Hello! To all those mechanical engineer majors,iss there any advice you’d like to share? How important is prior knowledge to mechanical engineering? What would you recommend an upcoming freshman to do over the summer in order to prepare for this major? Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
I can tell you what my son did. On the advise of several seasoned posters here he got old tests and syllabi from the classes he tested out of but was still continuing in the sequence (in his case 1 physics and 2 calc classes). He made sure he understood the material that he’d be expected to be able to build on. For the rusty bits, mainly series, he reviewed on Kahn. In addition to that, he had a fabulous summer with his friends. It seems to have worked well.
Many will tell you to buy texts and read ahead. Personally I feel that you are far better off knowing you have absolute command of what you are already expected to know. Engineering is so cumulative that the foundation is crucial. It’s important to do this even if (maybe especially if, because of the false sense of security) you got high marks on your APs.
Good luck!
Hi! If you have a loooot of free time and don’t mind spending some of your Summer studying, then I’d say you could review the things that you learnt in HS in Math and Physics (functions, vectors, linear and circular motion, etc). But, honestly, you should just enjoy the Summer. College will be hard enough; this is your time to relax
Good luck!
My advice is to take the summer off and enjoy it. If you are really concerned or lacking confidence, you can spend a couple of weeks towards the end of summer to refresh yourself on the material, but I wouldn’t spend more than that.
It’s very important you spend time to recharge as once school starts it will be full-speed ahead!