The choice of postgraduate entrance examination goals can be said to be one of the most important and critical matters in the postgraduate entrance examination process. Generally speaking, you should start choosing the school and major after planning to take the postgraduate entrance examination. You can also prepare for public courses first, learn more about relevant colleges and universities, and finally determine the school, major, and tutor. But it is best to set goals in advance so that you can have a clear sense of goals and use goals to motivate yourself. Of course, for many postgraduate candidates, choosing a school, major, and tutor is not an easy task. Postgraduate candidates are generally more or less hesitant. Why is there hesitation? Is indecision a natural character weakness? No. As the saying goes, "A skilled man is bold" and "A hero has no fear." A real hero must be very decisive when making decisions. But most of us are ordinary people. When ordinary people make choices, the key to making the right choice is to obtain the right information, use the right method, and draw the right conclusion. This correct conclusion is a goal that suits you, a goal that can be achieved through hard work, an exciting goal, a goal that you can devote your youth, blood and sweat to, and a goal that you will have no regrets even if you cannot reach it due to various external factors. goal!

Correct information means obtaining sufficient and reliable information through various channels; the correct method means how to choose a school and major, and how to contact a tutor. This is the issue to be discussed in this section.

This section*** is divided into two parts. The first is some ideas, methods and experiences in selecting schools and majors; the second is some ideas, methods and experiences in selecting tutors. At the end of this section, some specific cases for choosing schools and majors are attached, hoping to provide some reference for readers.

(1) Select a school and major

After deciding to take the postgraduate entrance examination, choosing a school and major is a very important step. Below, we will discuss how to choose the school and major that is most suitable for postgraduate candidates based on our own experience and the common questions asked by postgraduate candidates when choosing schools and majors.

1. Choose a good school? Choose your favorite major? Chosen a major?

Between schools and majors, you should give priority to your major, and you should give priority to choosing the major you like. Then pursue a good major and a good school within your ability. The reasons we give are as follows:

(1) During the postgraduate period, you should first focus on pursuing your own interests, truly "learn something good" and build your own "core competitiveness". Only in this way can you gain the favor of teachers and get more opportunities when you continue your studies, such as going abroad. For students who want to go abroad, they must choose their major carefully. After all, if you want to go abroad smoothly and hope to win a scholarship, professional performance and scientific research ability are the key. In addition, for those who choose to find a job after graduate school, if they want to work in this professional field, then having professional "core competitiveness" will definitely make you successful in the workplace. And interest is the best mentor. If you are truly interested in your major, it will be much smoother to produce results, and the chance of producing great results will be higher. On the other hand, if you are not interested in your major, and you do not have a solid learning attitude and persistence, and do not know how to find interest in the work you need to do, then graduate school will become a terrible nightmare in two to three years. Your postgraduate life is fleeting, and you are likely to still be empty-handed and helpless in the workplace.

(2) The most important task during the postgraduate period is project research. The topics/projects undertaken during the postgraduate period are directly related to employment prospects. The advantages of graduate employment are mainly reflected in professional quality (scientific research ability, technical level, etc.). The strength of professional teachers and hardware facilities is directly related to the amount of knowledge students can learn and the level of ability improvement. Students who graduate from top-ranked majors will have comparative advantages in continuing their studies and choosing employment.

If you have no special interest in the major you want to apply for, as long as you don’t hate it, then it is an option you can consider. Interest lies more in cultivating and searching. The most important thing is an attitude, a spirit of persistence and the character of learning and doing things in a down-to-earth manner. In this way, even if you are not passionate about your profession, at least you will not be passive. You can still learn a lot through graduate school, and the benefits will not be too small.

School is also very important.

Many companies still tend to go to prestigious schools to recruit talents. The schools have strong brands and it is relatively easy to find a job. The influence of the school atmosphere is also very important. If there are more resources in various aspects, individuals will have greater space for development and more choices.

2. What should I do if I apply for a good major in a very good school and am afraid of not being able to get into it? If I apply twice, I am afraid of losing myself.

