Horrible First semester? What should I do know?

<p>Alright here's my situation I want to do engineering but I'm not hot in math at all and Chem just killed me. I don't know what else I'm good at so next semester I'm taking a bunch of Gen eds and seeing how that turns out because I need a real big GPA boost if I can even think about engineering or any other major. </p>

<p>I'll admit I had way too much fun for a supposed engineering wanna be and I didn't put too much effort into Math and Chem after bombed the first exams and my study habits were horrible all around the board. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to remember change but I'm going to try harder next semester.</p>

<p>Should i just focus on increasing my GPA then focus or doing Engineering classes?</p>

<p>You may have been poorly prepared for the course load or you simply don’t know how to study effectively. Learning to study effectively and consistently is the best thing you can learn. Maybe you should take a Personal Development course. I know, it seems stupid, but you may find that you were missing some very basic building blocks after taking the course. You need to seek help. I know a few kids that started at CC in remedial courses, but they were determined and sought help daily and they got their BS in engineering ahead of me. There is tons of free help to assist those in engineering, especially for math, chem, and physics.</p>

<p>The problem with taking all general courses is that it can put you behind because your major courses will require prerequistes. It is always good to know the prerequistes to classes.
The second problem is that when you take nothing but general courses you are only going to be left with major courses. The higher up major courses are going to be tough and time consuming. Having to take a bunch of them is not easy.
My advice is to at least find those more important prerequiste courses and make sure to take them or you might just delaying your graduation even more than you might think. And alot of schools don’t allow waiving the prerequistes.</p>

<p>I want to take the Prereqs but they all seem like classes I’ll get a low grade in Calc based Physics and I couldn’t even handle regular calc. Then there the other Calcs I’ll have to struggle through plus. </p>

<p>I know I’m complaining but that semester hasn’t given me much to cheer about I did well in the classes that had nothing to do with engineering and the ones that did I got low grades in and killed my GPA.</p>

<p>just party your ass off over break. if you’ve done it all theres nothing left to do but study</p>

<p>Lol wish that were true but now I’ll just have to keep the partying to the weekends and drop the Wed-Sat party thing I had going on. I’ll just have to manage the partying but my study skills are what’s really scaring me.</p>

<p>First of all, what do you mean by “horrible”? ie what were your actual grades in your math and chem classes?</p>

<p>There are far too many people on this website who think something like a B is the end of the world.</p>

<p>Are you already an Engineering major? </p>

<p>You are correct that you need to change your priorities and study habits. This is not rocket science. If you hang with other people, whose weekends begin on Friday night instead of Wednesday, this will make it easier.</p>

<p>I agree with others… if you do not keep up with the typical Engineering first year curriculum (Calc based Physics, Math, etc.), this will put you behind. That may mean you are not on a 4-year graduation plan; or that you need to do summer coursework.</p>

<p>If you are worried about study skills, almost every University now has academic support programs, helping you improve study skills etc. Go there.</p>

<p>How about this?
You are enjoying your winter break right? How about open the calculus book, and do some problems.
Don’t worry about graphing. Just understands limits, derivative and integration.</p>

<p>Don’t be scared. Go and stare at the mirror. Do you see your face? What kind of face do you see? Let’s be confident. You can do it. Failure breeds success. Use this winter break to plan good study habits. Read a little.</p>

<p>@Johnson18:1 C- Calc1 and F Chem which is why my GPA suffered, since I took 17 credits and those are basically half of them. There is a forgiveness program so this summer I’ll take the classes and if I get a C or above the old grades won’t count towards my GPA.</p>

<p>@Andale: No, I’m Undecided exploring engineering. I know all about the if you can’t do well in your Math and Sciences then you are should consider another major but the only other classes I like were Philosophy and that won’t make me money in the long run. I already posted topics on whether I should actually become an Engineer and decided its this or Business because I’m not gonna spend 4-5 years building up a loan and not being able to pay it off. I also liked all the stuff I see and did in my Engineering programs and I was good at those but these things are harder then I expected. Yeah, I’m gonna go these program that’ll help students transition better and need to go to tutoring more often cause most office hrs sucked like chem did nothing but give answers.</p>

<p>@Jwxie:Thanks I’ll do it.</p>

<p>I always planned on spending longer in college doing my undergrad because os going abroad and Coops but I don’t want to be spending six years on a degree I could’ve gotten in 4.5.</p>

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<p>Hey come on, way to take shots at engineers. Some of us successfully balanced fun and school. Trust me, it is possible, you just have to learn time management and will power. I still struggle with those two things at time.</p>

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<p>If the converse of this is true and the reason you are doing engineering in the first place is money, then you are in it for the wrong reason and that could be part of the problem. I kind of get the feeling that may be the case if you take into account your previous threads like “How long does it take to get to the $100k mark”</p>

<p>At any rate, I second the suggestions made above that you should make sure the weekend starts on Friday basically every week with few exceptions. That is one of the biggest problems for most people.</p>

<p>I had a really high GPA first year, then second year brought me down. Chemistry and Calculus are far easier than any of the “mid-level” engineering courses (I say mid-level because upper level tends to be easy I’m talking statics, fluids, thermo, ext). If you want to do engineering and you think you can do it then kick it up a notch and study away!!!</p>