First Year Engineering Advice?

[Kellus]

Hi, playground. So I'm starting first year engineering (in Canada) this year, and so far the main thing everybody has told me is that it's incredibly, brutally hard and demanding. I get that it's going to be a massive workload and a huge time commitment, but I'm looking for more specific stuff from people that have gone through it themselves. Any advice for time management or study habits that helped you out? I'm going to be stepping up my game massively from high school, especially since I've been out of school for a few years, but I'd love to hear any advice you folks have accrued.

[Ricky S]

Basically university is meant for learning. If you aren't prepared to study hard then save your money and stay out of uni for a bit longer. The biggest mistake I made was going to university when I wasn't ready.

Engineering does require a lot of effort and it requires you to go to all of your lectures and classes. If you dont you will simply fall behind and then struggle to catch up again. Never be afraid of asking for help from your tutors or lecturers or friends. Make sure that you don't get caught up in partying or anything like that. Focus on your studies. However you do need to have some fun otherwise you will burn yourself out. I suggest making one day a week freetime and the rest of the week studying.

I have fri night and sat morning as my free time. I might go to a party or watch a movie but it lets me wind down and you'll need some time to cut loose too.

Set an alarm clock for the same time everyday so you can get into a rythm. Make sure you have a good breakfast each day and if possible excercise in the morning before you go to uni. It will keep you healthy and help with your concentration during the day.

I don't actually study engineering but all these suggestions work for any course. Good luck.

[Erloas]

Well I went through engineering technology rather then straight engineering... and well all I can really say is that I didn't find it that hard. But to be fair after tests my classmates stopped asking me what I thought of them because they said I didn't count.

But it was just like school has always been, if you actually show up and pay attention and do the work they give you then you should be fine. If you are skipping classes and just not doing the homework they give you then its going to be hard. Of course exactly how much time it takes you to do all of that will be very dependent on your teachers. I had one teacher that wouldn't give homework on fridays, I had another that thought that fridays were a good day for extra homework.

[Winter_Wolf]

I hear that engineering involves a LOT of mathematics. I've also heard that you get a lot of homework (or maybe "you should have done this even if you don't turn it in"), which probably consumes a lot of time if you put in due diligence. There is also a correct answer when you do things involving math, as opposed to liberal arts, in which being able BS provide support of your point of view counts for 90% of your grade.

[Mando Knight]

Except with quantum or fatigue fracture mechanics. Then you get back to the making numbers up and supporting your answer bit. :smalltongue:

...Also, "just" engineering? What's up with that? It's like you're trying to compress four, six, maybe eight departments into one... or maybe I just have a strange perspective. (http://mst.edu/)

Furthermore (http://tf2.com/classes.php?class=engineer), engineering means you'll need to learn to solve problems. Not problems like, "what is beauty?" because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. Engineers solve practical problems.

[Kageru]

Well I'm studying Informatik Ingeneurswesen, I think it's called Technical Informatics which has some overlap with the engineering lectures at my uni(electro-technic, mechanic, math). It compared to school it is harder, but that hardly means that you have to spend all your time learning(well if you aren't good at math you might have to, quite a few people drop out after all).
One thing: someone said you should visit all lecture, and if you are a good listener (or if they are mandatory) that might be useful. But depending on the way you learn, lectures can be very inefficient. I learn almost nothing from lectures, I learn much faster and better by reading the script for the lecture. With a good script it's quite possible to write the exam without visiting any of the lectures.
In my opinion it's much more important to do the exercises/homework they give you. In my experience the speed at which you can solve a problem is quite important in exams and I think solving similar problems is the best way to train that.

[Feytalist]

Attend all your classes. Try to understand everything that is said. If not, don't be afraid to go ask your lecturers. Self-study. Like, a lot. Do all the examples given, even if you don't have to. Again, make sure you understand what's going on.

Engineering is hard, make no mistake about it. Depending on your eventual specialisation, there will be a lot of Mathematics. And not just that, but applied maths as well, which is less theorems but much much more practical (and difficult) examples and problems. Even if your competencies lie that way (and I assume they do, given you chose that direction) they will be difficult. You will have very little free time, so make yourself ready for that. The boring theoretical stuff will come first, and you'll only really do practical work in your later years, so it's best to get used to it. The most important advice I can give is to make sure you really know what you're learning and how it fits into everything else. Simply parroting facts won't get you far.

Note that I didn't actually study engineering, so this is all second-hand advice. But two of my best friends and housemates did, so I know how it goes.

