"College students" village officials "who have completed their employment and taken the postgraduate entrance examination within three years enjoy the preferential policy of adding 10 to the total score of the initial examination, and are given priority in admission under the same conditions." this

Wan Xue Wen hai

foreword

More than a year of intensive review for postgraduate entrance examination finally passed, and I was lucky enough to be admitted to K University in J city. I think it may be necessary to share some of my experiences with you, one is out of gratitude, and the other is to contribute to the development of history. I mainly want to write down some of my experiences, and I don't expect to teach people to fish.

Here I briefly introduce myself. I am a student of 2 1 1 in an ordinary university in W City, H Province. My major is computer science. Fortunately, I was admitted to the School of History of K University in J City, with the direction of American history. The total score of the initial test is 330, including English 6 1, politics 69 and specialized courses 200.

First, the origin of the postgraduate entrance examination

1. 1 embarked on the road of postgraduate entrance examination.

I think if asked "why do you want to study history" in the second interview, most people will say "I have loved history since I was a child". So do I, but I'm not sure. In fact, before college, I had almost the same strong interest in all subjects, whether it was physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry or literature, philosophy, history and geography. If you must point out what you were most interested in at that time, it would probably be geography. I learned the map of the world by heart when I was in primary school. It was not until high school that I was more interested in history than geography, but this was mainly because historical masterpieces were more accessible than geographical masterpieces.

When I was a sophomore, I was divided into arts and sciences, and I chose science. In this process, family pressure played a great role, but I also made obvious mistakes myself. Although my scores in history and geography were often close to full marks at that time, my scores in science were not inferior. I have a simple hobby for all subjects. I think I can learn every subject well, so I finally have to make a decision with coins. Maybe I really didn't know myself at that time. I don't know that a choice may decide my life. Just like the butterfly effect, small differences in initial conditions may lead to different results.

Later, I entered Z University in H City, W Province, majoring in computer science. This is not my first choice. In fact, my first choice is the best major in the school, and I am very interested in it. The choice of computer is just a safety net I designed when I filled in my volunteers: since I can't learn the best, I have to learn the hottest-for future employment. Later, it proved that I also had a strong interest in computer major, and my grades were above average, but unfortunately, I paid more attention to theory, especially to the speculation of computer philosophy or culture. This is a disaster for computer learning that emphasizes practice. However, the bigger tragedy is that in the computer department, history is more attractive to me, and for me, it seems that being unable to do what I like best almost means pain.

When I first went to college, history seemed to have risen to my greatest hobby. I remember that shortly after I entered school, I declared that I wanted to study history in the future. Unfortunately, this ambition was forgotten in the following year and a half. Only at the end of the second semester of Senior Two, classmate L suddenly asked me if I still wanted to study history. I was really at a loss. At that time, although I didn't lose my keen interest in history, I no longer remembered my "rhetoric". Later, I told my classmate Y about it, and she encouraged me to keep my personality and go my own way. I think if they hadn't reminded me and encouraged me, I probably wouldn't have succeeded today. Since then, I have embarked on the road of history examination.

1.2 My University

Here I want to briefly talk about my Z University. This is a distinctive ordinary 2 1 1 university, so that most of her students are distressed by it. Fortunately, I never seem to mind. The campus of Z University is very large and beautiful, which may be the biggest feature of major universities in W city. This is so important to me. Only in this way, I won't feel depressed and restrained, and I can fully develop my hobby of riding. I don't like other departments of Z University very much, but only her library has always been grateful to me. Its service is really good, which has provided a lot of help for my postgraduate entrance examination.

Second, the initial test preparation

2. 1 postgraduate entrance examination objectives

2. 1. 1 maximum target

After I decided to take the inter-major exam, I set two goals: high and low. Although it was adjusted later, it changed little overall. I think that people who have made achievements in history should take Sima Qian's famous saying that "when studying heaven and man, we can change the past and present and become a unified statement" as the highest realm pursued by historians. I also regard it as my highest goal. I want to study history for at least two reasons: one is my interest, and the other is my expectation of success. Both are almost indispensable. Needless to say the first one. But if I am just interested, maybe I can stick to it, but I will never be satisfied with myself. I make no secret of my desire for success, and I don't want to live a mediocre life. I believe there are three kinds of people who expect success: love power, love money and love fame.

