How to adjust your mindset after failing the college entrance examination?

I envy top students, but I am not one of them. I hope to be born in a wealthy family, but I am not one of them. As an ordinary person, I will tell you my experience. If you fail the college entrance examination, I guess you are not as miserable as I was:

In my first college entrance examination, how did I go from being someone my family expected to get into Tsinghua University to failing at anything?

In the second college entrance examination, no matter how hard I tried, I could only get into a second-tier university?

How did I make a comeback from a second-tier university to the Chinese Academy of Sciences?

After his first business venture failed, he continued to start businesses and even wrote the best-selling book "Data Analysis Thinking".

1. Why did I fail the college entrance examination the first time?

When I first entered junior high school, I got full marks in the first math test in my class. From then on, my brilliant career in junior high school began, and I was the first in the class in every test.

At that time, the head teacher would arrange the naughty and poor students in the class to be my deskmate in exchange for gifts from their parents.

When I returned to the county town last year, I met this deskmate again. He smiled and said that he really couldn't concentrate on his studies back then.

Why was I able to always get the first place in the class at that time?

This is thanks to the fact that my father is a teacher. During the winter and summer vacations, other children have plenty of time to play, but I have to complete the homework assigned by my parents.

At that time, I also liked to play like other children, and I got a headache when I saw books. But my parents were strict, so I had to finish my homework before I could play.

My father gave me the homework of self-studying the course before the start of the school. At first, I looked at the textbooks that the teacher had not yet taught, which was simply incomprehensible. At the beginning, I could only ask my father for help over and over again. At first, this process was difficult, but by the second summer vacation, I could understand the contents of the book by myself.

Because of this self-study process, I developed a good habit: not to be a beggar.

When you encounter a problem, study it yourself first. If you really don't understand it, ask others. This is a good way to exercise your problem-solving ability.

Now we have search engines, which is a great benefit for us to solve problems. However, many people just don't use search engines, resulting in no improvement in technology after working for many years.

This is also why working experience and level are not actually positively correlated. Think about the people around you who graduated with you or joined the same company with you. Why did they have the same starting point but different fates in the end?

If the plot of the TV series had developed according to the rules, I would definitely have entered high school and then been admitted to my ideal university.

But reality is not a TV show. When my family borrowed money to send me to the best high school in the province, hoping that I would be admitted to Tsinghua University or Peking University, I failed to even get into a second-tier university in my first attempt at the college entrance examination.

What exactly happened in the meantime?

I took the high school entrance exam that year and ranked among the top in the county. I also took the provincial key high school selection exam and was admitted. At that time, my family and I had two choices:

The first option was to go to high school in the city with free tuition.

The second option is to go to high school in the province, with tuition fees of 10,000 yuan per year.

What did 10,000 yuan mean at that time? The housing price in Beijing was only a few thousand yuan. My father was the only one who earned money in the family, and we had to raise several children. The whole family rented a small room. So 10,000 yuan was an astronomical figure for a poor family like mine.

Although my mother didn't have much education, she attached great importance to studying. She had good grades when she was young, but she dropped out of school because she couldn't afford the tuition. My mother said that it had been several years since the city had produced a student who could go to Tsinghua University or Peking University, so she should go to a provincial high school. We will lend you money to pay for your tuition.

In this way, I carried my family's dream of getting into Tsinghua University and Peking University, and for the first time in my life, I moved from a small place to a big city.

At that time, there were no buses in the county town. It was my first time in the provincial capital, and I was very surprised to see the buses.

At that time, my brother and sister were both in college, and with my tuition fees, the pressure on my family was particularly great. Since I left home to attend high school, my mother went to work in various places. Every time I paid tuition, it was the most difficult time for me because it was difficult to ask my family for money.

Now when I think back to those days, I still feel sad and feel that I owe my parents a lot. Parents risk their lives for their children, so as children, what reason do we have not to work hard?

Carrying the dream of my family to get into Tsinghua University, I started my high school dormitory life. The first time in my life that I didn't have my parents to take care of me began. However, I don't know why I studied very hard in high school, but my grades were always average. After the college entrance examination in my senior year, my grades were very low and I didn't even get into a second-tier university.

2. In the second college entrance examination, no matter how hard I tried, I could only get into a second-tier university?

I was very depressed after failing the college entrance examination. When I returned home, I felt very sorry for my family. They were reluctant to spend money on food and clothing, but borrowed money for me to go to the best high school. However, because of me, my family still lived in a rented house for many years. But my parents were willing to spend all their savings for me to study.