[thubby]

go to class, always.
take notes.

and i can't emphasize this enough.
DO THE WORK IN THE TEXTBOOKS, ALL OF IT. YES, EVEN THAT ONE. (hm, maybe i can :smallconfused:)


a lot of the stuff you'll learn at first is really abstract, the best way to wrap your brain around it is to work it out until your brain does it its sleep.

[Keld Denar]

Don't don't don't DON'T fall behind in math. My freshman year, I did like, 9-10 hours of homework (defined as learning done outside the classroom) a week just for Calc I and Calc II. I got 4.0s in both because of that. Because of that strong foundation, I was able to build off of it into Calc III and Calc IV which were much harder. Depending on what discipline you go into, various things will be much more important, but you have to learn it all. My buddy was electrical, and he lives and breaths LaPlace Transforms. Thats the answer to like, 80% of stuff he does. I'm mechanical, and stress analysis involves more Fourier Transforms to solve. Still, you won't get into that until Calc IV, which you need a strong foundation in Calc I - III to do well in. Also, don't neglect your algebraic solving skillz. They actually come in handy a ton in higher level math. Its funny because when you get to solving 2nd order differential equations, you enter a wierd math quantum time loop and start using the quadratic equation again. Full circle!

[Ya Ta Hey!]

Here is what my BSME taught me:


Freshman and Sophomore Years

Engineering students are self-taught, and professor-guided. Remember this dynamic, and you'll do better than I did.

Don't ever let math and science intimidate you. All the formulae are tools, and are designed to be usable. The symbols and language might be cryptic, but remember that this stuff is yesterday's cutting edge science, and it was important enough for geniuses like Newton, Leibniz, Ohm, and Gauss to spend their lives on it. They wanted to make the universe comprehensible with these ideas, not mystify it even more.

If you aren't used to the idea of reading the text in the math/science book and doing the example problems, make peace with it. I didn't understand this simple truth and I suffered for it, to the tune of repeating no less than five classes. If the example problems aren't enough, Google is your best friend, and there's nothing to stop you from going to the library and checking out a different book on the subject.

I highly recommend getting tight with your older classmates and studying with them. There should be plenty of army guys, welders, truck drivers, and so on, and most of them will have families and bills to keep their nose to the grindstone. If you really find yourself short on quality peers, go find the nearest chapter of ASME (or ASCE, IEEE, etc) and hang out there. Don't be the primma-donna student who only comes out of the woodwork on exam day, and spends the rest of the time in the Bat Cave.


Junior and Senior Year:

Here is your mantra: "take an interest".

A lot of people view education like some kind of MacGuffin to be found; you sit through enough lectures and suddenly, there comes some special day where you shine a brilliant gold color and have the power of Tony Stark. Now don't stop reading, because this is beyond the paradigm of the classic book-smarts/street smarts idea;

Your capability as a student and a professional engineer depends on your willingness to self-teach. Use the search engine, use example problems, look up industry literature, write some software and so on. My rule of thumb is, if you can do your work without putting the book down and you don't go overtime, you probably didn't explore the problem enough.

Don't ever let the though 'good enough for partial credit' cross your mind :smallbiggrin: You can't metagame your classes like people do in high school, where its a matter of following instructions and giving the teach what he wants. I had plenty of professors who were appalled by the question, "How do I do this problem?" The stock answer was usually something to the effect of, "You tell me, dirtbag."

The good engineering students tend to start out as journey-level welders, machinists, grease monkeys, army guys, and so on. These guys are used to finding their own answers and have the work ethic to see the problem. The worst engineering students are only there because their guidance counselor said its a good field, or because they like reading popular mechanics.

Two miscellaneous nuggets: Take the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, if offered, and do at least one internship. There is a vast chasm between what's taught at ABET schools and what the industry wants, and there are plenty of "entry level" jobs that shamelessly demand specialized experience. Its a buyer's market, and even if it is an unsustainable Catch-22 to ask newcomers to somehow conjure up experience, they can afford to pass you over if you don't. You can bridge that gap with an internship, or by joining the armed forces. Take your pick.

So to sum it all up:

Take an interest

[Om]

I had a blast in the first year of my engineering degree. Drink, parties and missed lectures. I don't regret a second of it. It may be different where you are but if you have a good grounding in science/maths then it hopefully won't be too much of a step up

[Keld Denar]

If you really find yourself short on quality peers, go find the nearest chapter of ASME (or ASCE, IEEE, etc) and hang out there.

Also, free pizza at least once a week. More if you join SWE (Society of Women Engineers, but guys can go), NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers), and a host of other groups. I was the SWE rep for my social fraternity, but I found that SWE actually had the best speakers, the best meetings, and the most delicious food at those meetings. Don't knock it till you're dining on a budget (time, money, or both). Also, FREE NETWORKING.