This is a common problem for postgraduate candidates when choosing schools and majors, and it is also another problem that needs to be solved when choosing schools and majors. The idea of ????breaking the solution is "know yourself and the enemy, and make decisive decisions."

(1) "Confidant"

That is to say, analyze your basic strength, interests, expected goals, how much preparation time you have, and how many interpersonal resources you have.

Basic strength includes learning ability, learning attitude, psychological quality, undergraduate professional knowledge base, undergraduate school background, etc. What is relatively critical is the foundation of undergraduate professional knowledge and undergraduate school background, while learning ability, learning attitude, and psychological quality can all be cultivated.

Interest is what major we are interested in.

The expected goal is our life ideal, which city and school we want to go to, that is, what we want to pursue. Goals, or vision, often determine action. The higher your goals are, the more likely your successes will be. Hu Xueyan in the Qing Dynasty once had a famous business saying: "If your vision extends to a province, you will do business in that province; if your vision extends to the whole country, you will do business to the whole country; if your vision extends to the world, you will do business The world's business. "Many students who apply for prestigious schools are the kind of students who are ambitious and have the courage to work hard. They dared to dream, so they made their dreams come true.

Examination preparation time is the time that can be used to concentrate on review, excluding course study time, course exam preparation time, course design time, professional internship time, etc. or working time. Generally speaking, for candidates with average basic skills, it will take at least 3 months to apply for the major at the school, at least 5 months for the major outside the school, at least 7 months for the major at the other school, and at least 9 months for the major outside the school.

Interpersonal resources refer to whether there are seniors, teachers, classmates, and friends studying in the school or major you are applying for. We think this is very critical. If there are seniors who have studied that major in the past, then you will have more "people and relationships" than others, and obviously the chance of success will more than double. Therefore, if you have no acquaintances, you should try your best to find seniors or teachers through friends’ friends, the Internet, or even directly go to the colleges you apply for.

(2) "Know the enemy"

Specifically, it is necessary to understand the following information about the target school and major, and conduct effective analysis on them.

1) Competitive situation. That is, the number of admissions, the ratio of the number of applicants to the number of admissions, the ratio of the number of people who passed the re-examination line to the number of final admissions, and the adjustment situation. Generally, just look at the past three years. But don’t be intimidated by competition. As long as you like it, have the ability, and have enough time to prepare for the exam, you can choose boldly.

2) School/professional strength. This has to do with personal desired goals. The goals are high and the school/major requirements are also high. Mainly understand the reputation of the school/major, humanistic environment, faculty, hardware facilities, scientific research results, etc. The general indicator is to see whether the institution is a "985 Project" university, a "211 Project" university, a university "directly under the Ministry of Education", a university "directly under the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense", etc. The graduate school strength rankings and professional strength rankings of some websites also reflect some problems. However, it needs to be viewed objectively, especially the strength of universities “directly under the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense” must be viewed highly and must not be underestimated.

In terms of majors, we should also try our best to collect the professional employment situation and the future development of the major, such as the supervisor's scientific research projects, students' overseas study status, and doctoral studies, etc.

3) Admissions and examination policies. Generally, you can learn about it through the admissions brochure, announcement of re-examination methods, etc.

4) Does the major welcome applications from across majors? For cross-professional postgraduate candidates, they need to "ask for directions". Contact the instructor in advance, call the postgraduate admissions office, or go online to find out whether the other major welcomes cross-professional candidates. Generally speaking, the major you apply for should be related to or not too far away from your major. It is best to choose a major related to the major you studied in college.

In this case, since you have laid a good foundation in four years of college, have a certain understanding of the basic situation and development prospects of the major, and have mastered basic professional knowledge, review of professional courses will tend to be smoother and more comfortable. Those who engage in further research in the future will usually get started faster, and will also have certain advantages in re-examinations.

Of course, many majors, especially interdisciplinary ones, welcome inter-major candidates. It's a different matter at this point.