I was so depressed during that time that I didn't even want to repeat my studies. I told my mom that studying was useless and I didn't want to study anymore because I had to earn money to support the family. My mom said that without knowledge, you can't make much money. However, you can try working for a few days and you will understand it after experiencing it yourself.

I worked as a temporary worker at a construction site, moving bricks to build a house. After working for a few days, I regretted it. Compared with studying, I couldn't stand this kind of physical work. I didn't want to live my life like this, and I didn't want to be a person who couldn't bring a decent life to my family.

During this period of working, I realized the significance of studying: people from a family like mine can only succeed through studying. After realizing the significance of studying, I left the construction site and started to repeat my studies.

I remember getting up early on the first day of repeating the year to help my parents move. Because I was repeating the year, my parents moved to a rental house near the school so that I could be close to school. After moving, I ran to school to start my classes.

This time, because I knew what the college entrance examination was about and what it meant to me, I was always ranked among the top students. Before the college entrance examination, my teachers and I all thought I could get into a first-tier university. (Because I was in a county town, getting into a first-tier university was considered a good school in the local area.)

During the second college entrance examination, I did well in other subjects, but when it came to the chemistry part, I was nervous and didn't score much. In the end, I was admitted to a second-tier university.

Everyone in my family advised me to repeat a year, but after thinking about it, I told my family: "After taking the college entrance examination twice, I found that I am not suitable for taking the exam. But I am a piece of gold, and I can shine wherever I go. Believe me, I can have a different destiny in a second-tier university."

In this way, after two college entrance examinations, I was admitted to a second-tier university. Now I think back to the reasons why I failed the first college entrance examination:

1) Not understanding the significance of the college entrance examination leads to a lack of focus in study.

People cannot be convinced by reason. They must experience it personally to understand it. For example, I took the college entrance examination for the second time because I worked on a construction site before. Because of my life experience, I understood the meaning of learning. So before doing anything, I always try to give myself great meaning. Now I give myself great meaning when doing things, so I won’t give up halfway.

2) No detailed execution plan

Without a plan, you will just take things one step at a time, but experts will do things in order of excellence in advance to avoid low-level diligence. The reason why I failed the college entrance examination the first time was my low-level diligence. Now I can do things with better results than ordinary people because I have adopted the priority principle that conforms to the power law distribution.

3. How did I make a comeback from a second-tier university to the Chinese Academy of Sciences?

Having a noble person in life can help you avoid many detours. The first noble person in my life was my brother.

My brother was admitted to a 985 university and he is my role model. On the first day of my university, my brother told me that his classmates also went to poor universities for undergraduate studies, but they passed the postgraduate entrance examination and were admitted to Tsinghua University. The postgraduate entrance examination is your second college entrance examination.

So, in my freshman year, my roommates were all playing games. Others didn’t even know what the postgraduate entrance examination was, but I already knew that my goal for the four years of college was to make a comeback by taking the exam.

With a clear goal, I can have a sense of direction when doing things. I will try my best to find various opportunities that will help me prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination. I will not be limited by the resources of the school. I will participate in various national competitions through the Internet to enrich my future resume.

In my senior year, the college suddenly had a quota for recommendation, but two conditions had to be met:

1) Only those who rank first in the whole college can get this quota

2) At the same time, there must be a school willing to accept you

With the help of my efforts in the first three years of college, I got the first place in the college ranking. Now I have to solve the problem of where to find a school to accept a student from a second-tier university?

I sent my resume to other universities, and the responses I received were: You are very good, but the school only accepts students from 985 and 211 universities.

Just when I was almost feeling disappointed, a mentor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences finally responded to me: I can come for an interview and chat.

On the day of the interview, I printed out two books of my college work, went to my advisor's office, and told him about my experiences and works.

Finally, maybe my supervisor was impressed by me, so I got a recommendation for admission to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This was the first time in my life when happiness knocked on my door.

Many years after graduation, I went back to visit my mentor at the end of last year. I have always been grateful to my mentor for giving me the opportunity.

4. Last

I want to say that the college entrance examination is just the beginning of your life, not the end. Even if you fail or get into an ordinary university, it is not a big deal. Like me, I have even written a best-selling book "Data Analysis Thinking".

You will see that life is not determined by a single test score, but by random ups and downs. As long as you don't give up, no one has the right to say you can't do it.

Life is long, and you can have many chances to start over. Just like Liu Huan's song: At worst, start over.