Goodbye 2022! Hello 2023!
First, I’d like to wish everyone a happy Chinese New Year, good luck in the Year of the Rabbit, success in studies, smooth work, and all the best 🎉
Without realizing it, today is already the fifth day of the lunar new year.
According to the original plan, this article should have been completed before the new year, but it wasn’t possible.
It seems that there wasn’t much worth recording in 2022, and perhaps I haven’t mustered the courage to truly bid farewell to 2022.
Last Year’s Plans
I didn’t set too many plans for myself in the past year; the main task was to successfully complete the postgraduate entrance examination.

Why Take the Postgraduate Entrance Exam
I’ve asked my friends why they chose to take the postgraduate entrance exam. The answers generally fell into these categories:
- Want to stay at school or teach at universities, pursuing postgraduate studies and PhD is a necessary step
- Feel like they haven’t learned much in undergraduate studies and want to try postgraduate studies to learn real skills
- Try it out - if they get in, great; if not, they can look for jobs. No harm in trying
- Really dislike their current major and want to pursue their interests by studying what they truly want to learn
- After four years of university with three years of pandemic, it’s too competitive now. Don’t want to enter society so early and want to extend campus life
- Starting salaries for postgraduates are much higher than undergraduates. With the current complex employment situation, getting a postgraduate degree first and “coasting” for a few years before seeking employment makes sense
- Didn’t do well in the college entrance exam and want to improve their educational credentials through postgraduate studies. Can also meet more outstanding people and expand their network
Why I Chose to Take the Exam

In my first and second years, I never had any thoughts about pursuing postgraduate studies and didn’t take my studies very seriously.
Until later, when I found my interest and discovered something I could love for life - Coding.
Programming is a Practical Art
Programming is a tool for creation and self-expression, just like a musician’s score, a painter’s colors, or a writer’s words.
However, no creative tool has ever been as powerful and free as programming, and no tool has ever been able to carry our imagination like programming does.
It can reach up to grab the moon or dive down to catch fish in the ocean. It is a gift given to us technical people by this information age to express ourselves and look to the horizon.
The Experience of Programming
—Excerpt from Lei Jun's (Xiaomi founder) "My Programming Life Journey"
Programmers Live in Their Imagined Kingdom
When I first encountered computers, I discovered their wonder - computers are far less complex than people. If you write your programs well, you can have a good relationship with computers and command them to do what you want.
At these moments, you are the absolute ruler. Every time you sit in front of the computer, you are touring your kingdom. Such days are simply heavenly.
The world inside computers is vast, and programmers live in their imagined kingdoms. You can imagine everything down to each byte and bit inside the computer.
I love programming work, and I can certainly say I’ll do it for life
...
How to Go Further and More Steadily
Having determined my direction forward, I began to think about how to go further and more steadily.
Given my non-computer science background, I felt some trepidation and wanted to give myself more time to study in school, increase my knowledge, enrich my experience, and improve my abilities to be fully prepared before entering my chosen career.
This was my initial thought.

Overview of the 2023 Postgraduate Entrance Exam

From starting preparation in March to finishing the exam in December, it was about 300 days.
Though the preparation time seems long, the effective study time was much less.
A Difficult Start
At the beginning, I was really lost and confused, not knowing whose courses to take, whose practice questions to do, which school to apply to, which materials to buy…
Moreover, I hadn’t touched public courses like mathematics and English for so long that it took time just to recover my high school foundation.
From March to June, there were still some courses to study at school. In April, due to the pandemic, we were locked in the dormitory for about a month. At the end of May and early June, we had to prepare for final exams…
During this time, I roughly looked at some professional course content (data structures, computer networks). I also went through the basics of advanced mathematics and linear algebra. For English, I memorized some vocabulary and did some reading comprehension. I didn’t look at politics.
Critical Summer Vacation Period
Summer vacation was the golden period for preparation. During this time, I mainly focused on mathematics and professional courses, followed by English.
But the hot weather made people feel somewhat anxious, and due to weak foundations, the intensive phase was also full of difficulties.
Anxious October-November
In October-November, the main task was to practice past exam papers and mock tests.
For mathematics, I could actually do pre-2020 past papers quite well, but the calculations were really extensive and it was difficult to complete all the questions I knew how to do with quality within three hours. For post-2020 questions, the difficulty level stepped up, with more thinking and calculations required, which was a bit overwhelming. As for mock tests, I mainly did Li Lin’s six sets and four sets (didn’t finish them all), doing them until near breakdown.
Due to poor planning, I had forgotten a lot of professional course knowledge at this stage, which made it difficult to progress with professional course past papers. In the end, I could only learn through doing questions, completing recent years’ past papers.
For English, I did reading comprehension from recent years. Although the accuracy rate was considerable when time allowed, it was still difficult to complete with quality within the specified time.
Around early November, I formally started studying politics for the postgraduate exam. Although I had looked at some before, it wasn’t systematic and I hadn’t done corresponding exercises. After looking at theoretical knowledge for about a week, I went straight to doing Xiao 8 multiple choice questions.
Slacking Off in December
At the end of November, many provinces in China reported large numbers of new positive cases, and the epidemic situation became severe again.
On December 4th, the school found one positive case, suspended dining hall service, closed the library, and students voluntarily stayed in their dormitories for isolation.

