林林杂语

"How can we study better?" "How did you achieve such a grade?" Some answers to these questions come from our attitude towards learning and doing things. As long as you approach life with the kind of attitude that takes even eye exercises and morning exercises seriously, I think studying should not be difficult for you. In my opinion, a serious attitude towards life is reflected in the following:

• Even if it's just writing your name on an assignment, write it carefully
• Do a good job of what you promise others
• Don't waste time, know what you're doing now
• Make plans

I need to explain the third point, "not wasting time," does not exclude activities like playing video games or watching TV. It's just that you should be aware that the pleasure these activities bring is limited. When the time you spend does not correspond to the pleasure you receive, you should realize that you are "wasting time."

It is difficult for some people to approach studying with a serious attitude. It is also difficult for me to approach certain subjects seriously. Just like how learning programming systematically is extremely difficult for one of my roommates, it is difficult to approach tasks that seem to have low short-term returns and are not interesting to us. The second thing I want to talk about is what Bacon said, "All learning is the acquisition of character." Here, we mix it with Ken's idea of "learning in life" because their differences are very small.

• When you are going downhill, you think about the decrease in gravitational potential energy
• When a friend sends you a picture, you think about knowledge related to pixels and data size
• When relatives talk about "like father, like son" or "like mother, like daughter," you think about knowledge related to genetics and have the ability to explain these things to your relatives using that knowledge
• When the media reports news about species invasion, you think about using the knowledge you learned in middle school biology to collect information scientifically and objectively present your own opinions

Those who have read books have noble spirits. Connecting with what I wrote in my previous article Talking About Behavior in the Dining Hall, if I were to ask those "impolite" people about their academic performance, especially their Chinese language grades, do you think they would be doing well in their studies? Learning shapes our character behind the scenes. (If you say "Reading history makes people wise, reading poetry makes people elegant" when discussing the meaning of studying with others, think about how others would view you.)

Mathematics is rarely used in our daily lives. When we enter society, the content we learned in elementary school mathematics is enough to solve most of the problems we encounter in life. However, what mathematics brings to us is a valuable thinking mode that is more important than the knowledge needed to solve practical problems, which is what we call "speaking through numbers" and making decisions by analyzing data.

When I was trying to write a geography textbook, there was a need to measure the width of a river in a game. I used a ruler to measure the screen and then converted it into a scale to do the calculations. Also, when we set up a table, we need to stick things to the center of a circular turntable, so we use a tape measure to determine the longest chord of the circle, which is the diameter, and the center of the circle is at the midpoint of the diameter.

Subjects like physics, which are practical disciplines, have knowledge that permeates our daily lives. Similar to the example of the decrease in gravitational potential energy when going downhill, when we see the launching of a ship like the Fujian, can we ask ourselves why it can float on the water? If we can connect the knowledge points of physics that permeate our daily lives and think more about them, wouldn't that be better?

English is not just the English in textbooks, but also the English on computers and the internet. For someone like me who frequently needs to use English websites like GitHub, the meanings of words like assignment, issue, request, and content become ingrained in daily practice.

Building websites, besides helping me with English inexplicably, has also helped me in learning programming. (I'm getting a bit off-topic here.)

The third thing I want to talk about is to approach learning with a "playful" attitude. (Note the quotation marks around "playful" and "approach." I only said "approach," not "approach learning with a playful attitude.")

When I was in the ninth grade, I wanted to create a Chinese language test paper that incorporated interdisciplinary thinking, and I also wanted to create a Chinese classical literature wiki. But both ideas failed. Now, in the first year of high school, I want to create a geography textbook, write a paper on a mathematical problem, and create an English listening exercise. These things may also face abandonment. That's all I have to say about this topic. It may not be very replicable, and it's easy to deviate when doing it. However, the interests and research revealed in it may be worth considering.

The fourth thing is to teach others and be a teacher. During evening self-study, I have taught geography to a classmate in the teacher's office. Sometimes she asks me to explain the lesson on thermal circulation, and sometimes she brings me questions she can't solve from the test paper. (There are some questions that I can't explain either, so I go ask the geography teacher and listen myself.) I have also helped her with outlines, and she got three or four questions right on the midterm exam.

The best way to master knowledge is to teach others. Our physics teacher said that if you can teach someone else, then you have a thorough understanding of that knowledge point.

Next, I want to talk about "study when you should study, sleep when you should sleep." This is very important. I have a roommate who drinks coffee and stays up until the early hours of the morning. And it's not just for a day or two. Your body is your capital, and staying up late is not good for your health (I feel this more deeply as someone who has had surgery). Personally, I think that doing your daily assignments well in class and listening attentively is enough.

Finally, when it comes to exams, your mindset must not collapse. Quantum physics tells us that you don't know anything about a particle's condition until you observe it. By analogy, before your exam scores and rankings are released, you don't know anything about your exam performance. I heard that the college entrance examination is based on a standard score, and the CET-4 and CET-6 exams are based on the performance of the norm group. Scores are compared, and what you are competing in the exam is your ability (the competitiveness of your scores), not your grades. Your ability is there, and your ranking won't drop.