<p>Magneto, may I know what college you’re at?</p>
<p>This thread is scaring me btw. I haven’t graduated HS yet.</p>
<p>How do you know the results would be the same if you transfered colleges? Really, a different environment/rigor might help you.</p>
<p>yes, this is scaring me too! what school is this?</p>
<p>@Beautifulnights
I just have that feeling that no matter what college I’m at, the result will be the same. I dont know for sure but it doesnt matter since I cant transfer anyway</p>
<p>@AndromedaGal
Its Case Western Reserve University. Its not hard for everyone, but it is known to be really rigorous, especially in the weeder classes</p>
<p>@Experiment8
Yea I really hope it will. The problem is me. For all of the tests and exams I either fail or dont do as well as everyone else, the averages are really high. For those I just flat out bomb, the averages are like 40-50 usually. I remember my first intro chem test, the average was a 45</p>
<p>Magneto, I was actually on track to be a chem major a while back. I’ve switched to accounting since, but I always succeeded in hard science classes, too. I’m not sure if it’s similar to CE since I’ve never taken an engineering class, but at least for my chem classes I found experiment8’s comment to be really true: a lot of it is conceptual understanding.</p>
<p>For me, that often meant just sitting down on a couch and thinking about what I’m learning. Can you visualize what you’re learning in your head and can you see the chemical reactions, energy exchanges, whatever it may be? Do you know what the simplifying assumptions are when you learned the material, and can you imagine how other variables might be introduced that complicate the matter a little bit? </p>
<p>After I do all that, THEN I tackle the numbers and the concrete problems. I find the first step is really easy to do right before you go to bed when you’re free to do your own thinking. Since it doesn’t involve paper/pencil, you can think about it anytime. </p>
<p>This may or may not help you, but I can tell you I did really well in science courses without much struggling when I started with the “conceptual.” </p>
<p>I just want to add that the conceptual part is not necessarily some broad generalization. You could be thinking about specific problems you went over in class. But focus less on the numbers and more on the interplay and the complexities of the physical interactions, etc.,</p>
<p>Hope that helps in the long run.</p>
<p>I guess that is the problem. I try really hard to get the math down and I thought that by doing that I would understand the concepts, but in all actuality, I dont understand either and end up being a failure (sorry for the emo-ness, ive just been really down this weekend with this) but is there anything anyone can suggest as to how exactly do approach a class like Thermo? other than read the book. Is there any resources or youtube vids about it that could help or anything like that?</p>
<p>Maybe math and chemistry aren’t part of areas that suit you.
You need to pick classes that you think you’ll excel in.</p>
<p>@HopefulEagle86
I know. maybe they are and I just havent got the college thing down yet, or maybe they arent and I need to find something in which I excel. the problem with that is that everything Ive tried in college I just fail at like a total failure at college.</p>
<p>Well, the darko guy dropped out of Georgia Tech if it makes you feel any better.
Can you take anything related with Natural sciences, Anthropology or English? Perhaps you’re better with those kind of courses.</p>
<p>This thread is really scary. It’s pulling other seniors down too.</p>
<p>Magneto, can you afford to take summer courses or go to school for 9 semesters instead of 8?</p>
<p>If you can, maybe you should take a light load (maybe 3 classes) next fall (or summer) of a variety of subjects. For instance, take one CE, one humanities of your choice, and one completely off the wall subject you haven’t considered yet. Give yourself a chance to really learn each subject in depth (by not taking too many courses) and learn how to grasp the subjects conceptually BEFORE concrete application. </p>
<p>If you’re in a financial situation where you can afford a light-load semester, take advantage of it. You could simultaneously learn which subjects you excel in and how to approach them for the best possible grade.</p>
<p>@justtotalk
your right. its what I thought i was doing now and didnt even realize it. i didnt even think that i was overloading myself too much. Thats what i plan to do since i was on academic probation last year and had to take summer classes to get back on track. I had planned on this summer taking either 2 of the following: ochem, diff eq, and physics 2, and possibly taking either accounting or psych</p>
<p>@HopefulEagle86
Im sorry. its just that Im going through something. Please dont take this to mean that college is always like this. this is just something im going through and hopefully ill get it straightend out.</p>
<p>I have discovered that if i were to take a class like Thermo in the summer, i could do alot better on it (happened for Chem. of materials class), but no school near me has that class during the summer which sucks. thats why ive been considering taking ochem or diff eq or something else</p>
<p>You might consider avoiding ochem over the summer. The class, at least for me, was pretty time consuming and the reactions aren’t always intuitive. It might take up too much of your time and I’m not sure it’ll teach you the conceptual understanding skills you seem to need right now–because logical thinking won’t always predict the actual courses the rx’s take.</p>
<p>IMO, Physics 2, psych and/or accounting would be perfect to try out over the summer. All the classes demand conceptual understanding but won’t overburden somebody who’s already dealt with CE courses. </p>
<p>I hope those type of classes would let you figure out how to think about ideas instead of grinding out problems that maybe you’re not really understanding. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Update: Ive decided to drop Thermo so I can at least try to concentrate on statics and calc 3. hopefully that will calm me down alot</p>
hi, I just found your post over the search for solution of the same problem. Could you possibly post an update? How are doing doing now? Did you get through that dead-end-everyway period? What did you do? This is really not a good feeling. Please give advice, thanks a lot!
@omgtests - The user has not been active since 2012 and this thread itself is 5+ years old. I doubt OP would be available for an update.
Also look for different sources of practice problems, such as: http://www.solvephysics.com/thermodynamics_part1.shtml
Start to learn how to attach different types of problems.
I hope he’s ok and hope he made it through.
thank you!