(3) Decisive decision

After knowing yourself and the enemy, you need to make decisive decisions through analysis and weighing. That is to say, the following two aspects of decision-making:

1) Major decision-making

Based on your own interests and strengths, expected goals, test preparation difficulty, and target major information about the target college ( Experimental equipment, mentor status, development prospects, employment prospects, etc.), and decisively select the target major.

2) School decision

Based on its own strength, preparation time, difficulty of preparation, and information about the target school (famousness, humanistic environment, faculty, hardware facilities, scientific research results) etc., and decisively select the target school.

Regarding how to estimate the difficulty of preparing for the exam, we here recommend the basic formula of how to judge the difficulty of applying for the exam when choosing a school and major taught by New Oriental teacher Zhou Lei for your reference. This formula's estimation of difficulty only involves two aspects: the difference between the target school and the existing school (geographic location, software and hardware strength), and the difference between the target major and the existing major (software and hardware strength), so it is one-sided. They are not authoritative. The reason why we list them is just to help everyone establish an intuitive understanding of the difficulty of the postgraduate entrance examination. For the specific difficulty level, please refer to the description of the "Inter-school and Inter-major Postgraduate Entrance Examination" in Chapter 2, Section 6.

Basic formula:

Goal score (Goal, G) = target school geographical location score (Location, L2) + target school software and hardware strength score (Rank, R2) + target major Software and hardware strength score (Major, M2) - Geographical location score of the school studied (Location, L1) - Software and hardware strength score of the school studied (Rank, R1) - Software and hardware strength score of the major studied (Major, M1)

The geographical location of target schools is divided into three levels:

① Coastal hotspot economically developed cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Nanjing, etc.

② Regional central cities and central cities, such as Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Jinan, Qingdao, Dalian, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Chongqing, Chengdu, etc.

③ Economically underdeveloped areas, small and medium-sized cities and western cities, such as Hohhot, Yinchuan, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Lanzhou, Guiyang, Kunming, etc. Among the three levels, the first level has a score of 3, the second level has a score of 2, and the first level has a score of 1.

The software and hardware strength of target schools can be roughly divided into three levels:

① Famous schools: "2+7" set by the National Ministry of Education: Tsinghua University and Peking University are positioned as world-class. They are internationally renowned and high-level universities such as Fudan University, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, XJiao Tong University and Harbin Institute of Technology.

② Other “211” selected schools.

③ General undergraduate colleges.

The scores for the three grades are also the same as those for cities.

The software and hardware strength of the target majors can also be roughly divided into three levels:

① Popular majors: Master of Laws, Master of Finance, Management, Journalism, Computers, Communications, etc.

② Popular majors: international politics, accounting, Chinese, mathematics, physics, and most engineering majors.

③ A remote profession.

The scores for the three grades are also the same as those for cities.

After calculation, if a student’s choice is less than 2 points, it means that the competition will not be too fierce and the hope of passing the exam is relatively high. If the score is between 2 and 4, it means that the competition is very fierce. If the score is greater than 4, it means that you will have to work harder than ordinary people to have any hope of success.

(2) Selecting a tutor

The selection of a tutor is a crucial part for applying to certain colleges and universities, and it often plays a decisive role in the re-examination.

However, there are also many colleges and universities that do not require or even oppose the selection of tutors. For example, at Tsinghua University, many majors do not require pre-selection of tutors. Generally, two-way selection is done after admission and two weeks before the start of school. Students understand the teacher's scientific research topics and other information, talk with the teacher about their postgraduate study plans, etc., and then decide which tutor to choose. Of course, no matter what, if you can contact a teacher who is optimistic about your qualities and abilities, it will definitely help you a lot. Even if he/she cannot decide whether you are admitted, he/she is helping you understand The guidance given to you in terms of professional scientific research direction, professional strength, professional application and admission status, as well as the focus of re-examination subjects, examination format, etc. are all very critical. Therefore, try your best to contact a good mentor (even if he/she does not become your mentor in the end), and it is important to communicate effectively with him/her. We discuss how to choose a good tutor and how to communicate effectively with the tutor based on the issues that are of greatest concern to postgraduate candidates.

1． When to choose a mentor?

