These days are the time for the college entrance examination, and it reminds me of a few years ago when I took the exam. Back then, I was still too young, thinking that if I had something I wanted to pursue, I should go for it, wasting a lot of time learning programming. But looking back now, it’s important to study hard in high school, as a degree is indeed a threshold for just graduating.
In one’s position, one should consider the matter at hand. I used to think that the high school curriculum was not very meaningful, as I would not be working in industries like chemistry or biology in the future. However, it turns out that the significance of the college entrance examination is to provide you with a general direction; almost all majors are developed based on high school knowledge, and the degree of relevance depends on the specifics of the major.
In fact, teachers in high school often say that now you shouldn’t relax because once you get to college, you can play and relax as much as you want. This is far from the truth; it’s just a motivational tactic used by high school teachers, but it’s completely incorrect.
High school teachers often claim that the college entrance examination is the most important test in life. However, that’s not entirely true; the college entrance examination is just an interlude in life. It is not the only path to change your fate; learning is. Therefore, you should always insist on learning.
When choosing a major in college, you must select something you like or are interested in; otherwise, you will feel very frustrated in college. If you don’t like the major, you may not have any interest in the school curriculum and won’t want to delve deeper into the subject. Interest is an important catalyst for learning knowledge diligently.
The college entrance examination is not the end; on the contrary, it is merely a higher starting point or a lower starting point. Because you need to choose the industry you want to work in the future and start learning professional knowledge from scratch. Although it is said that college is very relaxed, this is relative; there is indeed a lot of free time in college compared to high school, but the targets you face require different time commitments. The goal of the college entrance examination is extremely clear—score high. But college is no longer like that.
As for college courses—from the perspective of computer science—the knowledge taught by schools is very inadequate. Moreover, the goals will not be as clear as in high school, because from an employment standpoint, there are many directions you can choose from, and each direction requires different knowledge. Therefore, there will no longer be teachers clearly guiding you on what you should or shouldn’t do; it all depends on you. So when selecting your major, make sure to choose something you are genuinely interested in; otherwise, relying solely on the constraint of “this is my major in college” will not reach the heights of interest-driven learning.
Many people, when filling out their college applications, only look at the names of the majors and then roughly search what this industry does before applying. This is a major misconception. It is also the biggest flaw in the college entrance examination system—you have no idea what the major you applied for specifically entails, so interest becomes a nonissue. This is quite awkward, as no one in high school ever popularized or taught anything related to university majors. Without a target, you can only rely on family and friends’ suggestions or make guesses based on “XX Engineering” and search engines.
When I filled out my application, I chose all CS (Computer Science) majors and didn’t want to switch. I thought that even though I did poorly on the exam, I had to study computer science because I had no interest in other majors. It was better not to study something I disliked at all (don’t follow my example here).
After the college entrance examination, the differences in scores among high school classmates will gradually be overtaken by other factors. So it’s essential to keep the right mindset. Don’t treat the college entrance examination as the end, but just the beginning. The real disparity among classmates will emerge in college.
In college, you must have a good career plan. However, this also falls into a cycle: if you are not familiar with aspects of your university major, planning becomes impossible. But planning is extremely important; this doesn’t need to be urgent for those who are just about to enter university. Having a feasible plan by the end of your sophomore year is sufficient.
After leaving college, you’ll find that you learned too little. From a CS perspective, if you rely solely on the curriculum taught by the school to learn step by step, what you grasp is merely the tip of the iceberg—it’s just a glimpse. The arrangement of university courses is unscientific and represents a very inefficient approach. Once you can clarify your direction, you can spend more time and focus on self-studying while ensuring you don’t fail any courses.
In college, teachers’ words are no longer absolute authority; you need to have your own judgment. Because today’s universities are severely bureaucratized, some teachers strictly control attendance to ensure class participation rates. In fact, some courses are not particularly useful—I’m referring to courses like Ideological and Political Education and Moral Education. Therefore, you need to make your own judgments; you’re in college now, not a child anymore. Don’t treat college as just another high school, and don’t consider yourself a giant baby.
Choose a direction, continue learning diligently without fear of monotony, and don’t waste your college years. Don’t let college become just a new place to play games.
In the end, persist, work hard, learn, and let us encourage each other.
