<p>armaryland17, BioE requires math Calc12, Multi, DE, and Linear. calculus1 should not be giving you trouble, if you wish to become an engineer.</p>
<p>boneh3ad, I don’t think he is necessarily a ■■■■■, tho he may be a chronic liar. How is he in a scholars program?</p>
<p>If you want to flunk out and end up doing NO engineering, NO track, NO band… then keep doing what you’re doing. Drastic changes are necessary, and you’re going to have to face the music otherwise you’re not going to be in college anymore.</p>
<p>Unless you’re lying about everything, in which case, don’t waste people’s time giving false information. We’re here to help people. We’re not here for you to send us chasing our tails, no matter how fun it might seem to you.</p>
<p>Lying? Why would I need to lie? When did I say I was in a scholars program? Unless you’re referring to the time when I said I WANTED to be in a scholars program? Hmm, get your facts straight, mmkay?</p>
<p>Yes, I am behind in math. Yes, I’ve never passed an AP exam. Yes, I only had a 2.4 HS GPA. Yes, yes, yes. But the fact of the matter is, I’m still going to be successful, regardless of the ridiculous odds stacked against me.</p>
<p>And, I’m a “■■■■■”? Haha, okay. Whatever the hell that means.</p>
<p>In any event, I’m going to pull it together and pull it ALL off. Not to prove any of you wrong, but rather to prove it to myself. I mean, hardly any of you believe in me, but then again, this is the point where I need to dig deep down and find my own strength.</p>
<p>Chronic liar? Nope. ■■■■■? Even more of a laughable concept.</p>
<p>However, I’d like to thank all of you for the input. At least you cared enough to humor me, to some degree. Although most of you were vicious, I needed that. So again, thanks. But one more thing!</p>
<p>I WILL succeed dammit. I just know.</p>
<p>That’s all. =]</p>
<p>the most confident students on these message boards are the ones flunking every class but know <em>for sure</em> that they’re going to get their act together next term</p>
<p>Is that so?</p>
<p>And I’m sure the most ignorant of those students are those who patrol the boards looking for the “most confident students” to bash. >:) (JK)</p>
<p>Come on man, say something a little bit more constructive.</p>
<p>Kthanx.</p>
<p>Facade, that’s a good attitude to have. Remember, you don’t need to prove to us anything–just yourself. </p>
<p>Now go study for your Calculus exam.</p>
<p>Just an FYI, ■■■■■ is a term used on message boards to describe someone who deliberately posts false statements, inflammatory remarks, brings things off topic or otherwise just stirs the pot. By calling you a ■■■■■, they were implying that you were making this post up solely to get peoples’ feathers ruffled.</p>
<p><a href=“http://lmgtfy.com/?q=internet+■■■■■[/url]”>http://lmgtfy.com/?q=internet+■■■■■</a></p>
<p>Anyway, by all means, go prove it to yourself, but I still think you are spreading yourself too thin. You need to sit down and lay out your priorities and make sure you know what you are trying to do and how you are going to do it. If you can balance it all, then great, but if you can’t, and you really want to be an engineering, then you will need to make some sacrifices.</p>
<p>Oh? Well, then I’m most certainly not a ■■■■■.</p>
<p>And that’s what I did. I had my friend sit down with me and go over my entire schedule and how I could best follow it. It turns out that I had a lot more time than I previously thought, and, now that I’ve stopped procrastinating, I think I’ll be able to handle it all.</p>
<p>So we’ll see how everything turns out now.</p>
<p>Well, good luck with your defiance.</p>
<p>Always a pleasure, aibarr.</p>
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<p>I think you’re taking the advice incorrectly. It’s not that we “don’t believe in” you (none of us know you personally, so how could we?), it’s that you need to take baby steps. </p>
<p>How do you teach someone to play an instrument? Do you sit them down with the instrument and the most complicated sheet music you can find? Of course not, that will only frustrate them and they’ll never learn. Instead, you hand them then instrument, then teach them a note. Then, when they’ve mastered that note, you teach another note. Then after they’ve mastered that, you teach them a simple song with those two notes. Then, when they’ve mastered that, you teach them a new note. </p>
<p>The advice here is to try less. Cut out a few clubs, track, band etc. Then when you’ve caught up in your classwork, add band back. When those two things are under control, add back track. Trying to do everything at once is a sure way to not do anything at all.</p>
<p>You hit on a key point in one of your earlier posts: time management. Make a schedule and stick to it. Don’t let friends drag you away from your scheduled study times - just as you’d not let them stop you from getting in your runs. Try to find other engineers to study with - or better yet - to live with. That way you’ll have people with similar goals and pressures around you most of the time.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
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<p>Well put, GP. Facade, I remember being that busy, and I remember what a drain it was. I was drum major of the band, I was working two jobs, I was applying to grad school, I was taking 19 hours of classes and none of them were fluff, and I was exhausted. All the time. My suitemate was a varsity athlete, and I know what hours she kept, and she didn’t have band to contend with. Band is an absolute time-sucking monster.</p>
<p>I balanced things <em>okay</em>, and I’d already been the A-student who’d grown up developing great time management skills. I can’t imagine having that kind of an extracurricular load, PLUS trying to pull myself up by my bootstraps in all of my classes.</p>
<p>You’re coming up with excuses for why you can’t drop things, and you know some of them are bogus, particularly if you’re going to end up being in real academic trouble as a result of your refusing to cut back. You <em>can</em> drop band. Is it marching band? I can’t remember whether you said… if so, drop it in the fall, and pick up with pep band for basketball in the winter. If it isn’t, pick it back up in the spring semester as a reward for developing strategies to cope with the workload.</p>