[Miklus]

Out of 64 starting student in my class, only 22 actually got the diploma. So, yeah, it is brutal. I think it waries a lot from country to country, though.

The first to go was the party monkeys. As a rule of thumb, you lose one week of studying each time you get drunk. So those that got drunk every week got nowhere and dropped out. They where nice and fun people, but they did not become engineers.

Some people where just too immature. Studying takes a lot of dicipline. Getting up in the morning, going to bed at a decent hour. Reading a text that is maybe not that interresting. Some of the ex-army guys did really well because of their dicipline. Others where just too young and spent too much time online gaming.

And let's face it, a few just did not have the smarts.

I flunked a few classes and annoyingly, they where all in the same module, E1. Then I realised why. E1 is monday morning in the fall semester! Getting up monday morning while it is still dark outside sucks and I was half asleep during those lessons. Keeping a steady sleep rythm even on weekends is very important. It may be easy for some, but it was hard for me.

Another lesson is that exercise is good. It helps you sleep and helps your overall well being. My grades went up after I started exercing. Maybe it was just because of the sleep thing, but it helped.

If you have to cut corners, then skip the reading first, lectures second and never the exercises. When taking notes, the examples are the most importaint. Some examples are a lot like exam questions.

On exams: Don't be a quitter. I have seen a lot of guys give up on a 4 hour written exam and leave early. I have never left early, ever. Sometimes you surprise youself with what you can get done in 4 hours, even if you are desperatly reading in the textbook. If it is a multiple choise exam, then guess like hell. If you can eliminate a few options, then guess. Even if you are clueless, pick what you think is the most likely answer.

Here is a pro tip that comes in handy at written exams: I made these flaps out of clear tape and colored paper and stuck them in my books where there was an importaint table or formula. I did not use the store-bought ones, they where too large and tended to fall off. I would write on them before putting the tape on. Sometimes there was a color system and sometimes so many flaps that I had to use both the side and the top of the book. That can really save some desperatly needed time.

This saved my butt on the statistics II exam. There where like me and a handfull of other guys. I was thinking "where the hell is everybody?". Even the exam guard said "Is this it?!" Most had quit beforehand and more still failed. I passed with a fair grade, and that was NOT an easy exam.

Don't bring a packed lunch to the exam. I have seen people sitting there eating, WTF? A candy bar and a coke for a quick boost is enough. And don't forget to check the batteries in your calculator.

I got my diploma in the end, even if it took six years rather than five because I flunked a few times. There where around 60 exams, most of them written, so that is why I talked about them so much.

[Kageru]

If it is a multiple choise exam, then guess like hell. If you can eliminate a few options, then guess. Even if you are clueless, pick what you think is the most likely answer.
Multiple choice parts in my exams always subtract points for wrong answers to discourage guessing, was that different in your exams?

[Eloel]

Multiple choice parts in my exams always subtract points for wrong answers to discourage guessing, was that different in your exams?

If you have -no- idea whatsoever about a question, guessing or not guessing tends to give equal average outcome. If it's an educated guess, you're better off guessing than not guessing.

[danzibr]

I can't say about engineering, but I have an MA in math and am working on my PhD. Where I go to school, the math grad students have to teach lower level classes. I have a lot of engineering students in my classes.

I can give a couple pointers.

First, make note cards for your classes. I didn't start this until my second semester of grad school, and boy did it help. I wish I'd done it sooner.

Second, try to work ahead. You get to class and they throw a bunch of definitions on the board, then you're trying to wrestle with the definitions and they start working a bunch of problems. It's terribly confusing. Just memorizing the definitions beforehand will really help.

And of course it goes without saying, attend every lecture and do all the homework.

[Miklus]

Multiple choice parts in my exams always subtract points for wrong answers to discourage guessing, was that different in your exams?

No, it was 4 points for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong one. Zero for not answering a question. There where five choises. So if you guessed at random, or did not answer, you got zero points on average. There where 25 questions, so the probability of passing by guessing was very slim indeed. You needed at least 60% to pass and 90% to get a better-than-average grade.

It was mainly the institute for statistics that used this kind of test, in case you have not guessed it...

The main point of this test is that it is easy to correct. You only handed in the first page containing the answers. Then they sum up the points and use a table to give a grade.

But the point is that your guesses are better than you think. So guess!


And as I said, the examples are gold, so write them down carefully. If you miss one, try to trade notes with another student. Also make your calculus exercises neat and keep them. These are your ammo come exam time.