I don't care about the first two, but I'm almost hysterical about the last one. I hope I can be known to future generations, as the great mathematician Cauchy said before he died, "People leave, but their achievements remain" (original words: "People leave, but their achievements are immortal." ). This pursuit also makes my present achievements insignificant. At this point, my fear is even greater than my joy. I don't know where I will be in three years or even in my life. If I have studied for three years or more and still have no achievements, then everything I have gained before will be worthless and I will be very painful. Of course, I am also very clear that this is no longer the era of heroes. The greatest historians in modern times, such as Frank and Braudel, are far less famous than Sima Qian and Herodotus, and history is no longer a prominent school in those days. However, I am by no means completely utilitarian. After all, I can only live by interest.

So since you have chosen, you must stick to it, no matter what your fate. I have paid a lot for these pursuits, but I will never complain. Just like those great names, such as Galois, Van Gogh, Mozart and so on. I admire their amazing talents and sympathize with their tragic experiences, but I never think we should be indignant at their unfortunate lives because those misfortunes are so insignificant compared with their achievements and fame!

2. 1.2 Apply for the school

Of course, the above-mentioned highest goal is distant and vague. After all, first of all, I have to step into the threshold of history and give an explanation to the people around me (at least economically). As ernesto guevara said, "Let's face reality and be loyal to our ideals." At first, I only let two or three people know my decision, otherwise it is likely to cause an uproar among people who care about me. Of course, I don't mean to deceive others, just try to keep a low profile. I know I have to convince them with the results-in most cases, the results are far more important than the process. So I chose J University at first because of its undisputed (at least in the eyes of most people) fame and strength.

I have always been full of confidence in this goal, although my background and strength seem very thin. But in September, I found that the school's admissions brochure seemed to clearly require the submission of papers. I don't know how strict this requirement is, but I was in no mood to prepare a satisfactory paper at that time. After much hesitation, I finally signed up and changed my target to K University. Actually, K University is my first choice. It is said that her historical strength is second only to J University, and her reputation is good. I think this university may also be able to convince people around me. Now I don't regret this decision. Although it seems that I may have the strength to be admitted to J University, the risk of doing so is obviously too great. While setting the goal as high as possible, I must make sure that I can pass the exam, because failure almost means that I have gained nothing in these four years (although my computer major is OK, I have insufficient practical ability because I spent a lot of spare time in postgraduate entrance examination), and even now I feel scared at the thought of the possibility of failure.

2. 1.3 research direction

As for the research direction, I chose American history. In fact, I have almost the same interest in every branch of history. Even the historical theory and historical geography that most people avoid, I like it very much. I finally chose American history, mainly to see the outside world. Of course, American influence is also an important reason. In fact, my initial choice is the process of world modernization, because I think this direction is very realistic. Unfortunately, there is no such option in the admissions brochure, and I don't want to choose modern world history, because I think it is a hodgepodge. Of course, I know that studying world history in China is extremely expensive. Lack of historical materials, language barriers, cultural barriers and so on are all great difficulties. More seriously, the status of world history in the history of Chinese historiography seems to be very low, and there are few famous scholars. Our generation may continue to do basic work. Now I even want to turn around. I suddenly found it very valuable to study the modern history of China (from the late Ming Dynasty to the present). On the one hand, this direction is rich in literature, easy to use, realistic and high in success rate; On the other hand, China seems to be more and more open, and the possibility of further separation between history and politics is increasing. But I wonder if the school will allow it in the future. Obviously, it is almost impossible to study two fields at the same time. Of course, I also know that persistence and singleness are the key to academic work. So I think it is too important to choose carefully, which may decide your life.

