<p>Is there anything you can do to help a student who is struggling.</p>
<p>High School -- Humanities Focus
Humanities teachers were excellent
Offered advanced science classes but the science/math teaching was uninspired and not coherent
GPA 3.9
ACT 30s
SAT II
Math II 650
History 750
Personable
Worked every summer</p>
<p>Went to engineering school and is competing against people who have 3 years of well taught chemistry/physics and natural math geniuses.</p>
<p>Barely passed 1st semester and is now barely passing second semester. Worried about failing or getting Ds. Working day and night.</p>
<p>He thinks he understands the work. In fact, he is helping other students with the homework. Does all homework the minute it is assigned and goes to available tutoring sessions. When it comes to a test, he bombs it. Finds taking tests with 100 people distracting.</p>
<p>What can you say or do to help. </p>
<p>Should he drop a class even if there is only 4 weeks left. Dropping period end this Friday.</p>
<p>Can you contact a moderator and ask them to repost this in the Parents Forum instead of the Cafe? You’d probably get more attention to this topic there. </p>
<p>No personal experience or practical advice to offer, but extending some sympathy. Engineering is such a tough degree, especially for a student whose strength seems to be in the humanities. Can you tell us why he decided to major in engineering? Is it possible that he’d like to change majors? If he can still drop a course, that would seem to be a good idea - but will he still be a full-time student if he drops it? His health insurance and finaid might be affected if he is considered a part-time student. Has he been going to his professors’ office hours in addition to the tutoring sessions?</p>
<p>Agree with the post above. Engineering is a pretty rigorous field and not easy, even if you have an excellent math & science background but MUCH tougher if you have a weaker one.</p>
<p>I would agree that it makes sense for him to strongly consider dropping a class and focusing on the rest. Does he meet with the instructor/TA during office hours? Has he reviewed the tests with the instructor/TA to figure out what he is doing wrong and how to improve? </p>
<p>How & why did he choose engineering from humanities? Sounds like he needs to meet with his counselor/advisor NOW, since Friday is the drop/add deadline.</p>
<p>By the way, engineering IS where the math/science kids end up, at most universities. Those students are who will be in all his classes if he remains in engineering. My S is getting his EE degree–he has always loved math & science & been very good at it. He also liked & been good at humanities but especially enjoyed computers, math & physics. If your student wants to remain in engineering, he will have to work extra hard to get a solid base in it that the other students are entering engineering with. He can do this with tutoring, summer courses and working very closely with his instructors/teaching assistants, but it will take a LOT of time & effort on his part.</p>
<p>“When it comes to a test, he bombs it. Finds taking tests with 100 people distracting.”</p>
<p>He should also pop by the campus disability services and find out how to be screened for previously unidentified LDs. One of my HS pals didn’t get his dyslexia diagnosed until he’d almost failed out of an engineering program, and another friend’s dyslexia went un-diagnosed until half-way through her Ph.D. There may be an easy fix for the exam situation that the disability services office can suggest to him.</p>
<p>To frazzled.
He always was interested in the sciences/business but his natural bent is the humanities. His father and I knew he would major is something “practical” so we thought it would be nice if he went to a high school where writing and Shakespeare was emphasized since he would never volunteer to take those classes in college. We also thought they had a good science/math program. The teachers used college text books but the classes were not very rigorous. Also, the classes were small and the teachers were willing to work for hours with any student who worked hard but had trouble grasping or mastering the technical subject matter. His college is a small science/engineer college. You can’t change majors, except to math or physics, at least for the first two years. It is swim or leave.</p>
<p>Sometimes you can bomb a test and still pass the class–gotta love the curve. The percentage grades for high school success fly out the window. Have him go talk to the professor (s) and find out if he truly is failing. Have him ask them for advice about dropping. If dropping a class drops him below full-time status, it could complicate other things (financial aid, insurance, etc.–things you have to check). </p>
<p>The front row suggestion is good.</p>
<p>And just so you know…those math geniuses with strong science backgrounds mess up on the tests sometimes too; they just don’t admit it.</p>
<p>Maybe engineering isn’t for him. It may be time to re-evaluate his major. I don’t buy his reasoning that taking an exam in a room with 100 other students is distracting enough to cause him to do poorly on the exam. If this were the problem, he could have moved to a seat either in the front of the room, off to the side, or an aisle seat in order to compensate for any slight distractions. </p>
<p>Why is he in an engineering program if his natural abilities are in the humanities? He should re-evaluate and consider choosing a major that complements his natural abilities and interests.</p>
<p>“Why is he in an engineering program if his natural abilities are in the humanities? He should re-evaluate and consider choosing a major that complements his natural abilities and interests.”</p>
<p>I agree with this. His college counseling center probably can help him identify such a major and the college career office could help him identify potential jobs related to that major.</p>
<p>It’s a waste of time, and also is discouraging to major in something practical that doesn’t match one’s natural talents.</p>
<p>It’s not “practical” to be an engineer if you aren’t good at it.</p>
<p>That said, I agree with checking with the disability office, maybe something is going on there if tests are the only problem. </p>
<p>He should talk to his advisers and the professor of the problem course (there’s only one?) Perhaps it would be wise to drop it and repeat the course in the summer. The school can answer this better than we can.</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding repetitive, it may be time to rethink engineering. It is a tough major and it sounds like your son may not have had the skill set when he started. How did he perform the first semester and what area of engineering is he studying?</p>
