Aem 201

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

<p>My S is in one of Dr. Wahidi’s sections for Statics this semester, and is sweating it out!! One of these typical engineering classes where the test averages are 60/100, etc. S is scoring slightly below average on the tests, and homework/clicker grades are slightly above average.</p>

<p>I never thought I would be praying for “just” a passing grade in a class for him, but that is where I find myself. He needs this class to progress on to Dynamics next semester. Surprisingly, Thermo isn’t the problem…Statics is!</p>

<p>Does anyone have a student who is also in Dr. Wahidi’s class that might be interested in providing suggestions for success on the final? He has seen the tutor in the engineering lab, and Dr. Wahidi has also been available for help. I’m really looking for study tips or techniques for this class that I could pass along to him.</p>

<p>Thanks!!!</p>

2

<p>I can’t offer help in Statics but I will help you pray him through this class.</p>

3

<p>Sactonative, your prayers are appreciated more than you will know! Thank you!!:grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:</p>

4

<p>The branch of AIAA on campus used to run a test ‘bank’, which had all previous AEM course tests online to view. It is password protected, however, and you need to be a member of AIAA to have access. Have your S contact the AIAA student rep? AIAA = American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics. [UA</a> AIAA Student Chapter: Main](<a href=“http://aiaa.eng.ua.edu/]UA”>http://aiaa.eng.ua.edu/) The faculty advisor is Dr. Hubner. </p>

<p>Also, make sure S is going to class AND the lab time set aside for this class - although the lab time may be optional (not sure in this particular case?), it is a good idea to attend it to fully understand the material. That advice goes for ALL eng’g courses, BTW. You’d be surprised how many students just don’t attend optional review sessions… Good luck!</p>

5

<p>My son is also in a section of Dr. Wahidi’s statics this semester. He attends the classes and the labs, but he decided early in the year that there was far too much homework and it was too time consuming and it since it was only worth 5% of the grade, it wasn’t worth investing that much time in. He’s just been so used to concepts coming easily to him throughout high school and even freshman year, that he’s still adjusting to the fact that sometimes he’ll actually have to work in courses to do well.</p>

<p>After seeing his midterm grade, I told him that he should probably consider donig the homework to understand and remember the concepts in the course. His response was even the students that are doing ALL the homework are struggling. To which I told him what other students were or were not doing was not my concern, but I knew him and if he completed and made sure he understood the homework that I knew he could do much better. He believes he’s doing better in the class now, but I doubt he’s started doing all the assigned work.</p>

<p>So although my son’s in the course, I wouldn’t recommend him to help anyone, as I’ll also have my fingers crossed when the final grades come out. I really do think he’ll get at least a C, but I’m preparing myself for whatever may happen.</p>

6

<p>I could have written the post above from jrcsmom! My son said he felt much better prepared for this last test because he studied with friends who are in another professor’s class. Apparently, they attended the tutoring session the night before the test which Dr. Wahidi didn’t even tell his class about. I believe their Thursday night class is for all sections of AEM 201 so maybe he can find students from other classes to study with.</p>

7

<p>Statics is an absolute foundation eng’g class, and a prereq for many other, more advanced courses. A lot builds on this course and a lot is riding on mastering the material. It is vital that students understand the material and are comfortable with the workload required to be successful as engineers going forward. Students should do/use everything within their power to be successful in this class! That includes doing all homework, whether it counts or not. (Some advanced classes will ‘assign’ homework, but it is counted as 0%!) </p>

<p>It is vital to do the homework in order to understand the material. Spending 2-3 hours outside of every class lecture doing homework is quite normal, and to be expected. Some individual problems can take 30 minutes or more. Ask your students if their struggles are related to a time management/commitment issue instead of a legit do-not-understand issue. No amount of tutoring can solve not having (or making) enough time to do the work involved. I do not mean to sound snarky about this, but just trying to help eng’g students understand the level of commitment required sometimes to do the work in these difficult classes. As always, good luck!</p>

8

<p>Oh yes, S is attending lecture AND lab…no optional lab for this section. And, I have repeatedly heard about the “30 minute problems” from him. Homework grades are above average as I mentioned…it is simply the test scores that are below average.</p>

<p>I texted S tonight to find out if Dr. Wahidi mentioned the review session to his class. The text reply from S was " No he didn’t. Oh wow…that would have been helpful"</p>

<p>I advised S to keep his ears open regarding review sessions for the final from students in the other professor’s sections. lakesmom, if you hear about future review sessions from your son, would you kindly pass along the info or PM me? THANK YOU!!!</p>

9

<p>denthyg…I will ask my S to keep me posted on review sessions and let you know (working on getting enough posts to PM).</p>

10

<p>Lakesmom…any info from your S regarding review sessions for the final this Wednesday? There were 2 “help sessions” last week, but that is all my S has heard of.</p>

<p>Thanks for any help you can provide! Still praying to pass this class!!!</p>

11

<p>denthyg…I asked my S and he said he only knew about the 2 “help sessions” last week, which their professor actually told them about this time. I told him to let me know if anything else comes up so I can pass it on!</p>