2. 1.4 score expectation

In addition to the school and research direction, I also looked forward to my own achievements. When I decided to take the postgraduate entrance examination, I downloaded the outline and real questions from the Internet. I find these not difficult for me. After reading 1 1 for the first time, that is, in March of the following year, I did the real questions of English and specialized courses (only roughly, of course). At this time, I set my score as 400, including 75 in politics and English and 250 in specialized courses. Later, I refined these scores according to the actual situation of review. English: Cloze errors should not exceed 2 points, total errors in reading comprehension and new questions should not exceed 8 points, translation errors should not exceed 3 points, and composition scores should not exceed 12 points. Politics: single choice cannot exceed 2 points, and multiple choices cannot exceed 6 points. It is not allowed to recite the analysis questions without understanding them. Specialized course: Multiple choice questions are at most 2 mistakes (4 points). Noun explanations, analytical questions and short answer questions should not be completely unfamiliar, and the answers should be as comprehensive as possible. I never doubted these goals before the initial test, because my usual practice gave me enough confidence. As at the beginning, it seems that these scores are not out of reach now.

2. 1.5 target evaluation

Of course, when I set these seemingly high goals, my heart is not completely without hesitation. But three factors kept me going. One is a firm belief, because I must be admitted, not casually. The second is your own ability. Because I don't have an ordinary reference (relative to a master's degree) (no one around me, maybe the whole school takes a history exam), it's difficult to judge what level I am at. The only contrast is the research friends and seniors on the forum. By September, I felt that I had surpassed the vast majority of people who took the postgraduate entrance examination on the forum. Seeing the experience of a senior admitted to Nanjing University in June+10, 5438, I even felt that I had the ability to be admitted to that school. Although I have been deeply worried about my true level, fortunately, it has hardly affected my determination and review plan. The third is diligence. It's not difficult for me, and fortunately, history doesn't need talent to get started like mathematics or philosophy. Maybe I don't have enough talent, but I am confident that I can make up for it through diligence.

In the process of achieving the above goals, I never intend to give up learning computers. Although I am determined to burn my bridges (not take action), I will never put all my eggs in one basket. Because I feel emotionally idealistic, but intellectually extremely realistic; I don't allow emotion to be confused with reason. Of course, the desire to bet at both ends has not been fully realized. After all, I am far from Leonardo da Vinci or Leibniz.

2.2 Daily arrangement

First of all, talk about some of my personality characteristics. I think my character is very similar to the Puritans written by Max Weber. Rationality, firmness, efficiency and diligence are all qualities that I value very much. I think that labor and creation are far more important than enjoyment, and I tend to be ascetic; Some people may think it's stupid, but I don't think it's just different values. So the experience of the past year or so is not a challenge for me.

In principle, my effective study time every day is not less than 14 hours: I get up before 6 o'clock every day (I get up at 5: 30 in May-September) and go to bed at 23 o'clock in the evening, so I have at least 14 hours of study time except for an hour of eating and a half-hour nap. The third grade has a heavy study burden and little free time. On average, it may only be six hours a day. I have completed all the elective courses for my junior and senior computer majors ahead of schedule, so I can guarantee to study 14 hours every day after July.

Only review English and specialized courses before September. Memorize English words from 6: 00 to 8: 00 (arrive at the study room at 6: 30, and the actual effective time is less than one and a half hours). From 8: 00 to 14, I spent all my time reviewing history (including lunch and nap), and from 18 to 2008, I spent all my time reviewing English (including dinner). Reviewing a course for a long time usually doesn't make me feel tired. I don't like constantly changing goals.

I joined the political review in September, but I don't want to spend too much time on it at all, so I spend two hours from 8 am to 10 every day. In fact, I have spent no more than one and a half hours on politics every day in the last two months. From June165438+1October, I only used spare time to review words. I gave an English composition half an hour before 7: 00, recited important historical knowledge points from 7: 00 to 8: 00 (later, because of the temperature, my homework was moved to noon), and then I recited 1 hour politics. By the beginning of February of 12, I finally handed over the two hours I spent on historical classics every night to a professional class for review.

