
During my conversation with the senior, I learned that he has a habit of exercising daily. I've neglected exercise for almost a year now – ever since the 2400-meter physical education test in my sophomore year, I haven't pushed myself to exercise consistently.
Exercise isn't my hobby. I used to treat it as leverage for high PE scores; now I view it as a way to release stress. As long as it's not raining, I aim to run 1000 meters every day. I wonder if you, the reader, have a habit of exercising daily. If not, try persisting for 21 days to make it a habit. You'll release stress while building a foundation for your health.
Quotes
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What we really want is more freedom for speech that benefits our interests, while hoping for less freedom for speech that doesn't benefit us. via
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Why waste time when you meet the right person? via
Link Sharing
Software designed for keyboard workers to memorize vocabulary and train English typing skills. It exercises both your typing ability and vocabulary – two birds with one stone. 😄
(My data from one round of vocabulary practice)
A website that helps you find "similar websites." For example, when I entered "4399.com" in the search box, the site listed many websites similar to 4399 Mini Games, with 7k7k Mini Games having the highest similarity.
✍️ I originally wanted to completely abandon the weekly newsletter and focus solely on exam preparation. But after thinking about it, I decided to continue with this issue. Since I spend about ten hours a day in the study room, I have plenty of time. Squeezing out 2-3 hours a week to complete the newsletter is more than enough.
✨ I believe in my efficiency, and I firmly believe that persisting with newsletter writing will make me fall in love with writing over time. Years from now, when I look back at my immature words, I think I'll be moved by my former self.