This time we isolated in the dormitory for about two days, and I basically didn’t study much during these two days. It was probably during these two days that the taut string suddenly relaxed.
With the announcement of the postponement of the Civil Service Exam (and other various exams) at the end of November, the topic of whether the 2023 postgraduate entrance exam would be postponed was also pushed to the forefront.

Staying in the dormitory, not wanting to study, I closely followed such news, browsing through Zhihu, Bilibili, and Weibo.
Whether the postgraduate exam would be postponed was closely related to the epidemic situation.
Initially, the epidemic came on fiercely, and local governments still adopted the “zero-COVID policy,” with mass nucleic acid testing and silent isolation.
But with the release of the “New Ten Points” on December 7th, the epidemic prevention policy suddenly made a U-turn, and domestic public opinion exploded.
When something unusual happens, there must be a reason, so I learned about some “current political affairs” from foreign websites. All I can say is, this history has no era.

After opening up, more and more people tested positive.
On the 21st, according to regulations, candidates underwent mass nucleic acid testing.
On the 22nd, the school found many positive cases.

Actually, calls for postponing the postgraduate exam were very strong until the evening of the 23rd, but… those who know, know.

A Dramatic Ending
On the 23rd, the night before the exam, I felt unwell and took my temperature - 37.7°C.
That night, although I was very tired, I really couldn’t sleep, tossing and turning, and in the end only rested for about an hour.

After getting up, I quickly took my temperature again - 38.8°C.

A strange thing was that although my body was really hot, my brain was unusually excited. In a daze, without taking fever medicine, I went to the exam room.
After sitting down, I gradually began to feel very unwell, started feeling dizzy, and finally had a fever that made my eyes hurt.
At 11:30, I walked out of the exam room feeling weak all over, with a voice seemingly echoing in my ears: Should I go in the afternoon?
I don’t know how long it took me to walk from the teaching building to the dormitory building…
Back in the dormitory, I took a fever pill and lay on the desk.

Although health is the foundation of revolution, and giving up one exam won’t make the sky fall, after much thought, I still chose to persist.
If I had really chosen to give up then, I think I would be very remorseful now.
Around 1:30, the fever subsided somewhat, and I went to the exam room to take the English exam in the afternoon.
My physical condition was better on the second day than the first, but my throat was still particularly itchy, and I kept coughing.
Life Fragments During Exam Preparation
[Images section with multiple photos showing various moments during exam preparation]
What Lessons Did the Postgraduate Exam Teach Me
In 2005, Steve Jobs said in his speech at Stanford University:
Full video link: Click here
[Quote from Steve Jobs about connecting the dots]
We cannot predict what will happen tomorrow, but we still need to get through today.
Any experience has meaning; maybe five years, ten years, or twenty years later, we will discover its value.
Therefore, it may not be wise to calculate current gains and losses. We should extract nutrients from past experiences, condense them into retrievable points, and believe they will shine in the future.

How to Learn
I have always been someone who doesn’t quite understand how to learn efficiently, and even today, I’m still exploring.
Two and a half years of confused university life created a certain gap in my learning (specifically referring to some necessary learning behaviors for exams).
This made me face some questions at the beginning of exam preparation: What is the essence of learning? How should one learn? How can one learn more efficiently?
I read some articles here and there and watched some popular science videos, coming into contact with some knowledge about brain science, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, etc. (of course, just scratching the surface).
Later I learned that these studies are classified as an interdisciplinary field called “cognitive science.”

[Quote about cognitive science]
The Traps of Growth
During the exam preparation period, I accidentally came across a book called “Cognitive Awakening.”
Let me share the preface of the book with everyone (excerpt), original link: Click here
[Quote from the book about life’s journey and awakening]

This book actually had a big impact on me; it made me start deeply reflecting on the past.
Why do we study? Why do we take the college entrance exam? Why did we go to university and why did we choose our current major, why take the postgraduate exam?
Many times, we don’t have a clear and definite goal, but are pushed forward by parents, society, and the era.
Before age 18, we study hard for the college entrance exam, but what’s on the other side of the mountain?
“You’ll be free when you get to university!” Is that really true?
From being full of enthusiasm to gradually becoming laid-back, later, we found that university is just so-so.
This is a trap that must be experienced in natural growth.
More often, we are not the directors of life, but actors in life.
You Can Never Be Ready
In 2019, Tim Cook said in his speech at Stanford University:
Full video link: Click here
[Quote from Tim Cook about never being ready]
Wait until I’m ready to travel.
Wait until I’m ready to start a business.
Wait until I’m ready to do self-media.
Wait until I’m ready to pursue love.
In fact, we can never be ready, and completion is more important than perfection.
Hello, NIO! Hello, Future!
On February 8, 2022, I received an email.

On January 9, 2023, I decided to take a leap of faith.

Find hope in the unexpected, seek courage in challenges.
Hello, NIO! Hello, Future! Goodbye, 2022!