So in many cases, professional courses account for almost half of the time, English accounts for 5 hours, and politics takes less than 2 hours. The reason for this arrangement is that I think the professional courses have the strongest scoring ability, the English level is slow to improve, and the scores between people are not much different. I have always thought that my English is not bad (exam results are another problem), but I still spent a lot of energy in order to get more than 75 points (I think this will increase the bargaining chip for the second interview, after all, I have to learn world history). As for politics, I find it very simple and extremely boring. Understanding is not a problem, just memorize it, so I don't want to give more for a minute. I may end up spending less than 250 hours on it.

Now it seems that the above arrangement is basically effective, but I don't know if it is efficient. I spent a lot of time on history and English, and finally learned a lot of substantive things. As for politics, I just want to deal with it. In addition, I can say that my perseverance is very strong. Getting up early is my strong point. Four years in college, I certainly haven't slept for a few days. It seems that I haven't relaxed all day. I haven't been out of school for 40 days from National Day to registration. The weather in W City seems to be a severe challenge for most people. It is very hot here in summer, and it will exceed 35 degrees almost every day for three or four months. What's more, there is no air conditioning in most places, and electric fans can hardly play any role. Winter often drops below zero, and there is no heating in most places. The study room is like an ice room. But I seem to bear it easily. I spent the whole summer vacation in the simplest (and probably the most suitable) study room of the school. I almost sweated in the morning, so that I didn't dare to move when sitting, and the paper on my notebook was soaked with sweat. It's warm in winter, but it's still uncomfortable in June 5438+February, especially after sitting for a long time. I didn't write this to show how good I am. On the contrary, I think this test is really insignificant compared with the ancients.

2.3 Initial test book

Like review and exams, the principle of choosing counseling books is "be greedy and don't donate more", and I spare no effort to collect counseling books for professional courses. This is mainly for fear of missing knowledge points and insufficient training. Although my energy can cope with this pile of books, it seems inefficient and wastes a lot of money. There are many colleges and bookstores in W city, so most of my counseling books are bought locally, and a few are from online bookstores. I only judge the books I use according to my feelings, but I can't judge whether they are better or the best.

2.3. 1 Specialized course textbooks

The specialized course textbooks I used were mainly the so-called 1 1, and I didn't buy any specialized course notes.

1. World History, six volumes, second edition, Qi Higher Education Press.

My review of world history depends almost entirely on this set of books. As far as I know, most research friends are using it. But it doesn't seem to cover all the test sites, such as the Dreyfus incident in the real question in 2008. Some people say that it is too detailed to remember and grasp as a whole, but in my opinion, this is not a problem. I think I have a very clear impression after reading it twice. Maybe I have a good memory, and I can remember the exact dates of almost all events. I have read every word in the book, even China, rest in peace, ancient Africa. I focused on ancient Greece, Rome, Christianity, medieval Europe and modern powers, but I didn't completely ignore other aspects, at least I won't worry when I take the exam.

2. The Ancient History of China is a new edition of Zhu Shaohou's Fujian People's Publishing House.

These two books seem to be detailed, but they can't cover all the knowledge points. For example, the book The Battle of Yiling in 2007 is The Battle of Xiaoting.

3. Modern History of China, 4th edition, Zhonghua Book Company, Li Kan.

Very good textbook of modern history of China, very comprehensive.

4. Modern History of China, 2nd Edition, Wang Qilin Higher Education Press.

The evaluation is the same as the last book. However, these books are boring, and I look very painful anyway.

5 "China people * * * and national history"

I have only browsed once, and the content is similar to the second volume of Modern History of China.

6. Modern World History Liu Zongxu Beijing Normal University Press

7. Modern World History, Zhang Jianhua Beijing Normal University Press.

The above two books are well compiled. I bought the original just to make up six copies, and finally I only browsed the previous one, which wasted a lot of money.

2.4 Preparation of all subjects

First of all, I emphasize that one of the important principles of my review is "don't donate for details" and the other principle is "not just for exams", and many actions of my review are also closely related to this.

