Gary
class of 2022, University of Cambridge
Hello everyone, I am Yifan Gao from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. I studied in Shenzhen College of International Education between 2020 and 2022. In my university application, I received offers from UCL mathematics and mathematical physics, Waterloo honored Mathematics Program(with scholarship), Warwick mathematics and Edinburg mathematics. I couldn’t achieve all of these without the help of my teachers and friends in SCIE, and of course, my parents.
The first time I heard about SCIE is summer,2019. One friend of my father’s introduced this wonderful school to me and I was determined to getting into the campus. However, the entrance exam date was in conflict with the final exam in my own school, so for insurance consideration I had to give up this precious chance. One year later, during the Covid pandemic where everyone was studying at home, I took multiple choices in consideration, such as WLSA and Beijing No.4 High School. But I insisted that SCIE was the best suitable and my dream school. With strong motivation, I successfully got into the campus with double A*.
When I first came to SCIE, I was amazed that New A1s and Old G1s could differ in such great fashion. The old G1s could maturely talk to teachers and finish their work and readings very efficiently, and they always took part in the House competition once a week. However, it was even difficult for me to finish chemistry homework without a markscheme. Thanks to Hangrove, who taught me how to adapt to this brand new education system. Under his help, my grades went very well in a short time. After that, I concluded a very mature but highly efficient studying method: Preview the content and find questions—listen carefully in class—ask questions frequently but wisely—do homework and make notes—do pastpaper questions before important exams. During my studies, I found that ALEVEL differs from traditional Chinese high school syllabus. For example, in ALEVEL physics writing sentences was usually more important than formulas, especially in Thermophysics and Magnetic Fields. The ALEVEL seemed to emphasize on our inner logic and every question had its own key points.
My dormitory life is very diverse as well. Edison from Shanxi Taiyuan and Stephen from Hainan Haikou are my best friends who lived with me day and night. I couldn’t forget the time we spent together studying for the CAIE final exams. We created a self-studying room called the Candle-Light room. We read together, did STEP questions together and drank coffee together. You gave me the warmest support and therefore I could be more determined when doing real exams.
I had a really close relationship with Edison. There used to be a time when I was in conflict with my history teacher because I chose the wrong course. By the time I unfortunately had diseases due to weather conditions in Shenzhen, so I was very unhappy at that time. I couldn’t stop missing my home in Northern China. Edison, as an old Taiyuan er, therefore told me some old memories about Xinghualing and Yingze Street in Taiyuan, and he even found some rock music from Beijing underground music. I was moved deeply when he spent so much time comforting my sole.
Stephen is also one of the top students I ever knew. He had very strong ability of self-management and always kept everything in order, no matter his studies or his daily life. He used to be the provincial members of CS competitions so his logic thinking was very strong, which left me with deep impression. He finally received offer from UCL computer science. Stephen spoke Cantonese very fluently and usually told us how to sing Cantonese songs. I felt very amazed when learning a new language from others. As a gift, we traveled to Tianjin after graduation and watched some xiangsheng, a traditional northern Chinese opera.
Firstly we need to establish a good relationship with our councilors. You could talk to your councilor about your current study status, or you could discuss your university major and your study purposes. Penny Rhoads, an American doctor in Vanderbilt University, helped me a lot when I was determining my major, and I finally chose mathematics. She always gave me precious advice on studying the subjects, including what books I should read and what kind of research I should do. Elva, my councilor in A2 semester, helped me when I was editing my personal statement. She also gave suggestions on how to chose 5 schools, so that I felt very confident when I was waiting for my application results, because I knew the universities and the courses I chose were evenly distributed.
Next, be serious on every test, especially the final CAIE AS and AL exams. I got 98-97-91-97 in my AS exam series and 93-98-95 in my AL exams(exclude AL mathematics). These grades really helped me stand out when the admission officers reviewed my application. Besides, I participated in a physics summer school oriented by Washington Saint Louis University, and reached a GPA of 4.0. I did a research in Complex Analysis and wrote a paper independently as well. I also participated in multiple competitions such as Euclid, AMC, BPHO and UKCHO, and got wonderful grades. This definitely helped my application.
Last but not least, I read some professional books during my application season, such as Thomas Calculus, Linear Algebra, Mathematical methods for physics, Complex Analysis and Ordinary Differential Equations. These books provided me with very good contents for my person statement.
In SCIE I also participated two academic club, theoretical physics club and mathematics tribe. The first one was held by a G2 student who is very good at physics, and the latter one was held by my classmate Jessica, a student who was admitted by Cambridge. She demonstrated great ability for studying mathematics and key traits of what a Cambridge student should possess: diligent, enthusiastic, reliable and optimistic. She taught me some excellent theorems in pure mathematics, which stimulated my interest in studying mathematics.
I love traveling. I have been to many places during my study in Shenzhen, such as Shenzhen Bay park, Futian CBD and Huaqiangbei, dameisha and the old Shuiwei campus. These places are unforgettable. I am also an exclusive photographer of Beijing(joking), keeping photographing the wonderful capital of our country.
Besides, I love playing computer games such as Hitman series. I am not interested in the killing part, instead, I am more fascinated by the hidden Easter egg in the game which allows me to discover a brand new way of success. This is essentially no difference to studying mathematics, and it is similar to discovering a new theorem and finishing a complete proof, which brings me a sense of accomplishment.
Now my study in SCIE has finished and I graduated successfully, but when I first came here the campus was rigid and bald with no flowers and trees. When I left, the campus was green and surrounded by trees and flowers. It was us, the graduate of 2022, that brought life and vitality to the new campus. I hope that 2023 and 2024ers could continue our legend and make SCIE better!
