There are such of people at campus. They are indispensable from the packaging gift packages for freshmen, to organizing campus visits and ice-breaking activities. Although they are students and still on holiday, they are full of energy and enthusiasm. They are busy with freshmen affairs and try their best to help freshmen adapt to university life. They are peer mentors.

The Peer Mentor Project is appeared since the second year of GTIIT established, and it is also a special project of GTIIT. Peer mentors are also teachers and friends. At the beginning of university life, you can treat them as the first friends. You can share your life with them and tell the difficulties and problems, so as to relieve the loneliness of entering an unfamiliar environment and make yourself better and faster to adapt to university life. They are also the first teachers for new students, and they often teach them their own learning and life experience.

Peer mentors are the representative of GTIIT, and they are also the bridge between freshmen and the university. This year's peer mentors come from different programs and different grades. They have brought some learning tips to the freshmen from their own point of view.

Peer Mentors said：

Interact more and find ways to get a high score in preparation for preparatory period

Preparatory period is also a special project of GTIIT, aiming to help freshmen quickly adapt to the mode of all English teaching, so that they can have enough experience in formal semester. During the preparatory period, students will study English, physics, mathematics, and chemistry (except for mathematics and computer science program).

The preparatory courses are mostly based on the connection with high school courses, but you should not be slack because of it is old knowledge. This is a process of developing a university study mode. It is necessary to preview before class, and have a general understanding of the structure and context of the class. GTIIT teaching modes are mostly question-driven. You should listen to the professors with questions, and interact with the professors after class to develop good listening habits.

In order to get used to the English teaching model, in addition to completing the tasks related to the English courses, you also need to practice listening skill. You can go to the video website to search for videos with English subtitles, listen to English with the subtitles, and cultivate your sensitivity and conversion ability to English. In addition, it is necessary to overcome the fear of using English, and interact with English teachers and classmates in English after class to stimulate language ability and use English in daily life.

Preparatory period is also a period of mental adjustment. Although the difficulty of the course will gradually increase, you must remain confident. Believe that you have the ability to overcome these academic difficulties. If you have negative emotions that are difficult to control, in addition to talking to your classmates and peer mentors, you can also send an email to the GTIIT’s psychological counseling teacher (counseling@gtiit.edu.cn) to make an appointment.

Peer Mentors said：

Know the course schedule and plan ahead

The two-month preparatory period will soon finish. After the National Day holiday, the winter semester will come. Before choosing courses, it is better to go to the official website to find the credit allocation of the program, and make a basic plan for the four-year course selection arrangement. Generally speaking, there are many basic courses for freshmen and sophomores, so there will be many courses with a high proportion of credits, which play an important role in the GPA level. With a solid grasp of the theoretical knowledge students can adjust the focus of study in the third and fourth year of university and find their own research direction.

For programs that have more elective courses, such as materials science and engineering, you should plan your own elective courses from the first year instead of thinking them in the third and fourth years. In addition, the courses in the third and fourth years are more comprehensive and difficult so arrange the course as soon as possible can let you have more available time in the third and fourth years.

For programs with more theoretical courses, you can't simply recite theorems, but follow the teacher to find a learning method. Let’s take mathematics and computer science as an example. Compared with other programs, this program has fewer experimental courses but has more theoretical knowledge about mathematics and practical knowledge about computers. Its courses will be divided into three modules: lecture, tutorial and homework. For lecture courses that teach theoretical knowledge, it is necessary to keep up with the teacher's explanation of the proof, so that you can have clear logic and remember theorems easily. There are generally two time periods for tutoring classes. At the beginning, you can go to both time periods to find a teacher that suits you. For difficult assignments, do not ask for answers directly. You can discuss with your classmates or ask the teacher to give some hints, which will make you have a better understanding of them.

Peer Mentors said: 

Steady learning mentality, 

consolidate English skills

Compared with other colleges and universities, the courses in GTIIT are more difficult, and students will have heavy academic pressure even in senior, so the attitude of learning is particularly important. If you don't have the confidence to continue learning, others will be helpless. Believe in your own abilities, do well in every step, and be responsible to yourself, so that you won't be flustered and helpless in the final exam. Moreover, there are two opportunities for the final exam for each course. If you fail the exam in the first time, you can ask the teacher for help and prepare for the B exam. Remember not to let yourself down.

 

As an all-English teaching university, students need to learn a lot of professional English. It is important to memorize professional-related vocabulary. If you ignore this, you will waste a lot of time in searching words in the dictionary while taking exam and this will affect your scores.

Finally, the most important thing is to use every opportunity to interact with teachers and make good use of the Office Hour. Unlike the middle school teaching model, teachers here encourage everyone to ask questions, even if it is only a very easy one, teachers will patiently answer it for you. In addition, interacting more with teachers can leave them good impression, and will be of great help to join the research team and master's applications.