Alright guys Im back with another genuine problem. So next week, not this week, i have three tests. One in math, one in physics, and one in applied mechanics. I dont understand about the same amount of material in each class and I only have a week to prep for all three which I am genuinly freaking out about. I cant do anything but sit here and think about how possibly screwed I could be knowing I only have one week to study for three subjects that are all relatively quite difficult. I dont know what to do.
Have you tried setting up an appointment with your prof or a peer mentor?
@milanS To wait to understand the material a week before the test is completely overwhelming! You need a better strategy going forward. You need to be on top of the material from the beginning. If you don’t understand something after leaving class, immediately try to get help. The college class pace is much more accelerated than HS and you will be lost before you know it. For now, go to the peer tutoring center, ask a friend who may be able to help, go to office hours and even go online to watch a tutorial or two. You would be surprised the amount of info out there. Hang in there.
I think i may try to visit my mechanics professor’s office hours first because i feel she could guide me in the right direction although she isn’t the greatest professor.
@pkchamp89 To be honest, i haven’t had time to actually learn the work i have been doing for my classes because i barely understand it and it takes me forever to do it even with help form the q center and when im done i don’t have time to learn it cause its either too late, I’m exhausted, or i have to move onto another assignment. Can i also be honest with you? When I am done doing my work, i don’t necessarily want to go and do extra practice problems on the side which i know is the wrong thing to do but i am so exhausted the entire week and stressed that when the weekend comes i just want to relax. Its also just hard for me to just be like “hey lets go do some practice problems” because I feel like no one really wants to do that. I am trying to get myself out of that mindset but its hard when i have no fun here and its all work you know.
@milanS I wish I had a better answer for you. From your post above you definitely seemed overwhelmed. I hear your struggle. Maybe seeing your mechanics professor is the best place to start. I have to admit, I’m not quite sure what type of professor that is but if it is going to help you, go. Maybe next semester taking one less class could help? Doesn’t help you now but lightening your load may be helpful to your success as well as your state of mind. Good luck to you!
“i haven’t had time to actually learn the work”
I read your earlier thread as well which is clearly along the same line. My understanding is that you are a sophomore. How were your grades last year? Are there classes where you are doing well?
I don’t think that we can give a complete answer without a lot more information, and even then a complete answer might not be possible. However, I am wondering whether you are either in too hard a university or if you are taking too many classes, or are not in the right field. Definitely university is supposed to be more difficult than high school. For some students this is offset by the fact that in university you tend to take hard classes in your major and related fields, rather than the wide range of classes in high school.
One approach is to study more. Between classes if you have time you can study. After school and on weekends you can study. When I was in graduate school a typical saturday involved waking up at 10am, studying until 6pm, then taking the evening off. A typical sunday involved waking up at 10am, studying until 6pm, eating dinner, then studying some more until going to sleep. Weekdays were for attending classes and studying. If you do your homework the day it is assigned, this will give you a chance to find out what is difficult before your next class, which might make the next class easier to understand and gives you time to talk to the professor before you finish the assignment and hand it in. If you read ahead in your books then you might be a bit further ahead which might allow you to get more out of each class.
Another approach is to take fewer classes at a time. This can be offset by showing up at the beginning of freshman year with AP credits, by taking classes over the summer, or by taking more than 4 years to graduate. Of course the latter two approaches are going to cost more money, which might or might not be an issue depending upon family finances.
It appears to me that most students want to attend the most “prestigious” university that they can get into. However, the relatively more prestigious universities do not have any secret to painlessly download vast amounts of information into a student’s brain. If they are different at all it is more likely because they cover material at a faster rate, hand out more homework and more difficult homework, have more difficult tests, and expect the students to handle it. This of course means that the most prestigious universities on average tend to be more stressful than the less prestigious universities.
@pkchamp89 is right: You need to find a way to keep up with the work. You can’t be trying to catch up before tests. University is more difficult than high school and the same study approaches will not necessarily be sufficient.
It is possible that you might need to drop a class and take a W in order to keep up in your other classes. Only you can figure this out.
@DadTwoGirls My grades last year were not so great because chemistry 1 and two killed me when i had to take them first and second semester. Also, I had to take CSE 1010 which is an engineering computing class which killed my grade as well as a pre-requisite. I remember doing well in calc 1 and but i had already knew how to do the work because i did some in high school already. I am not really good at any subject in particular nor have i found my passion for a certain major. I want to do engineering because i feel like it can open many doors to me and sets me apart from the rest, especially environmental engineering. I don’t necessarily want to step out of engineering because I would feel like I would just be giving up when things get hard and I don’t want to do that. MY question for you is, where did you find the motivation to get up and study everyday, including the weekends? Like where do you find the push to just get up and get at it? @pkchamp89 I am extremely overwhelmed. Its hard for me to give 100% because that would mean giving up all my social life and everything to understand this material which there is only a chance I would be able to understand all of it in the little time we are taught it. Iw as thinking about taking one less class and doing one over the summer as well.
I’m a senior in ChemE, so I used to be at a roughly equivalent point in my coursework (and now it’s harder and busier). What I do is a two-pronged approach:
- Reward myself for work. I have a to-do list for the day, and when I get through it, I get to relax. My rewards might include food, a break for surfing the internet, watching videos, or reading. Anything I will want to do enough to get other things out of the way.
- If that fails, I have a backup plan built in, which is that I start my work early. If you start right before it's due, you have no time to mess around, and that's even more stressful. If I plan to have more time to work on it, it's okay if I only get 1 problem done today instead of 2.