2.4. 1 review of specialized courses

Although I decided to take the cross-major exam next semester, I didn't have a clear understanding of the postgraduate entrance examination at that time, and I thought it was still early. I read more than a dozen books during the summer vacation of Grade Two, but only two or three books are directly related to history. It was only in September that I officially began to understand the process of postgraduate entrance examination. Thanks to Mr. C who was nervously reviewing the postgraduate entrance examination at that time, he provided me with some introductory materials for postgraduate entrance examination, which gave me a preliminary understanding of postgraduate entrance examination. Then I went online again and spent many days collecting all kinds of relevant information, including various postgraduate forums, postgraduate materials, portals and school conditions. At that time, I knew the so-called 1 1 book, and then at the end of September, I tried to buy two modern history of Wu Yuxi's world history. Because my junior year was extremely tight last semester (I had nearly 20 courses, most of which were computer core courses), it took me nearly a month to finish reading those two books.

Then, the postgraduate entrance examination plan for the first professional course was made: read 1 1 book before the start of school, read it twice before the summer vacation, and try to collect noun explanations, analytical questions and short answer questions. The summer vacation and beyond are mainly used for practice, and at the same time, an average of one historical masterpiece is read every week. This plan is rough, not detailed and not very predictable. This is mainly because at the beginning, I knew too little about all kinds of situations. As a result, I didn't finish reading the book 1 1 in a hurry until more than a month after school started. (I hardly reviewed English at this stage) And during reading, I hardly took any notes except making some marks on the book, because I felt that the progress of taking notes was too slow and I was impatient at that time. It's a pity that I felt very depressed after reading it for the first time, and found that I didn't seem to have any impression at all. So I'm more anxious.

I made a second plan at the end of March. It keeps the goal of the first plan, but quantifies the progress and considers the English review plan. At that time, I estimated that there were nearly 4,000 hours of effective review time (only 3,400 hours later), giving half of the time to history, 300 hours to politics and the rest to English. I estimate that I can read 30 pages of textbooks in one hour and 1 1 book in two months (200 hours). But later, the plan was far from complete. On the one hand, the learning burden of junior students in the next semester has not been reduced, and the courses are slightly less than last semester but more difficult. I also completed all the professional elective credits in advance. On the other hand, in fact, I can only read textbooks at the speed of 20 pages per hour, mainly because I am too worried about missing something and want to remember everything as much as possible. At this time, I am also worried that reading alone may not leave a deep impression, so I strongly feel that I should take some notes. These notes include a large number of nouns, analytical questions and short answer questions collected from reading comprehension. I tried to find out the answer, but my knowledge was too limited to make progress, so I gave up soon. By the end of July, I had collected at least 6,000 nouns and hundreds of big questions (mainly from those six books, historical dictionaries and the history volume of Encyclopedia of China).

I think these things should cover all the exam contents, and I think they will be useful in the later review. But what happened later was that I threw all those things aside, because my interest and energy were transferred to counseling books. However, all these efforts were not in vain. At least I have a certain impression of those nouns and answers. It is impossible not to know during the exam. Later, I met a graduation internship, which delayed me for many days, so that I didn't watch it for the second time until July 3 1. This result is far behind the original plan. In this way, in 10 months, except reading the textbook twice, I feel as if I didn't get any visible results. However, it turns out that the situation is not so pessimistic. Maybe my memory is really as strong as the students around me say; I don't value this. On the contrary, I believe in my ability of understanding and analysis. Anyway, after entering the next stage of review, I found myself suddenly relaxed and often felt suddenly enlightened. Maybe everything I've seen has become subconscious.

On August 1 day, I made a new plan. 8, 9, 10, the second stage of review will be held in these three months. The main purpose of this round of review is to expand the knowledge as much as possible, cover all possible knowledge points, make multiple-choice questions as good as possible, and make noun explanations and answers as complete as possible. Nothing is allowed at all. 1 1 and 65438+February are the last round of review. At this stage, we should return to the teaching materials, read the teaching materials carefully again, and check for missing parts; The more important task is to find out the key points and difficulties, take notes and make it easy to remember. 10 65438+ 10 days is used to adjust the mentality. Later, my review basically followed this plan.