Depends on the requirements of the institution. If the institution has requirements for selecting tutors, you should choose a tutor when you start preparing for review. Of course, you can also consider your options while reviewing. If the school does not require it, you can go all out to prepare for the preliminary exam and get an ideal score. After finishing the test, you can check your answers, estimate your score, and combine it with the previous admissions score (which should be adjusted according to the difficulty of the test questions that year) to roughly determine that you can enter the re-examination. Before the results come out, learn more about the basic situation of each teacher. After the scores come out, tutors can be selected in both directions.

A special reminder is that when participating in adjustments, you generally need to contact the instructor.

2. What kind of mentor to choose?

The ideal frame of reference is this:

(1) A mentor with good character. At the graduate level, the conduct of your teacher will inevitably have an immeasurable impact on you and even society. A good mentor is generally very humble, respects students, provides graduate students with a very relaxed and free research atmosphere, and trusts you very much, knowing that you have been working hard. This can usually only be learned through seniors, and of course it can also be seen through contacts with tutors.

(2) Tutors with strong scientific research capabilities. The main purpose of studying for a graduate degree is to improve one's scientific research capabilities and prepare for rapid entry into work roles after graduation. The scientific research capabilities of graduate students are formed under the guidance of mentors. If the supervisor's scientific research ability is not good and the graduate students are completely left to explore on their own, it will be more difficult to make achievements in certain aspects. In addition, in today's era of economic and technological integration, a tutor's poor scientific research ability may very well mean that the tutor's scientific research funds are small. Small scientific research funds cannot guarantee the smooth progress of some experiments. Therefore, you should have some understanding of your tutor’s research projects and research funding before applying. Check to see whether the tutor has relatively large scientific research funds, whether there are many scientific research topics, and whether it is relatively cutting-edge.

(3) A mentor whose personality is consistent with your own. First of all, you need to analyze what kind of personality you have, whether you are active, extroverted, cheerful and lively, or introverted and passive. Teachers with different personalities have their own styles and like different types of students. Usually you are not qualified to ask the teacher to accommodate your personality. If you are not a versatile person, then when you first choose, it is best for the teacher's personality and his favorite type to be compatible with yours. This is the same as how to get along with leaders and colleagues in the future work environment. Many people in the workplace first look for jobs based on benefits and salary, but those who leave in the end often do not have a good relationship with their leaders or colleagues. This is very important for graduate students. is also a very important factor to consider.

(4) The mentor’s scientific research direction is consistent with his or her own interests and professional pursuits. Interest is the best teacher. Only if you really like this direction can you do something and love it. Only then can you happily spend the postgraduate period and gain something. Therefore, you should try your best to start from your own interests, deeply understand the research direction of your tutor, and choose tutors whose scientific research direction is consistent with your own interests. This can be understood through his recently published papers and his recent research topics.

Another thing to note in this aspect is whether you like theory or practice. If you like theory, it is best to find a professor-level teacher; if you like practice, you should find a teacher with more practical projects. Mentor, as for the mentor level, it is not very important. It also depends on whether you have any plans to go abroad and study for a Ph.D. in the future.

If you want to go abroad, it is best to choose a tutor with a returnee background. If you want to study for a Ph.D., it is best to choose a professor-level tutor. If you want to find a job after graduation, tutor selection is relatively unimportant.

As for whether to choose a young mentor or an old mentor, it depends on personal preference, and there is no final conclusion.

3． How to find tutor information?

After you have a general reference for what type of tutor you want to choose, you need to obtain information about the teachers in your major, designate some teachers based on the information, and then email or contact these designated teachers. Contact by phone. The basic ways to understand information are listed as follows:

(1) Introduction to teachers in professional fields on the school’s website.

(2) Search the tutor’s graduate school, research funding, research direction, contact information and other information through Baidu, Google and other websites. These introductions may be brief, and some may even contain outdated information. You can only do a preliminary screening this way.

(3) Relevant information on the school’s student forum.

(4) Communicate with the teacher’s students or senior students.

