In these three years, I have learnt a lot of exam tactics from my dear mainland classmates in Tsinghua University. Now I am still marvelous at their different kinds of method on achieving higher scores. I talked with some classmates to collect the methods and share with my readers here. Perhaps not every method stated here is universally applicable in all colleges, but I am sure they may enlighten you in some way.

We should pay attention to the fact that the following measures may merely help to score higher, not necessarily learn better. It will be a great disadvantage, however, if we do not know about them, while most of the students around us make use of them to get higher GPA.

The very first step of getting higher GPA is to take the appropriate courses. In most programs, students can make up their own schedule of taking courses whenever they can obtain sufficient credits. Such freedom allows students to earn extra GPA just by pressing a few buttons on the course choosing system.

Difficulty of course

Some courses are more difficult than others. I do not mean that a calculus course is innately more difficult than an algebra course. Many factors should be considered when we evaluate the difficulty of a course:

Syllabus and Instructor: Most professors are allowed to design their own syllabus and time table. Some demanding professors talk faster and more deeply. Courses with the same title can have very diverse teaching topics, and thus difficulty.

Exam: A course has a demanding syllabus does not necessarily indicate the exam is difficult too. I have seen that Advanced Physics is easier than General Physics, in terms of exam questions. Sometimes when the theories or knowledge are too difficult to understand, professors set easier questions to prevent students from getting to many crosses. Well, it is also more difficult for the professors to make out of their own exam questions if the syllabus is really hard.

Homology of exam scripts: Even though an exam may be difficult, we can score high if the professors just use the same questions every year and if we can get the past papers from senior students. One of the questions which is asked frequently in Tsinghua is, “Is the homology of exam very high for this course?”

Familiarity: We can spend less time but get better result in a course if we are familiar with the area. In my department, we have to choose 3 elective math courses for the math module. Most students then take Statistics and Stochastic Methods as two of the courses, because 70% of both courses are talking about the same thing: probability. Some biology students also take Ecology which is open to all students, and obviously they can “beat” students from other departments very easily.

Assignment: If the assignment composes of high percentage of final grade, and if the professor loves to give high score in assignment, you will earn higher grade than a student who is as talented and hardworking as you but chosen a different professor for the same course.

Ask: Ask your senior students about all the information listed above!

Timing

Long term planning:

It generally takes four years for an undergraduate in China to complete the degree. However, the fourth year is different from the first 3 years – we call it “The Post-Grade Age”, meaning that exam grades will not have any effect on our future. No matter we want to apply for a graduate school in foreign countries, or continue to study for master in Tsinghua, only the exam scores of the first three years will be taken. Tricky ways to earn score appears because of this system. Students can take easier courses (with an average of grade A) earlier, and postpone the difficult courses (with an average of grade B-) to Year 4. Again, difficulty here should include all the factors I have listed above, not merely the difficulty of syllabus covered. We should be careful if we want to postpone basic level courses, because fundamental knowledge may be required for advanced level courses. Of course, we can still self-study the prerequisite knowledge for an advanced course and postpone a difficult basic level course to Year 4. Not taking the course does not mean we are not going to study it.

So, by just adjusting the sequence we take courses, some students can get transcripts with higher grades printed on them, although the overall GPA of the four years is the same or lower than other students!

Some students are afraid that they cannot learn well if they choose a senior course because they cannot study together with their own classmates. I was surprised when I found that such belief is quite common in Tsinghua, where talents of the whole country aggregate. College is a place where we learn to learn independently. From my experience, I did not earn higher grades when I take the same course with classmates of my age. We can only learn more when we communicate with those who are more knowledgeable and experienced than us.

Short term planning:

Arrange the course timetable well so that we do not need to attend many difficult lessons on the same day. We will be exhausted. We will not have time to preview the content. And we will soon forget what the professors talk about, even if we can stay awake in the lecture hall.

If we have lab courses, and if we are allowed to choose the time, choose a later period. My classmates attending a Wednesday lab course love to ask the Monday students for experience, so that they can accomplish an experiment successfully and perfectly, and thus get higher grades.

Finally, I would like to remind you that a long term planning is always more important than a short term planning.

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