August 1, enter the second round of review, focusing on counseling books. The guiding ideology is still "do too much, donate too little", that is, you can't lose every penny. I read those two books at the same time for the first forty days, and I read every line carefully. At this time, understanding is no longer a problem for me. I still feel that the progress is too slow, and I don't want to take notes. I just use three colors to draw the key points myself. I think marking can promote memory. If you look back, you just need to pay attention to the key points. But then I was not interested in watching it again. ) By September of 12, I finally finished reading this big book with more than 200 pages. This is because all the clouds in my mind seem to have cleared away. I have a reliable grasp of the whole history and details, and my confidence has naturally increased. Compared with many research friends on the forum, I suspect that I am much taller than most of them. Of course, due to the lack of real reference, I have been unable to determine my own strength. Fortunately, this did not have a big impact. Then I read four counseling books. At this time, my absorption speed is very fast, and various topics, especially multiple-choice questions, will not be forgotten after reading. I can basically guarantee that the error rate of multiple-choice questions is around 10%. I just look at nouns and big questions and don't do them seriously. After this round of review, I believe I have the ability to take the exam at once.

1 1 Enter the closing stage. I read the textbook 1 1 carefully, trying to strengthen the overall understanding and ensure that the multiple-choice questions are completely correct. But the more important task is to extract and recite the main points. Although I have been able to answer questions, I think it is not enough to have an impression in my mind in order to get as high a score as possible. I must start writing something. I first identified a dozen principles (such as the history of international labor movement, the history of the Soviet Union, the history of the world after 1950 and the ancient history of China, with little history of the world and China, at least not in the form of multiple-choice questions). Of course, they are by no means universally applicable and risky, but I have to do so in order to reduce the workload and highlight the key points. I list the definitions of nouns and big questions that I think are important, and then give the answers as comprehensively and accurately as possible in strict accordance with the answering requirements (I think). In order to reduce the amount of words, I only write down the key words of the answer. For me, adding some modifiers can get the complete answer. Nevertheless, the amount of writing is not small, with an average of more than 200 words for each noun (more than 400 words after expansion), and more words for big topics.

As a result, in two months (only one hour a day), I excerpted more than ten thousand words of 10, and I was often too tired to catch my pen. In addition, it is very difficult to summarize the key points from a large amount of data. I remember I planned to do the above work in May, but I was far from proficient at that time, so I didn't know how to choose between different interpretations of the same word. By June 165438+ 10, this difficulty had basically disappeared. I piled up more than a dozen reference materials on a small desktop to refer to each other and summed up my comprehensive and accurate answers. At first, the progress was slow, and it took twenty days to review the modern history of the world. And then picked up speed. The modern history of the world is 5 days, the ancient history of the world 10 days, the ancient history of China 16 days, the modern history of China 3 days and the modern history of China 5 days. At the same time, I set aside an hour every day to recall. Since only the key words have been written down, fill in the materials when reciting. I don't spend so much effort gambling on topics, because I don't have the ability and never want to be opportunistic, but I want to get as high a score as possible. But in the end, I got the right questions, such as confession, official supervision and commercial office, Napoleonic code, wars of the roses, the official system in Song Dynasty, the evolution of Christianity, and the reasons for the rise and fall of western Portugal.

65438+ 10 entered the adjustment stage. Although it's called adjustment, I'm on pins and needles every day. On the one hand, they didn't do anything because the original didn't specify what they did in these ten days; On the other hand, I am worried about insufficient preparation. I have to browse the remaining six sets of questions in the golden book. I thought the last ten days would pass quickly, but it was really painful.

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However, in any case, I finally succeeded. I continued to study in my favorite field of history and achieved good results. So, everything is worth it, which is my best reward now. I am grateful for my choice, and I am also grateful for the pride and satisfaction when I stand here and review this experience! I will go on as always!