<p>Im a high school senior and currently taking pre-calc. I am interested in Mech. Eng. and was wondering how much better I would be offer w calc AB experience? Should i take a summer course or should I be fine going from pre calc to calc 1. I am making an A in the class and understand trig functions.</p>
<p>A good precalculus course in high school should be sufficient preparation for first semester freshman calculus. If you wish to start in a more advanced course, you can take first semester or quarter (depending on whether your school uses the semester or quarter system) freshman calculus at a community college over the summer.</p>
<p>A good understanding of the subject matter is much more important than where you are in the sequence of learning math. </p>
<p>However, many (but not all) students coming out of high school that desire to go into engineering will have had some calculus. So, not having some may hurt your chances at some schools. However, there is nothing you can do about that now. You could take a summer class but it is just as good (maybe better) to wait until you enter college in the fall.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. Are you guys currently practicing as engineers? I was wondering what mech. engin. do on a day to day basis? Design, manufacturing, im just curious?</p>
<p>I am a retired practicing engineer. What you do depends on the job assignment and to a great extent the size of the company. </p>
<p>In a large company (like where I worked) you have specialists and many times whole groups of specialists. We had several groups (meaning around 50 engineers or more) just doing nothing but CAD work all day long. </p>
<p>I was a structural engineer but was more of a generalist within the field of structural engineering. That meant I did strength analysis, fatigue and fracture analysis using finite element analysis and/or hand calculations. I also oversaw a number of structural tests, reduced the data from those tests and did model correlation using that data. So you can see that you get to delve deeply into a field.</p>
<p>Smaller companies tend to have jacks of all trades. They can’t afford the high level of specialization that a large company can. Their products are also either a high tech product within a limited field of expertise or utilize more limited knowledge in many fields. </p>
<p>There are definitely pluses and minus to each size of company, more than just the enigneering side but also from a personal side. Your choice.</p>