4. How to communicate effectively with your tutor?

After selecting your ideal supervisor, you should get in touch with the supervisor in time to prevent others from getting there first, because after all, the number of graduate students the supervisor can lead is limited. If you contact him late, you may not be able to apply for the position. You will be at a disadvantage or even be rejected directly; in addition, contacting your supervisor in time may also be of great help to your re-examination. You can sincerely tell him that you are very interested in his research direction, admire him very much, and also You can ask about what preparations you should make to become his graduate student and better adapt to graduate student life, etc.

Of course, this process requires certain communication skills and skills. Communication ability is the most important ability. How to communicate effectively with teachers is also a concern of postgraduate candidates. Many people do not dare to contact the teacher because they are afraid of communicating with the teacher or are worried that they will not be able to communicate with the teacher.

Communication is an important aspect of interpersonal communication. Friends with weak communication skills can improve their communication skills by reading more books on interpersonal communication, listening to more lectures, and talking to friends around them (on the phone).

There are many ways to communicate with your instructor. Generally speaking, if you are good at oral expression, you can contact the office by phone first. It is generally better to call the office around 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Monday. If you are not good at oral expression, then it is best to send an email to the teacher first, stating your plans for the postgraduate entrance examination, personal situation (school major, performance ranking, scientific research practice experience, awards, etc.), postgraduate study plan (what do you feel about it) Interests, what to do during graduate school, whether you have plans to study for a PhD), etc. Finally, express your admiration for the tutor, thank the tutor for reading, and hope to get a reply from the tutor.

After the tutor replies to the email, you can continue to keep in touch by email, or you can call the tutor to tell him that he has received the email, thank the tutor for his concern and guidance, and ask a few relevant questions. Unless you have a close relationship with your mentor, keep phone conversations with your mentor to no more than 15 minutes.

As for the language skills of email contact or telephone communication, it is up to you to consider it yourself. In short, neither humble nor arrogant, confident but not arrogant, modest and prudent and showing the liveliness and vitality of young people at the appropriate time. Remember that mentors are human beings, just like the teachers around you. Tutors generally like their students and are willing to answer students' questions. Even if your expression skills are lacking, the tutors will usually forgive you.

Finally, please remember two points:

(1) Seek truth from facts. Don't tell lies, say what you have, and don't hide your shortcomings. It doesn't matter if you have poor abilities or background. The key is to be sincere, modest, motivated, diligent in learning, brave enough to challenge, and brave enough to change your destiny. In the end, the success of the postgraduate entrance examination depends on the scores in the preliminary examination, the scores in the re-examination written examination, and the results in the interview. If your scores in the initial test and retest written test are high, judging from a large number of cases, the instructor will never embarrass you in the interview. If you fail, the reason for the failure must be yourself.

(2) Try boldly. It is true that some tutors tend to be indifferent to students asking about postgraduate entrance examinations, because they do not know you well and do not know whether you can pass the examination, or they may be busy. Don't be discouraged or discouraged at this time.

As long as you try boldly and try a few times, you will always be able to meet an enthusiastic teacher. Even if you don't meet it, you can rest assured if you work hard. It may be much easier to talk to the teacher in person during the retest.

Case of choosing school and major

Case 1

[Jin Xin, graduated from Tsinghua University in 2007]

I applied for the exam Tsinghua University’s Master of Laws program is based on the following considerations:

The first is the necessity of taking the postgraduate entrance examination. If you want to have a comfortable lifestyle, you need to have a good career as a foundation, and it is important to have a good career, school and professional background. My university is an ordinary undergraduate, this is not what I want, I need to change! So how much will studying for a master's degree change you? The first point is academic qualifications, from undergraduate to graduate degree, especially getting a famous diploma is helpful for finding a job; the second point is learning experience. There is no doubt that studying for graduate school can improve one's quality and professional skills. ; The third point is to get to know some classmates of the same level and broaden your interpersonal relationships. One piece of data shows that a person's income level is equivalent to the average income of your five closest friends. The way to change at this time was to take the postgraduate entrance examination, so I chose to take the postgraduate entrance examination without hesitation, and choosing Tsinghua University could meet the above requirements.