12

<p>Statics, dynamics, thermo, heat transfer, these are all the killer engineering courses. Ask any engineer, or former engineering major, like my husband, and they will tell you that they remember these courses. Engineers who went to Bama that I’ve met still remember the ECE course, too. </p>

<p>Hang in there, guys. It will all be worth it. My son does not have straight As in engineering, as he stayed in classes and did his best and was happy with a B, and even a C, and he was surprised that a recruiter last week raved about his GPA. </p>

<p>Always, always, do your homework. Always, always, go to review sessions.</p>

<p>It doesn’t hurt to go to the professor to ask for help. Many will offer suggestions on what to do.</p>

<p>Some professors will even offer extra credit assignments.</p>

<p>I know my son missed the big Texas A&M game last year because he was working on an extra credit assignment. And it was worth it, because he got a good grade in the class.</p>

<p>With engineering, and I’m sure with other majors, you’ve got to get over that exceptionality of being the straight A student that your child might have been in high school. You can get a B and still be a great engineer.</p>

<p>Now, I always say to my son, Don’t aim for the B. Aim for the A. But don’t beat yourself up and drop out of engineering or consider yourself a failure if you get a B, or even a C, as long as you know you did your best.</p>

<p>Good luck to all the kids taking finals, and please, all of y’all be safe going home. Don’t drive on no sleep!</p>

13

<p>Montegut…thank you for the encouragement and I will pass it on to my son. The problem we have had is this professor has been less than helpful, and hasn’t always notified the students when tutoring or review sessions have been available. My son will be glad to have this class over with!</p>

14

<p>lakesmom, thank you for checking with your son. I’m just glad we didn’t miss anything this time!</p>

<p>Montegut, I too will show your post to my son when he gets home Friday!! He has definitely learned that a B can be “Beautiful”, but he is teetering on the edge of his first “C” in this statics class. Of course, the panic then comes with “what about my GPA, what about my scholarship”, etc. He also is not a straight A engineering student–freshman engineering classes went very well, but now that he is entrenched in the “killer courses”, the straight A’s are out the window! We have a similar philosophy as you regarding the “aim high, do your best, and be pleased even with a B or C if necessary”. The concern does come, however, with too many B- or C grades affecting the GPA/scholarship. But, that is for another thread.</p>

<p>As for tonight, if all you wonderful CCers could send good vibes to my son and lakesmom’s son, and all others in this statics section regarding their final exam tomorrow, it would be GREATLY appreciated. Pretty sure I speak for them all…they hope to never step foot in that statics class ever again!!</p>

<p>Best wishes to all your kids as we hit humpday of finals week. May their hard work be rewarded, may they travel safely back home, and may everyone have a wonderful holiday break!!!</p>

15

<p>Well S just called and thinks he did REALLY badly on the final. </p>

<p>I asked if he’d gone to the review sessions and he said that the TA told them they were cancelled?</p>

<p>He’s REALLY not confident about what his final grade is going to be and is already asking if he has to retake Statics next semester if he can take Dynamics over the summer or through distance learning so he doesn’t fall behind since it’s a prereq for all the upper division courses. I told him to take a deep breath, wait until the final grades come out, and then we’ll see what needs to be done.</p>

<p>Hopefully the other students in the course left feeling a bit better about their performance.</p>

16

<p>I’m praying for a really big curve for your kids!</p>

17

<p>The first thing my son said when he called after the final was that there should be a really big curve since only about ten people even finished the exam (and they were given ten extra minutes.) He said there were questions that had NEVER been covered in class or the homework (he did all of the homework.) There was another question on the exam they had asked the TA about in the review session and the TA told them he didn’t know how to do the question and it would not be on the exam. All in all, he thinks he will pass the class so we will be praying until grades are posted.</p>

18

<p>This is sounding very much like my son’s fluid class. Terrible teacher, no help, son was just happy to get the class over with. Every time fluids would come up in his later classes, he would panic, thinking he didn’t have a good enough foundation. But, he would do fine. Often, the concepts he had trouble grasping in the killer course, he was able to comprehend in the context of the later course. When my son took the FE exam, there were review sessions on different topics, and he was sure to attend those where he did poorly in the original class, and he said they were very helpful in shoring up areas he needed help in. For your sons now, the class is over, they can put it behind them, and have a restful holiday. Next time they gets into one of these killer courses, they can use this as a confidence booster. Hey, if I can get through statics, I can get through dynamics, ECE 320, and whatever the next one will be. Y’all should be so proud of your boys for all their hard work. Hope they have a wonderful and restful holiday!</p>

19

<p>My son has a class like this also. Just praying that he passes so he can get it over with and move on.</p>

20

<p>Allow my son to join the group of “nail-biting until final grades are posted” statics students!!! The text I received from him stated…“well, in my 14 years of school I can honestly say that was the hardest exam I’ve ever taken”.</p>

<p>I am so proud of our kids for the hard work that they had put forth in this, and all, of their classes. As I said to my son, this test and this class do not define who he is. That being said, though, we also looked ahead to see if he can take statics AND dynamics both next semester if he needs to retake statics! We will all just need to stay tuned I suppose. Unfortunately, Wahidi is incredibly slow in grading previous tests, so I wonder how long we will all need to wait!</p>

<p>Best of luck to all the kids and parents sweating this one out…</p>