{"id":47622,"date":"2018-06-12T13:40:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T17:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=47622"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:37:47","slug":"governor-generals-medal-winner-strategies-for-success","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/governor-generals-medal-winner-strategies-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Convocation 2018: Governor General\u2019s Medal Winner Recommends Strategies for Academic Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Spring Convocation 2018: Governor General\u2019s Medal Winner Recommends Strategies for Academic Success\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton University Statistics<\/a> graduate Hao Wang, this year\u2019s winner of the Governor General\u2019s Medal<\/a>  \u2013 awarded annually to the undergraduate with the highest academic standing \u2013 has some important advice on how to be a successful student, but it might not be what you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wang\u2019s greatest tip on how to excel academically is to not strive to be the cookie-cutter straight-A student who spends every hour of their day combing through notes and analyzing lecture slides. While that may be necessary, Wang says a student\u2019s strongest strategy for success is to seek collaboration and ask for help when needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat really helped me was having a study group with friends who are actually genuinely interested in the same material,\u201d Wang says. \u201cGoing to office hours and talking to professors or asking questions in general . . .  helps you [to] perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Tight-Knit Community<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After his first year, Wang admits he considered leaving Carleton, but the tight-knit community in the the School of Mathematics and Statistics helped him stick around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a professor turn me down when I knocked on their door for a question, even if it\u2019s not during office hours,\u201d Wang says. \u201cEveryone was willing to answer questions or just talk in general. Two professors in particular, Nicolas Rodrigue, a Biology professor, and Song Cai, a Statistics professor, really helped me a lot and made me want to stay at Carleton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Certain Elegance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Next winter, Wang will pursue a Master of Science in Statistics at Carleton. After completing his master\u2019s degree, Wang says he hopes to pursue a PhD and eventually become a professor in Statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStatistics, as with any branch of Mathematics, has a certain elegance to it that appeals to me,\u201d Wang says. \u201cI like the objective nature of mathematics- answers aren\u2019t going to be judged based on the evaluator. It\u2019s either right or it\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton University Statistics graduate Hao Wang, this year\u2019s winner of the Governor General\u2019s Medal  \u2013 awarded annually to the undergraduate with the highest academic standing \u2013 has some important advice on how to be a successful student, but it might not be what you think. Wang\u2019s greatest tip on how to excel academically is to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":47623,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1919],"class_list":["post-47622","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/47622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/47622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97950,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/47622\/revisions\/97950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=47622"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=47622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}