Then there is the possibility of taking the postgraduate entrance examination. Here we analyze three factors that affect the success of the postgraduate entrance examination: The first is yourself, including academic performance and major. My academic performance has always been good, especially English (Q bar). One of the important subjects for the postgraduate entrance examination is English. My major is sociology, which belongs to the concept of "big law", so when I took the postgraduate entrance examination, I chose a master's degree in law, a major that focuses on practice. When applying, you should choose the major that is closest to your undergraduate degree. It is best to take the major directly. The second is school choice. The choice of school must be within your ability, otherwise it will be unrealistic. Try to choose a good school within your ability. There are many students around me who come back to take the postgraduate entrance examination after working. The schools they choose are basically famous schools. I don’t think they have much advantage over us in terms of strength, but their choice is the choice in today’s market, which is the best feedback for employment. There are also considerations of the school's reputation, teachers, teaching quality and geographical location, which are relatively minor. Tsinghua University Law School is one of the best in the country, and its score is not particularly high compared to Peking University. It is a choice within my ability, and Tsinghua University attaches great importance to law master's education.

The third is the mental adjustment for the postgraduate entrance examination and the resilience to persevere. Choosing a good school and adding the pressure of real employment can, to a certain extent, encourage a person to calm down and read a book. Choosing the school of your choice will ignite the fighting spirit in your heart and allow you to persevere without distractions. When you are not concentrating on studying, when you think of the name Tsinghua University, you will calm yourself down and devote yourself to studying.

Finally, when choosing a school, you must proceed from your own reality and comprehensively analyze your own situation. You should choose a major first and then a school. When choosing a school, you can boldly choose a good school within your ability. In addition, you must also consider that your investment and return must be symmetrical. If you choose a school and spend a lot of energy to get into it, it will be very embarrassing if you find out that it is not what you want. Careful people will find that in a selection process, it is sometimes difficult to decide which one to choose. At this time, we have to jump out of the circle of direct choice thinking and adopt the method of elimination. First draw a line of majors, which will exclude some schools. For example, if I choose the master's degree in law, I will exclude many schools; then draw a line of schools within my ability and good schools, so as to exclude some, and then consider the basic situation of the school. For example, you can take into consideration the number of students enrolled, employment, teachers, accommodation conditions and environment. At that time, I only had five schools left: Foreign Economic and Trade, Peking University, National People's Congress, Chinese Political Science and Law, and Tsinghua University. It was the most difficult choice at this time. The only thing I had to consider at this time was which one I was most confident of getting admitted to. After weighing the considerations, I finally made a rational choice - Tsinghua University.

Case 2

[Chen Fengkun was admitted to the polymer major of the Department of Chemistry of Peking University in 2007]

About the choice of school: Personally, I think there are no more than two reasons : School strengths and personal interests. The following will be explained based on my own situation.

In my undergraduate degree, I majored in polymers. After several years of contact, I have developed a strong interest in polymer science, and hope that I can continue to pursue further studies in this direction.

Therefore, when I make a choice, the first thing I consider is the strength of the school I want to apply for, including the school's scientific research level, the supervisor's scientific research strength, and the training of graduate students. The schools that initially came into my sight include Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fudan University, Zhejiang University and Nanjing University. These universities or research institutes are relatively good in the field of polymers. As for the final choice of Peking University, a large part of it was personal intention.

Before I officially entered the review stage, I was preparing for the examination subjects of Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Because both exams included physical chemistry and mathematics, I started with Prepare for these two subjects. When I officially started reviewing in July, I made up my mind to apply for Peking University. This is because Peking University has always been my dream place, and I was attracted by the cultural atmosphere there. I definitely felt that after coming here. The consideration at that time was that if I didn’t choose Peking University this time, I might be insulated from Peking University in this life. Therefore, I finally chose Peking University.

Of course, there are many factors to consider when making a choice, such as the probability of success. If you really want to further your studies, the probability of success in the postgraduate entrance examination is still very important. Applying to a school that has a certain chance of winning is a wise choice.