<p>Does he love engineering? Or is he doing it for job prospects or the money that he thinks he will make?</p>
<p>If he loves engineering, he should stick it out. Cs get degrees and the first two years of engineering school are very hard. I’m guessing that he is struggling with physics, chemistry, and calculus. If he can get through these, even with Cs, he will be able to get through the rest of his classes.</p>
<p>If he is doing engineering for the wrong reasons, he should consider changing majors.</p>
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<p>It’s funny how anytime a parent says their kid failed a test, other parents run to them saying the kid probably has a learning disability and just needs a waiver or an accomodation to pass the test.</p>
<p>I have no idea how the rules work these days, but… </p>
<p>I was completely distracted by a room full of paper and people shuffling. Sitting in the front row on test days was a pretty distractible place because people are dropping off their tests on the way out the door. So I would sit on the far side of the room, away from the door, about third or so row up. I also would use earplugs to block out the other noise. Of course, this was in the day when there wasn’t a separate room in which to take tests or accommodations. For obvious reasons I can see why earphones wouldn’t be allowed, but it’s pretty amazing how much of the world you shut out if you turn off your ears.</p>
<p>The suggestion that the OP’s son be screened for LDs was not prompted by the fact that he failed a test. It was prompted, I am sure, by the OP’s comments that her son seemed to be doing well otherwise (e.g., helping other kids with their homework), but that he was distracted when taking a test in a room with 100 other kids.</p>
<p>This distractibility is a sign of ADD. No one is diagnosing OP’s son online, but what is the harm in considering the possibility that this might be his problem?</p>
<p>The usual accommodation for this kind of distractibility is taking tests in an alternative location with few distractions – i.e., a separate room with just a few other kids. The point of this accommodation (and similar accommodations) is to allow the kid to show what he really knows. It’s not unlike allowing a kid with poor eyesight to wear eyeglasses.</p>
<p>I don’t see this as unfair. I have one kid with ADD and one without. The kid without ADD would not benefit from testing in another location, as a roomful of 100 other kids just does not affect him; his brain is not wired to be tuned in to all the little sounds the other kids make. But my kid with ADD is very affected by these things. It is not a character flaw; his brain is wired in such a way that all the sounds in a crowded room really interfere with his thought processes. </p>
<p>Both my kids have taken the exact same test (NY Regents Biology) and received the exact same score (95). This would not have happened if my kid with ADD had not had test accommodations – accommodations that my other son would have had no use for. </p>
<p>If you suggested to my son who does not have ADD that the accommodations that my other son received are somehow unfair, he would laugh at you.</p>
<p>The armchair LD diagnosticians should note that OP’s son has high standardized scores in the humanities, but not math.</p>
<p>In this situation, I would review the tests with my child and try to get a handle on what the cause of the poor test grades are. No idea how to approach the question is different than silly arithmetic mistakes.</p>
<p>I would also make sure I knew if my child <em>wanted</em> to pursue that field of study.</p>
<p>As an aside, I have been surprised by a number of my kid’s friends who are choosing engineering. From the sidelines I don’t see the natural fit of talent and interest one might hope for. Anecdotally, my son takes a upperclass math class at our flagship that has a mixture of science and engineering kids in it. He mentioned the other day that the median score on a recent mid-term was 64. I’m still trying to digest the idea that <em>half</em> of a college class studying material they will need for their chosen profession do not grasp the material. Some of these kids will pass the class after the curve inflates their grade, and the homework buffer adds to the final grade, but the bottom line is that they do not understand the class.</p>
<p>OP- my sympathies. My S graduated from a HS with a rigorous math/science focus, he was one of the top math/science kids, and he abandoned any thought of engineering halfway through his first semester of college! His reaction, “These kids are geniuses!” I can’t imagine how disheartening it would be not to be doing well if your science/math prep was just a little bit weaker than the norm- the pace in these classes is really tough.</p>
<p>Has your son sat down with his academic adviser? If not, that should be the A priority. There are many happy and successful adults who majored in engineering who found the first year very very tough-- and your son may be one of them- or maybe not. That’s what advising is for-- to help figure out if your S is experiencing the normal “gee this is hard and I’m not doing as well as I hoped but yet I study all the time”, or “what am I doing here, get me out of dodge”.</p>
<p>Some insight and perspective from an on-the-ground grownup is required. Hugs to you.</p>
<p>I do think your son might want to withdraw from this class if he’s still struggling. Better to keep up his gpa now and rethink whether engineering is his calling.</p>
<p>Engineering school is designed to weed students out that don’t have a strong math/science background. Yes, any kid can fail regardless of how much they enjoyed math and science in high school.</p>
<p>We knew kids who were considered excellent in math/science in HS who dropped engineering after 1st year (hubby was more stubborn & took longer to drop out). Some are even NMFs. Engineering does have many of the best kids in math & science. Our S was one of the best at math & science I’ve ever known but he says in engineering, he’s “average,” (even tho he’s graduating in EE with honors). He says there are kids in engineering MUCH sharper than he is. </p>
<p>Many of our kids haven’t previously met many kids who are better prepared and learn things more quickly than they, as they were the top of wherever they came from. It is quite an experience for them to meet kids who work hard and are extremely bright, sometimes in all (or nearly all) subjects.</p>