<p>I have recently been discouraged by my sister when she said majoring in Engineering field is </p>
<p>way tougher than it seems to be. Many of the adversities include physics, etc...</p>
<p>Is it true that UC Berkeley Engineering is out of the league for a regular straight A student?</p>
<p>p.s - I am now going to be a junior and if you have any advice that can help me prepare to</p>
<p>major in Engineering, please help me.</p>
<p>Engineering is not necessarily more difficult than any other field, it just depends what you’re good at. Engineering is more about understanding concepts and principles rather than memorizing facts. If you don’t have a problem actually understanding the concepts behind your math and physics classes, then the only thing that will limit you is your effort.</p>
<p>If you’re a straight A student with good test scores and decent extra curriculars then I can’t imagine you having too hard of a time getting into UC Berkeley, but I don’t really know too much about the school.</p>
<p>What engineering degree is your sister working towards?</p>
<p>My sister is not pursuing engineering degree but she knows a lot of her friends who are in UC Berkeley for Engineering and they are having a hard time. And all of her friends have excelled in high school.</p>
<p>i learned this from CC actually. you gotta love physics :D</p>
<p>I have not taken any physics classes yet. But I heard that it is really hard.</p>
<p>I guess i will have to wait until i actually take the class in order to determine if physics is </p>
<p>going to be hard for me.</p>
<p>physics has a lot of conceptual questions. and its not just memorizing. there’s a lot of applying</p>
<p>Then what should I do to determine if physics is my type of subject?</p>
<p>Should I go and buy Barron’s book on it? Or should I wait until i take the actual course?</p>
<p>What do you advise me to do?</p>
<p>You can attempt to teach it to yourself or as you said buy a barrons book, but I would wait and take a class in your hs if offered. I myself thought physics would be a very difficult class but ended up LOVING the class.</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>
<p>For me, physics was terribly difficult, and I ended up loving the class as a result.</p>
<p>[Free</a> Online MIT Course Materials for High School | AP Physics | MIT OpenCourseWare](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/physics/physics/index.htm]Free”>http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/physics/physics/index.htm)
[MIT</a> OpenCourseWare | Physics | 8.01 Physics I, Fall 2003 | Home](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall2003/CourseHome/index.htm]MIT”>http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall2003/CourseHome/index.htm)</p>
<p>Take a look at these and then take the course at your school.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone! </p>
<p>You guys helped me a lot!</p>
<p>Early on both engr and physics are basically math classes. You’ll investigate a physical concept (say the flight of a ball) and use math to calculate the result. A typical question might be: a 10 kg ball is shot out of a cannon at 100 km/hr initial velocity. It hits the ground 2 km from the cannon. Ignoring aerodynamic drag, at what angle was the barrel of the cannon? From there you’d apply a formula and do the math. The concepts others have mentioned is knowing what formula to use and the math is being able to solve it.</p>
<p>By all means take a course - even Einstein had to.</p>