Freedom and Ease— Chinese High Schools Are Different from American Universities

中国高中和美国大学最大的区别在于,你对自己的时间有更多的控制权。在大多数中国高中,每天的时间表由学校决定,包括起床和宿舍宵禁时间。因此,在中国高中,你只需要计划好你将如何学习。然而,这并不是说大学一定更自由;相反,大学生活要求你更加自律。在华语高中,如果你没有提交作业或上课,老师会去宿舍,叫你上课,甚至在你完成作业时监督你。在大学里,你是否完成作业或上课取决于你。没有人会因为你缺课而来到你的宿舍强行叫醒你。大学生活确实更加自由,但也需要更大的自律。

我想大多数中国高中生都听过父母说过,”高中好好学习,上大学后生活会更轻松。从这句话中可以推断出,中国高中的要求极高,压力很大。我在中国南方的一个城市上高中,在那里,作为大四学生,我们早上6:20起床,晚上10:30上床睡觉。白天,我们有 2 个小时的午餐和午睡时间,下午有一个小时的时间吃晚饭和洗衣服。然而,与中国北方的高中相比,这个时间表被认为相对容易,中国北方的学生可能需要在早上 5:30 起床,在午夜上床睡觉。每当我与其他国家的人分享这一点时,他们都很难相信并认为这是不可接受的。在中国,来自低收入家庭的学生必须考上一所好大学才能找到一份好工作。进入好大学的唯一途径是在高中三年级后参加全国”高考”。2023年,近1200万学生参加了”高考”,但只有30%的学生被大学录取。因此,中国的高中生活可谓充满挑战。我是春天来到UWGB的,这是我在这里的第二个月。除了语言和生活方式差异带来的挑战外,美国大学的要求确实不如中国高中。然而,我也明白,这最终归结为自律。如果我想在这里学到更多,我不能让它太容易。

 

 

What A Struggle

 

What A Struggle

The biggest struggle for me in college is studying because I never needed to in high school. When coming into college I didn’t think I was going to need to study as much as I really do because I thought I retained information well. I was severely mistaken. Since I am a human biology major my courses are very difficult and need extra attention. Since I need to study so much, I should have found an effective strategy, but I haven’t yet. There were many study strategies that I have tried like a study group, Quizlet’s, rewriting my notes, quizzing, and flashcards, but none of them seemed to work. During group study sessions I always get off topic and start talking about something else and not doing any work which leads the others to get off topic too. Whenever I try to study my mind just wonders off and I can’t stay focused long enough to retain any new information. I’ve got to start focusing on studying more and with no distractions present.
Along with not being good at studying the courses are insanely more difficult than those in high school. Just the other day in lecture going through new material and it sounds like it’s not even real words just made up. In high school I could just sleep or sit on my phone in the back of the class and still get a high A, but in these classes I could do the complete opposite and get a C. Another example that makes college classes so much more difficult than high school is when taking notes on the computer and the computer thinks that the word is spelled wrong even though it’s correct. Anyone who thinks that high school to college was going to be an easy transition is most definitely retracting that statement.


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Stuck in a Hole? Stop Digging.

Sitting at a table on the 5th floor of the Cofrin Library, staring at the setting sun. The reality of my situation has hit me like a train. College is way more demanding than I anticipated. I stress about the workload that’s before me, exams in three days, essays due next week, even evaluations tomorrow. It’s overwhelming and my lack of time management skills have dug a hole for me. This feeling is not new to me, I had similar problems in high school. Where procrastination and other enticing activities pulled me away from school and placed me into hour long videos about the history of Star Wars. However I find myself focused more on talking to advisors and staring at my email to pass the time. This needs to stop, I need to organize my time efficiently.

The lack of organization I’ve had for time is the root of my problems. It causes me to have an adrenaline rush and rush to finish my work at the last minute. The fear of not only ensuring I don’t turn in my work late, but also the quality of my work plagues me.  This fear is accelerated by the fact that my workload makes it so I can’t do last minute work. The overwhelming work I’ve encountered is mainly essays and exams for classes which is brought on by my sixteen credits. Time management is key to this problem as well. While I can’t stop the exams and essay rate for my classes, I can effectively chip away at them over time. The faults I face today stem from me and it has had a significant and lasting impact not only on my stress, but my mental health. I have found myself in a hole and the first thing I need to do is stop digging.