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you guys go to easy schools then. to be honest, I know art students that study at my school more than you guys study in an engineering program at your school. When I say I study as much as I do, I am telling the truth. I have no need to lie.
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<p>Every school can't be compared to your school. You clearly go to the toughest school in the country, which is why even art majors have to study hours upon hours a day. All schools can't be as mind-numbingly rigorous, you know?</p>
<p>It depends some classes allow open book and some don't. Id rather it not be open book, as whenever I have had an open book the questions never relate to what has been thought in class that semester. They always have to do with the subject but never with what we learned.</p>
<p>dude......open book exams are the worst.I did chemical engineering thermodynamics exam and it was all open book.it was impossible....hoping for a B+ and above tho.</p>
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coolman25, what engineering major are you currently doing? thanks
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<p>Electrical Engineering at UCI. To answer the open book/closed book question (not sure if it was directed towards me), we typically are allowed to write whatever we one on one sheet of paper (front and back). I had a few classes with open book and they're not very fun since the professor makes the tests exponentially harder, not to mention you don't really have time to look through all your materials during the exam.</p>
<p>The one sheet of paper concept is very good since to fit as much stuff onto the paper as possible you need to at least mildly understand the material since you don't have time on the test to figure things out. Thus you worry more about comprehension rather than memorization.</p>
<p>For all engineering students, does the course load dramatically increase as you get into the 3rd and 4th years and you start taking more engineering classes as compared to some more general classes the first two years? I heard from a student at UCD who said that the first 2 years the course load was ok, but as you get into the 3rd and 4th years it increases dramatically. Anyone else hear of this or have first hand experience?</p>
<p>yeah but the third and fourth years are brutal. I see junior and senior chem E students constantly in the computer lab. They're there like all night working on projects and stuff. Like someone said, time management is key.</p>
<p>From upperclassmen I know here, they say the hardest semesters tend to be your sophomore year. Then it gets easier jr/sr years, with smaller class sizes, more interesting material, more one-on-one student to professor interaction, etc. Maybe it varies by institution?</p>
<p>I guess it does, live-. Here, your first two years are not bad at all. Most of the courses are non-engineering, so naturally, they're not as bad. I took only 5 engineering courses my sophomore year and they were intro courses. I didn't start getting projects and more serious labs until my junior year. Although it's a lot more work, I do prefer these upper class years. I actually feel like I am doing engineering work.</p>
<p>i think passing engineering is NOT HARD AT ALL. getting A's is another story. According to pick-a-prof, at university of maryland (clark), around 10-17% of student in a class get "A+" to "A-". Remember this is a public school , ranked in the top 25 in undergrad and top 20 for grad. thus somewhat respectable :\ i still sort of wish i went to cornell instead.</p>
<p>but hey, im done with sophomore year, with a 3.49 gpa (89 credits completed, 34 from AP exams). im basically half a semester ahead... took a couple junior classes in my 4th semester of college, not the funnest. im also in a frat(AKPsi), IEEE, club table tennis team, bible studies (2), and other stuff. out of 5 weeknights, i got commitments usually 3 of 5 nights. </p>
<p>how much do i study? not a lot. problem sets do take anywhere from 4-8 hours per set (i usually get 2-4 sets a week). labs are rough too (prelab drawings, prelab questions, pspice, LAB, and postlab) take up close to 10 hours per week as well. i mainly study two days before an exam to 5 minutes before. </p>
<p>yea im sure my gpa would be 3.7+ if I studied regularly. i got sexy notes but i only look at them like 3x3 = 9 times a year, before each exam (three days of studies). so my point is, if you study, you can easily get a B average. just go tot put in the time. i guess i got too many commitments so i don't really study. all my EE classes(7) resulted in B to A+ (four B's, three A's).</p>
<p>I'm going to UCSC in the fall, and I'm planning to major in either computer engineering or computer science. Reading these posts about how hard and time-consuming engineering is can really get depressing. Its good to hear a success story every now and then.</p>