On weekends, don’t sleep into the afternoon. Get to bed at a normal time, then get up and do work. It can be hard to start studying when you feel like you’re behind, but the longer you procrastinate, the less time you have to get caught up.
I don’t have the time to do extra problems alongside every homework either. But if you don’t do that, you absolutely have to do all of the practice problems you’re given for the exam.
It doesn’t get easier. Engineering students either learn to put the work in or they switch to something they’re more suited for.
ONce you get through these tests, then read this book to figure out how to be more efficient:
I would highly recommend the book by Cal Newport: “How To Become a Straight-A Student:
The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less”
It will help you with time management and how to be more efficient.
My kids used to do most of their schoolwork on weekends. As posted by bodangles, they would wake up early to do work Sat morning then reward themselves by going to a game Sat afternoon and parties Sat night, but they would study all day on Sun.
One of my kids was a double math/econ major. She was often overwhelmed and didn’t have good understanding of the material. She spent a lot of time going to her professor’s office hours. She was able to pace herself with course load, she tried not to take more than one math and econ course per semester, and when she knew she was going to have a hard math course she would take a course for P/F.
Most people study engineering because they are good and at science and math, and because they are genuinely interested in being an engineer. You’ve state that you aren’t really good at any subject and you have no passions for any major. You also stated that you want to be an engineer because you think it will open doors. I think this is the root of your problem. You really don’t have the passion, interest or aptitude for engineering so its hard for you to get yourself to spend time studying something that you don’t really like that much. I know you don’t want to change majors, but it isn’t going to get any easier. I think it may be time to reevaluate.
I agree with @me29034 , it really sounds like a change of major would be the best thing for you. Try visiting your Career Center or Academic Advising center. Graduating as an Engineering major with a low GPA is not going to open doors for you, recruiters want to hire students with a firm grasp of the subject matter. Some recruiters won’t even talk to you if you don’t have at least a 3.2 GPA.
Ok thanks alot guys every response has helped me. Do you guys think that it would be a good idea to stick this out and retake the classes I did bad in at the end of my 4 years to fix the grades. I mean I am a little mad because then I owuldnt be able to graduate on time but maybe its the best thing to do? Because i already invested a whole year into this and don’t want to have to do a whole new set of work for a different major. I also want to make good money after I do get a job after I graduate. Also, let me point out that as of right now I am still doing pre requisites. Although I am doing environmental, That is just one class that pretains to my major and That mixed in with other work doesnt give me the time to explore the major as of right now. One more thing, so I wanted to do engineering because I like to build things ohysically and see them work. What kind of major would involve that?
Aslo let me add that for the engineering school here that a 2.5 and up is considered within good standing for the engineering school
Just because the university won’t kick you out for a 2.5 doesn’t mean employers will be impressed by it.
I do not think the solution would be to complete every other class and then go back and retake the intro-level ones. The solution is just to get better grades from here on out. Then you explain it as having had a rough transition to college, but look, I got a 3.8 in my junior and senior years etc etc etc.
The problem with the solution in my previous paragraph is that it assumes you can complete the rest of the degree with good grades and on time. This can be difficult even for very strong students. I’ve had classes where I watched the drop deadline to see if I had to bail because I wasn’t going to pass. (Ended up staying, but it was a real worry.)
It will take real hard work to ensure you don’t fall into that trap. Hard work, effort, resourcefulness, and even sacrifice. Most students don’t get to take weekends off. That’s just the concessions we have to make in order to earn the degree.
And, quite seriously, as a couple people have mentioned upthread you should pause and consider whether engineering is really where you want to be.
Sincerely,
Someone who started out in engineering but is now quite happily a professor in the social sciences
@bodangles I would like to think of myself as a strong student because I have been able to deal with bad grades, try harder, still get bad grades, and continue to be resilient. Is there anything you did while you were struggling in college to get yourself back into a good mental state and work harder? Or did you just suck it up kinda and keep moving on?
That’s definitely an admirable trait! I don’t know if we’ve established so far what level of “bad grades” we’re talking about. Is it like “I was aiming for an A, but I got a B” bad or “I barely passed with a D but they let me move on” bad? Because the thing is, you eventually want to get out of that cycle and progress on to good grades.
I do have to do a lot of “suck it up and keep going” – I have homework or studying that needs done NOW, not when I’m in the perfect mood for it. But I do recognize when I’m too tired to make any progress or need a break. I felt sick yesterday and decided to take a nap instead of studying. This just meant that when I woke up, I had to get to work.
When I failed an exam in an important class with a 37%, I put that test away and tried not to think about it. I relearned the material that had been on it, and overprepared for the next one to make up for it. Always look forward to the next immediate goal.
What about majoring in math or physics with an environmental science minor? You wouldn’t “lose” credits (most everything you took would likely count for gen eds or your major pre-reqs). Or look into mechatronics? industrial engineering?
If you don’t get good grades and struggle too much, and your GPA is below 3.0, it’s not going to open doors and lead to a good salary… employers have enough candidates to mastered everything and in engineering it really, really matters (as in, lives are at stake if you only have a half baked understanding of fundamentals - your bridge collapses, your plane circuits heat up, your robots go haywires…)
I’d advise retaking any class you got less than a C in (less than a B- in???) over the summer.
And yes you need to keep up, form study groups, go to office hours every week (not just once and in one subject!), and study Saturday afternoon after resting as needed on Saturday morning, same thing on Sunday.
If you’re struggling to get B’s, that’s one thing - pretty normal for engineering. If you’re struggling to get C’s and your only motivation is a job that pays well, it’s not going to work and you need to cut your losses.
The fact you like to build things to see them work would indicate interest in some aspects of engineering, but it doesn’t mean you