What is "four and a half"? Allen Benson explained that "four" refers to academic level, critical spirit, innovative ability and problem-solving wisdom, while the other half refers to learning objectives and motivation.
The academic level of China students applying for Harvard University is generally relatively high, which can be reflected in the written application materials provided by students. They can get high marks in SAT, TOEFL and IELTS. Especially the SAT, there are many winners with perfect scores. In the other three aspects, it is relatively lacking.
The examination of "critical ability" will be reflected in the interview process. During the interview, the examiner may set a threshold to mislead the candidates and deliberately give the wrong answer to see if the candidates respond in time.
On the other hand, even if the examiner is correct, candidates can question him. Candidates can show their critical ability as long as they ask questions according to their original knowledge, instead of asking some naive and simple questions.
"Innovation ability" seems illusory, but it can also be assessed through interviews. Sometimes the examiner will give you a few questions, and none of these questions have correct answers. Candidates have to say "why" after answering "what", which depends on the way of thinking and research process of candidates. For example, ask "How did Einstein surpass his own theory?"
Professor Allen said: "There are many unsolved mysteries in the world. Stay calm about what you don't know. It doesn't matter if you can't find the answer. How to deal with the problem is as important as finding the answer. "
"Problem-solving wisdom" is also very important. The examiner may give you a pile of materials so that you can find the answer in five minutes.
Harvard University also requires students to have clear goals for their future. Those who are prepared are successful people. During the interview, the examiner will check whether the students know their major and what they plan to do after graduation. They believe that a person should set goals and be enterprising in the second year of high school, so that students will have enough motivation when they study.
To experience Harvard, students have a clear purpose.
April 13 written test is to select students who come to Harvard to experience summer life. Dozens of students from all over Jiangsu took the exam, and students from Nanjing Foreign Language School, Middle School Affiliated to Heather Normal University and Jinling Middle School all took the exam. Nanwai has the largest number of students, accounting for nearly half.
It is understood that every summer, more than 65,438+0,000 high school students from all over the world are selected to experience life in the Summer School of Harvard University. After four weeks of study, you can get four credits from Harvard University, which can be transferred to the undergraduate university where students will study in the United States in the future. Zhang Wuhua, head of AXA Education Foundation, who is in charge of the selection, said: "Students who are selected can generally be admitted to the United States, and there is a considerable chance of being selected by Ivy League schools."
Because of this, almost all the students who participate in the project selection have plans to study in the United States. Liu Tongxue, a freshman at Nanwai University, really wants to go to an American university to study medicine. Her mother is a primary school teacher and her father is a doctor. Her income is average, but her parents support her to study abroad and are willing to pay nearly 70,000 yuan for the four-week summer camp.
Liu Tongxue's mother said, "Going out has a great influence on children. The child went to the University of California in the summer vacation of the third grade. After returning, he obviously loved labor and his ability was enhanced a lot. She flew from Shanghai to Los Angeles alone, which was very smooth. " She is keen to let her daughter participate in various overseas projects because: let her children expand their living space and have different life experiences, and then work happily and do what they like, instead of being forced by life and working passively.
Professor Allen holds a similar view: if a child wants to go out, parents should give him enough space. He also suggested that parents try to be satisfied with their children's performance. It is inevitable for children to make mistakes, and as long as they don't make them again, they can be tolerated. "Allowing mistakes is very helpful to cultivate children's sense of innovation."
Candidates also have a knack for dealing with exams.
How difficult is it to choose the exam? The students who walked out of the examination room told the reporter that the examination was divided into three parts: listening, writing and reading. The question type is a bit like IELTS test, which is equivalent to the difficulty of IELTS 7.5.
Listening has half an hour of questions, many questions and fast speed; There are two writing problems. The first is to describe the bar graph in English. The second general idea is: "People with college education should get higher wages than those without college education. Do you agree? Write an article on this. " The reading problem is that there are many new words.
Candidates find writing difficult. Some students didn't understand the meaning of the question at all, and didn't grasp the topic at all. Liu Aizhou, a senior at Nanwai University, said with experience that it is best to have a prominent point of view to answer such questions, and the staple food will be boring. When she answered this question, she did not absolutely affirm or deny it, but analyzed it from a neutral point of view: the level of salary depends on work ability rather than academic qualifications, and university education should pay more attention to cultivating students' ability, so that people with university education can be more competent for their jobs and naturally get higher wages.