Stay off the booze, pep-pills and MMORGs and you'll be fine. :smallbiggrin:

[Feytalist]

No, it was 4 points for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong one. Zero for not answering a question. There where five choises. So if you guessed at random, or did not answer, you got zero points on average. There where 25 questions, so the probability of passing by guessing was very slim indeed. You needed at least 60% to pass and 90% to get a better-than-average grade.

It was mainly the institute for statistics that used this kind of test, in case you have not guessed it...

That's about how we did it as well. Only our Economics papers were marked like follows: 2 per correct answer, -2 per wrong answer, and -1 for no answer. Yeah, it worked out a negative on average. The tests were all open book though, and were hardly difficult. Oh, and if you missed one test, you failed the course. Fun times.

[Drascin]

Basically, remember - you're not going to get into the bits that differentiate your particular degree from other engineerings until second year at the earliest. First year of computer engineering here, for example, had zero hours with an actual computer, it was all shared math and physics - algebra, calculus, discrete mathematics, electromagnetics... This can get really disenchanting, and is why a lot of people drop before the end of the first year. Don't get discouraged if you really want this.

I suggest you brush up your math a bit before even starting. Tone up your mental muscles after the summer vacation, so to speak. People here do not wait for you, and if you try to play catch up you'll be very screwed unless you have an ungodly amount of hours to put into it. If you can't do simple integrals without even stopping to think about it, for example, I'd suggest you start practicing, because calculus basically starts at that and then works its way up.

[Gravitron5000]

I took engineering, but this advise applies to higher education in general.

1) Get to know your fellow students. Find study partners. It can save you a lot of head scratching if you have someone to help explain things or bounce ideas off of. Also, if there are any group assignments, you will have a feel for which people will pull their own weight and which ones will be like an anchor dragging you down.

2) Get to know your upper classmates. They can provide a wealth of information; Exam formats, study aides, which electives are interesting/painful, easy/hard, and useful/useless are some of the things that you could glean from them.

3) Get to know your instructors. Like all people, instructors are individuals. Some are great teachers, and or great minds. Others are horses neither regions. Try to glean as much from the first two, and avoid the last like some mutant super-plague.

[Keld Denar]

Here's something that nobody's mentioned...

Even if you understand what you are working on, work with other people. Be the guy that helps his fellow classmates if possible. This sounds selfless, but altruism is dead. Studies have shown that you remember and average of 20% of what you hear, 50% of what you do, and 80% of what you teach. Be that 80%. Working through something from the point of view of teaching someone else gives you an even more intimate understanding of not just HOW, but WHY. The WHY is what sticks with you even after the HOW fades, and allows you to re-pickup the HOW with minimal future effort. Do this especially in your early classes. It's surprising how quickly some of the freshmen calculus you forget when you get to intermediate levels.

[Kageru]

Just a warning, learning with other people who were worse at the topic than me, led to a much worse grade than I could have had. The exam had two parts and I spend much to much time explaining the part I could do without any problems to the others and neglected learning for the other. That was bad planning on my side(and I should have just failed the exam voluntarily sadly I didn't think of that during the exam.), but my point is that you shouldn't adapt to much to other people. The first priority should be to learn it yourself and if you are learning with a group which is worse than you, you will spend much time explaining things.(But I guess that problem goes away if you are learning with someone at your own level or someone who is better than you.)
But yeah teaching is useful, and if you actually do the group learning during the semester instead of directly before the exam then you will have enough time to teach other people.

[Rockphed]

Which engineering? Electrical and computer tend to wait until your sophomore year to throw actual classes at you (before that is a monster list of pre-requisites), but civil, mechanical, and chemical all have 100 level classes.

Do well in math and science. They are the backbone of any engineer's work as anatomy is the backbone of any doctor's.

Don't worry too much about learning how a specific technology works, it will be obsolete by the time you graduate anyway. Learn how to learn how technology works. Then when you graduate and get handed the "NEW and IMPROVED technology THAT WILL SAVE US ALL" you can use it without having to spend 6 months in dedicated training.

If you get through most of your degree and decide you want to do something else, finish the degree, then get training for whatever else you want to do. If it is some advanced degree thing(doctor, lawyer, MBA), engineering is a good entry into those. If it is teaching, you can probably get a teaching certificate faster than getting through your University's teacher program. Just about anything else you should be able to learn on the job as an engineer.

People who aren't engineers will mock you right up until you pull out your stack of books and mention your GPA. Engineering jobs may be moving all over the world, but first world countries still need them.

Finally, think of joining a professional society. SWE, IEEE, whatever the mechanical, civil, and chemical ones are. SWE is probably cool even if you are male(though if they have too many male members in a chapter they stop counting as a chapter, which is silly, but whatever), but you should definitely join your discipline's society at some point.