<p>Time management isn’t something you can just decide to do. It’s something you learn. It’s why going cold turkey on quitting smoking or starting a crash diet is so hard… you’ve got a really high likelihood of rebounding and getting in trouble. The problem is, if you get into trouble with college, it’s going to follow you around like the plague. Just thinking about being in that situation makes me nervous for you. So you can’t just dive headfirst into this… Cut back your responsibilities and add things in as you’re able. This is too big (and too expensive!) of a deal to take this big a gamble on.</p>
<p>I’ve had friends who have been in denial about their taking too much on, and bad things have happened to them. They flunk out. It’s real, and it’s bad to see. </p>
<p>DEFINITELY find a study group… one of the worst mistakes I made the first few years in engineering was trying to do all my problem sets by myself. Dumb move.</p>
<p>Seriously, good luck. I really do think that you need to cut back. I really do think that you’re going to get yourself in trouble if you try to keep everything (at least in the short-term). I really hope that you don’t get in trouble, but don’t try to handle this situation through flat-out denial… And I wouldn’t recommend handling it through brute-force mid-semester cracking-down-on-organizing-your-life… It’s a good intent, but I know from personal experience that it doesn’t work most of the time. But good luck no matter what you decide.</p>
<p>weren’t u double majoring in EE and ChemE :)</p>
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<p>Way to read his original message first…</p>
<p>i bombed my first physics test freshman year
also bombed a couple of chem tests soph year
not to mention a statistics test
also a few more which I don’t care to try to remember</p>
<p>still survived and made it through</p>
<p>key is never give up</p>
<p>aibarr, GP, you guys {and yes aibarr, I know you’re a female engineer who still knows how to integrate!}, respond so maturely. I can’t handle it. I can’t buy anything from this OP. </p>
<p>f a c a d e , I gave you a constructive post. Please don’t respond with a snooty attitude. I advised to drop to precalculus – the best calc students are those who know their algebra. I’ve notised in my tutoring that it isn’t the calculus that the students have trouble with in basic calculus courses {taking derivatives, integrating} it is the ALGEBRA. I cannot stress how important it is. Students that take math classes they are not prepared for, sometimes, manage receiving A’s {because they are bright students, and I’m sure you are} but often wish they took a math class that would help them with their fundamentals, so they could go about it confidently.</p>
<p>I took BC after only taking Algebra II with a C+. I killed myself working hard, managed an A+, and a 5 on the BC test. After finishing calc1/2 with so much struggle, and so much hard work, I decided to take a few steps back and took an Algebra/Trig/precalc class at local community college in the summer. It made DE, Multi, and Linear run that much more smoothly. You will be taking engineering classes in which a fluent knowledge in the calculus is ASSUMED, and you cannot deprive yourself of those basic skills. Linear has a few tricky proofs, and Multi is damn-right hard. Students with A’s in Calc II many times manage low Bs/Cs in Multi, DE, etc, b.c., A, they were not sufficiently prepared, and B, overestimated their math skills. </p>
<p>There is such thing as a rigorous treatment of pre-calculus, and a true, thorough understanding of calculus demands it. Little things {and giving you the most basic example, I know} can really mess up some students. I was tutoring high school student a few weeks ago, and I asked him d / dx [ sin x ]. Very smartly (and only in 10th grade!) he responded (cos x)x’. I asked him what would he do if he, for some reason, could not remember each individual trigonometric derivative (arctan, arcsin, etc), and so he proceeded to write f’(x) = lim h -> 0, f(x+deltax)-f(x)/deltax. However, he could not derive it. He had trouble FACTORING. </p>
<p>He understands all his derivative rules, but doesn’t know his reduction formulas, sum and difference formulas, double-angle formulas, power-reducing formulas, sum-to-product formulas, etc. I’ve been trying hard {and heck, his parents pay me $40/hr, he does live in an affluent part of NYC}, to teach him his trig/algebra, since he seems to theoretically understand calculus, but he is just not ready! I’ve advised them to let him drop to a pre-calc course, or take trig/analytic geometry at a college. He has received mid-70s in his tests after studying hard. He is bright, and I do think that when he’s older he’ll be able to ace calc, but because his parents want him so badly to go to Harvard, Cooper, MIT, etc, he was pressured into taking this harder class which he is not prepared for! Do not deprive yourself, and do not pressure yourself into taking classes you aren’t ready for. Calc can be easy, but an ill-prepared calculus student will, even if they manage passing, heck, even if they manage a B, retain little from the course.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Most people do poorly on a test here and there.</p>
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<p>I consider “guys” to be a gender-neutral term. And I <em>do</em> still know how to integrate. ;)</p>
<p>“I’ve notised in my tutoring that it isn’t the calculus that the students have trouble with in basic calculus courses {taking derivatives, integrating} it is the ALGEBRA.”</p>
<p>I’m taking AP calc now and this is DEFINITELY the truth. My teacher comments on it all the time and we ALL see it. Calculus is quite easy (so far). Its the Algebra that is god awful hard.
But back to the OP I don’t know how the hell your taking calc without any trig. I agree that you NEED to drop down and get the foundations first. Calc is a B**** if you don’t know your foundations rock solid. I thought I knew them well but AP Calc has made me realize I was crapy at math.</p>
<p>I understand that your physical activities are important and I agree. You need to vent somehow and physical activities are perfect. You obviosuly love track so keep that for your “vent”. Then I would drop EVERYTHING else until you picked your grades back up. Until grades are back up and you’ve obtained a sense of time-management, a sense of priorities, and the ability to focus/dedicate yourself can you add your clubs/work back. </p>
<p>Am I being blunt? Yes. Am I being rude? No. Its my advice. I am going through the same thing (except I’m still in HS) and I’ve quickly determined this. I know its what I have to do. My problem is implementing it. Doing these things are hard but they are what I (and you) HAVE to do. Buckle up!</p>