At my college you can take calculus 1 and physics 1 at the same time. I plan on taking intro to engineering, physics 1, calculus 1, and chemistry 1 in the fall. This will be my first semester as an “engineering” student.
Do you think that’s a wise decision? My rationalizing is that ME will be very hard, so I might as well get used to a heavy workload. But I was curious as to what you fine gents and ladies think?
I was also going to buy a Chemistry and Physics for Dummy’s books to help. Do you think that’s a good idea as well? To refresh and what not. Do you have any how to or intro book recommendations?
That’s what I did my first semester of college. I did fine. You and I are obviously different people, though, so your mileage may vary. I would be willing to bet that the “for Dummies” books will be rather useless.
It’s not an uncommon schedule to take. Are you taking the labs as well?
I wouldn’t advise buying the books. Plenty of free, reliable information can be found online.
If you took calc, chem and physics in high school, you should know what is in the dummies book. I think you would also be ready for the college versions.
For calc, just make sure you don’t need the class before that by taking a placement test or showing mastery through AP test score or an A/B in high school calc. You can graduate in 4 years and take the pre-calc class, easier than getting a C in calc 1 and having GPA issues haunting you (and still not knowing some of Calc 1).
If your high school was not rigorous, it is sometimes hard to keep up weeks 1-8 and then you have the midterm. You have to work weeks 1-8, have some background, and maybe get tutoring, and not party all the time…
Shaum’s outlines are more appropriate than Dummies, or you can borrow a text book from anyone who has gone to college. None of those 3 classes have had huge changes in the last 30 years.
Yes, be sure that your algebra, geometry, and trigonometry knowledge is solid.
But starting in precalculus first semester greatly increases the risk of delayed graduation in engineering.
You probably need to take all these intro level classes or you may delay your course sequence towards your major. It is usually the typical first year engineering student schedule when you have no AP credits for those. Very often, one would leave one of them in the second semester though. Check if you need to fulfill certain elective requirements. As you may need to take a lab session for Chem and Phys that usually block off one half day of schedule each.
That was my schedule last semester, only instead of Calc I i was in Calc II. Straight As 
@boneh3ad Thanks for the help! What would you recommend then? I’ve never really had to buy those kind of books… And the Chem Dummy book was really highly rated on Amazon…
@Niquii77 I am taking the labs as well. Do you have any recommendations of websites to look at?
Thanks @PickOne1 I will look into that book.
Thanks @billcsho for the advice.
Congrats @Fsswim1!
Kahn Academy is your friend.
Paul’s Notes is another.
I don’t lean on anyone website. I’m more “Google it and find an answer” kind of gal.
Well I am perhaps an odd one to ask that question. I find most textbooks to be substantially more helpful than most online resources or watered-down books like the “for Dummies” series. Either way, I would not suggest stressing yourself out over the summer. School is full of enough stress already. Enjoy your (likely) last free summer with your friends, and if you absolutely feel you must do some studying over the summer, just make sure you are strong on the prerequisites for your upcoming classes. Most people who struggle with calculus do so because they are bad at algebra, most who struggle with differential equations do so because they are bad at calculus, and so on…