Some of the people who have visited foreign countries come back and like to publicize how easy it is for foreign students to learn and how to learn like fun.
Actually, this is only one side of the problem. On the other hand, students in developed countries also have competition, and competition can temper one's tenacious will.
In New York, USA, there is a Stuyvesant High School, known as Little Harvard, which is full of "elites of all races" who can only be squeezed in by passing rigorous exams, and the Westinghouse Science Award is the first.
The first and second places were all won by students there, and 16 percent of the finalists in the United States were finalists.
But Stuyvesant is not a place to mix, a student IQ of 140 is a common thing, and it is also a matter of course to do homework until one or two o'clock. Under the pressure of a group of top teachers in a nearly 100-year-old building, students must find their own living space, resist drugs, face countless challenges, and many must travel three or four hours a day to Stuyvesant to class.
The competition in high school is so fierce and the study is so hard, so what about the competition for further education?
Harvard University's admission qualifications are highly selective and competitive. More than 15,000 students apply each year to attend Harvard, and less than 15 percent do so.
What about going to university? On the Harvard campus, the pressure of students is very high, and the competition is fierce and almost cruel, which is simply a challenge to their own limits, so it is not an exaggeration to call it "hell". Yu Rong and Lu Yuan wrote in the book "Harvard Undefeated":
HBS, which is a Harvard condensation, is particularly prominent at this point. On the one hand, it is known as the "Vatican of the business world" because of its splendid aura, and on the other hand, it is also called the "West Point Military Academy of the business world" because of its strict management, which is both "god-like" and "god-like". In a letter to a friend in China, a Chinese student borrowed the opening line of "Pekingese in New York" and said: "If you love him, send him to HBS, because it is 'heaven';If you hate him, send him to HBS because it's 'hell' there. ”
HBS Year 1 classes are generally arranged as follows: three 80-minute lessons per week in the morning, ending at 11:30 a.m. Two more of the same classes began at 1 p.m. Each class arranges a case, and it generally takes 3-4 hours for freshmen to prepare a case, plus extracurricular study group activity time and class time, about 13-18 hours of study per day.
Many students study until one or two o'clock in the evening, then sleep for a few hours, and then get up quickly to go to 8:30 class.
HBS is scored using a mandatory assignment method. In each class, 15%-20% of students with good grades are rated "excellent", 15%-20% of students with poor grades are "passed", 60%-70% of students with medium grades are "good", and about 5% of students are "failing".
First-year students take 11 courses. The school requires every first-year student to have at least 10 "good". Students who get more than 8 "pass" or "fail" grades are called "touching the net", and once they touch the net, whether they can be promoted to the second year is decided by the student achievement committee according to the student's own request, the professor's evaluation, and the objective factors that cause the "touch". A small fraction of them will be allowed to progress to higher education, while another will be forced to drop out but will retain the right to reapply.
The threat of being forced to drop out of school due to "touching the net" is always present, and since the range of grading is not the entire grade level, but is distributed within the class according to a fixed percentage, the psychological stress caused by this to candidates is understandable.
Harvard's admonition to students is that if you are handy and well-evaluated at any time and in any occasion after entering society, then you will not have time to bask in the sun during your studies at Harvard. A well-known adage at Harvard is: "Busy with the autumn harvest, busy with the autumn planting, study, study, study again." ”
One graduate once recalled that a few days before the first midterm exam, he had difficulty falling asleep at night, closing his eyes and thinking about cases or what to do if he "touched the net". (Even the best students are extremely nervous before their first midterm exam.) Exam-induced anxiety and insomnia are common. At this time, there will be a long queue outside the clinic of HBS's psychology specialists. He invited his friend Jim to play tennis and wanted to take a break to get some adjustments. He could tell that Jim was as nervous as he was. Jim was a good tennis player, but that time he could barely hold the racket. They were still talking about exams when they were playing, because of the almost brutal compulsory distribution system of exams, it was determined in advance that someone would fail the exam. Every exam is a life-and-death scuffle, and the two only hope that this bad luck doesn't fall on their heads. They were too nervous to continue fighting, so they hastily packed up their things and went back to study. As a result, their test scores were in the top 10 in their class.
The talents tempered by such fierce competition obviously have tenacious will and strong ability. By the time they graduate, students are not faced with the question of whether they can find a job, but how to choose between several companies.