I'm a scientist, why can't I have faith?

Zhihu, this blue software, like Tieba, arose along with the Internet.

As one of the few Q&A communities in China, Zhihu rose rapidly in its early days thanks to its extremely professional answers and almost authentic experiences.

More than a decade ago, this place was truly a place where everyone was a big shot.

A seemingly insignificant ID may actually represent an elite individual whom ordinary people would never have the opportunity to meet in their daily lives.

Tsinghua, Peking University, and the top five universities in China are only the minimum standards; you'd be embarrassed to even speak without experience at a prestigious overseas university.

With the development of the Internet age, watching Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A website) has inexplicably become a craze among middle school students.

Perhaps it's due to the pretentious mentality of adolescence, or perhaps Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A website) really can broaden the horizons of teenagers.

At some point, young people began to flock to this community, as early pioneers gradually left and the skill levels of newcomers varied.

Although Zhihu has now become a distorted community where everyone is better than those from Tsinghua and Peking Universities, or even a short story collection for female readers.

But you can't underestimate it because of that, after all, there are still some really good players active in it.

Following Gong Zhan's instructions, Wang Dong entered keywords such as "system," "self-study," and "university," and a series of historical questions appeared before his eyes.

Although most of these answers are from two or three years ago and not very timely, they are more than enough for Wang Dong now.

He simply needs the guidance of a lighthouse in the fog. Once he emerges from the fog, he will gradually transform his small sailboat into a mobile fortress on the sea, relying on his own abilities.

Moreover, answering how to learn a subject on your own is far too easy for the experts on Zhihu.

Anyone who has studied a relevant subject at a 985 university can provide corresponding guidance and advice.

However, there are differences in quality among them.

There are many considerations, from the direction of entry to the order of learning, and even which textbook to use.

In the answers from experts, even for a single subject, there is a clear hierarchy of disdain for the corresponding textbooks.

In general, original foreign textbooks > translated foreign textbooks >= textbooks written by top domestic experts > ordinary self-written textbooks.

This is not simply about worshipping foreign things. Due to historical reasons, modern science originated in the West, and their basic research is indeed ahead. However, in recent years, China has caught up with or even surpassed China in many fields.

Furthermore, the differences between Chinese and Western educational philosophies are fully reflected in the arrangement of teaching materials.

Domestically, there is an emphasis on systematic summarization, while abroad, there is a greater emphasis on the understanding and application of concepts.

It can only be said that each has its own merits and varies from person to person.

After browsing through a large number of answers, Wang Dong had a general plan for his learning direction.

Just as he had thought before, mathematics is indeed the foundation of all sciences.

In higher education, the first course for any science and engineering major is always advanced mathematics.

Of course, mathematics majors don't study advanced mathematics; instead, they start with the more extreme mathematical analysis.

After careful consideration and drawing on the experience of various industry leaders, Wang Dong decided not to choose the more challenging mathematical analysis.

Instead, he chose advanced mathematics, since his goal was to take the college entrance examination.

Calculus is the most helpful advanced mathematics knowledge for the college entrance examination. While linear algebra and similar subjects may be helpful, their effect is negligible.

Therefore, Wang Dong chose advanced mathematics as his starting point to facilitate the connection with the content of the physics, chemistry and biology competitions.

According to the experience shared by a Zhihu expert, he discovered a characteristic.

The five major subject competitions in high school, excluding the informatics competition.

The physics, chemistry, and biology competitions all involve university-level course content, while the mathematics competition is almost a culmination of elementary mathematics skills.

Considering the nature of the subjects, only university courses in physics, chemistry, and biology are most helpful for the college entrance examination.

However, Wang Dong does not need to learn everything; he only needs to identify the most helpful parts and then build the corresponding subject system.

As for more systematic learning...

Let's talk about it when I can reliably get into Tsinghua or Peking University.

Thus began Wang Dong's second round of intensive study.

As for the choice of teaching materials...

That would of course be the most classic Tongji University Press edition of "Advanced Mathematics" (8th edition). I believe that friends who have studied advanced mathematics are very familiar with these two green books.

As a highly praised classic textbook, it is the first choice for most schools and postgraduate entrance examination candidates.

For the two weeks following this decision, you could always see Wang Dong sitting in the back row at school, engrossed in a green book.

Apart from Chinese and English, two humanities subjects that Wang Dong struggled with, he would secretly take out "Advanced Mathematics" for a short break whenever it wasn't a problem-solving session but a review session.

It might be quite mentally taxing for the average person, but it's just right for Wang Dong, who has a "thinking level of 0.2".

However, even geniuses need time to learn.

After about two weeks of study, Wang Dongcai fully mastered the contents of the two books on "Advanced Mathematics".

If he hadn't had to do practice problems for other subjects every night, his learning progress would have been even faster, but at least he completed his plan.

Next up are other subjects.

He still skipped physics. There was no way around it; Sir Isaac Newton's teaching was too brilliant, resulting in Wang Dong's understanding of physics in the college entrance examination being already at its peak.

He even felt that sometimes Lao Wu's explanations weren't as good as his own, but of course he wouldn't intentionally embarrass Lao Wu.

What Wang Dong didn't know was that Lao Wu was not only the physics director of Tianhai No. 1 Middle School, responsible for the teaching syllabus for all students, but also the Education Bureau's go-to training master, specializing in training teachers who had just been promoted to senior professional titles.

What's even more terrifying is that he was one of the people who set the college entrance examination questions in Tianhai City; he was the one who set the physics exam paper two years ago.

You're saying that such an excellent teacher doesn't have as high a level of understanding of high school physics as you?

This is all thanks to Sir Isaac Newton.

With physics removed, only chemistry and biology remain. Although the content seems extensive, Wang Dong only needs to read three books in total.

Jilin University Press published "Inorganic Chemistry" edited by Professor Song, Yenching University Press published "Basic Organic Chemistry" edited by Professor Xing, and "General Biology" compiled according to Professor Chen's last wishes.

Mastering these three books can effectively address Wang Dong's shortcomings in chemistry and biology, helping him to successfully build his knowledge base.

All three books are quite thick; they could be described as bricks. He spent far more time on these three books than on "Advanced Mathematics."

Gong Zhan had the most direct experience of Wang Dong's dedication to studying books.

Although he had already been admitted to Yenching University's School of Physics through the International Science Competition and did not need to take the college entrance examination, he still needed a high school diploma.

He came to school every day, just for fun, and because of this, he observed his classmates more closely.

He might not know about others, but Wang Dong is truly a quick learner!

Aside from eating and drinking, he would spend all his free time reading those few tattered books that were heavier than his life.

He wasn't as diligent as Wang Dong when preparing for the Physics Olympiad finals.

The key is that not only do they read it, but they read it very quickly. In just two days without paying attention, they finished dozens of pages.

Gong Zhan has studied competitions. Although physics and chemistry are different, that is still university-level knowledge!

He spent more than two months studying just one book, "General Physics," and he only got a general understanding of it.

After spending these days with Wang Dong, he had a general understanding of Wang Dong's personality. He was the kind of person who took every step steadily and would never move forward until he had a complete grasp of the current situation.

Wang Dong is now learning faster than most of the competition champions he has ever met.

Gong Zhan even suspected that if this guy had studied two or three months earlier, he would have had a very good chance of winning an award in the competition.

While guaranteed admission is not guaranteed, there is a high probability that you will receive a spot with a reduced admission score.

Why did such a capable guy remain completely inconspicuous for the first two years?

Do you like to play dumb to fool others?

It seems Wang Dong's way of showing off far surpasses mine...