<p>This semester I'm really struggling in my engineering courses (getting 50s and 60s on my problem sets). It seems the material comes to the other kids in my class so effortlessly, they're somehow getting 80s and 90s. I'm worried that if I'm struggling so much now on apparently easy material, I won't know how to do anything well when I get a real engineering job. But I'm a sophomore and at the end of this semester I'll have to declare my major. Should I quit engineering and start a completely new major from scratch or should I just stick it out since I've already completed half of my requirements?</p>
<p>I guess the first thing to figure out would be why you are getting 50s and 60s on your problem sets. Do you spend enough time on the material? Go to office hours? Study with others? I would encourage you to not give up unless you really feel you are giving it your all and still cannot complete the assignments. Some people just grasp the beginning concepts easily, whereas with others it takes more work. </p>
<p>One thing I realized in classes is that people are often at different grade levels so to speak. That is, two people taking a particular class could have very different backgrounds-- could have taken other classes which make the current one more easy, or worked in industry for a few years, or just received more instruction in the subject matter of the current class. Once you get into the upper division courses where everything is more focused and more new to people it is easier to feel like you belong in the class. Hang in there!</p>
<p>I’m with blurry87 on this one. Go talk to your professor or TA, get tutoring, try to figure out what concept or concepts are hanging you up. Failing to grasp just one concept early on can cause you to constantly get stuck with the material that comes after it. And most of the time after you have the “light bulb” moment and figure out what is holding you back the other material falls into place like dominoes. Do not give up over a few low scores on problem sets. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement guys! Unfortunately, my professor is very busy and her only office hours are at a time when I have class (where attendance is taken). I normally study alone because I’m not exactly a fan of the rest of the people in my major. I am one of those extremely shy people. I’m currently in a circuit analysis/design course. I feel like I understand the concepts when I’m reading the book, but get stumped when faced with certain problems. I think I would understand things better with more practice, but my book doesn’t have a solutions manual as far as I know and I like knowing why I get things wrong.</p>