Im a materials engineering major, and I just recently got a 49 on my calculus 1 exam (this is my second time taking the class I didnt fail I was just overwhelmed the firs time, and I never took calculus in high school). I looked at what I did wrong and made minor mistakes. I could of easily gotten 25-30 more points but ended up making stupid mistakes. Now people keep advising me to change majors and say that my chances of surviving engineering are low. I dont know what to do, I know I can do better and work harder but this is really discouraging. The thing is I dont know what else to major in if I do switch majors, engineering is the only thing Im interested in doing. I just want the opinions of other engineering majors/engineers.
I am in the same boat as you, I also never took calc until this semester. If you made minor mistakes then it is probably just your algebra that is lacking. You should go to khan academy and brush up on any algebra skills you do not remember in and out. What was your first test over? Limits and derivatives?
The multiple choice questions tend to be just regurgitating the material back. Working problems is where your knowledge of how and why come in. I will suggest that you need to take a different tack on your studying. Figure out the how and why. Challenge yourself with the harder problems in the book.
Engineering is using the how and why. It is important that you know that in order to be successful in engineering in college and as a professional engineer.
Ah good old calculus. 49% seems about what the class averaged on some tests. If you thought 20%-30% improvement was just silly mistakes then might have had a solid B on the test. Add in some more practice and you could be at a B+/A- grade.
I would do the following:
-Practice more
-Do problems slowly. Focus on accuracy rather than speed
-Figure out how to most effectively approach a problem
-Don’t take in too much negativity from others.
-Keep in mind that engineering is WAY more than just calculus.
-brush up on algebra skills if needed (as mentioned before)
-work on quality rather than quantity of problems
-work on reviewing over work and problems on a regular (weekly) basis. Don’t wait until a few days before the test to review. Studies show that reviewing over time is more effective than all at once. Plus you will feel more prepared and less stressed.
-Take a depth breath and de-stress before tests. My favorite is going for a run, showering, then taking a power nap.
From a senior engineering student, engineering in college is much more different than other majors. Engineering IS DIFFICULT and it is DISCOURAGING and will beat you down with low scores. But what is MORE important is that you learn from your mistakes, failures, and and pick yourself up and do as well as you can.
Take it a blessing that in school you are allowed a second chance to correct things. In the real world you aren’t allowed second chances. A bridge collapses, a rocket blows up, a dam breaks, a phone explodes, a truck axle shears off… in all these cases you don’t get a second chance.
Not trying to scare you away from engineering, but it is a very high risk, high reward type of field.
I am confident if you put your mind to it, no concept will be out of your grasp. Effort and practice trumps raw intelligence. Keep your chin up and keep being awesome.
Go back and re-read your post. You said “I know I can do better and work harder” and “Engineering is the only thing I am interest in doing”. This is perfect! This tells me you are striving to do better and you are genuinely interested in engineering. Two necessary ingredients for success. (Other people do engineering solely for the money, they are doing it wrong. )
P.S.
Also, it is possible to do the complete opposite too. Had a friend get a 97% on first midterm of class. Got overconfident and ended up getting 39% on the second exam which was the lowest score in the class. So don’t let one success or failure govern the next.
Highly variable by school and by course, so it might be better if OP gives us that information themselves. I’ve had harder courses than calc 1 with higher averages than 49% – the only thing that approached that low of an average was one exam in physics 2. And I do go to the same school as OP.
@bodangles I have no idea what the average was, If I had to guess it would be high in the 70`s.
You need to really look at your mistakes until you get to the bottom of them. A lot of times, kids label their mistakes as “stupid” and therefore don’t look at them very deeply.
Example: I set it up correctly, then made a stupid mistake.
On a second look:
I set it up correctly, then misadded the exponents.
On a third look,
I set it up correctly, then misadded the exponents because my handwriting was sloppy.
There is no such thing as a mistake that is merely stupid. It is some specific mistake and it was made for some specific reason. Unless you drill down and figure out exactly what that mistake was and why you made it for each and every mistake, you will keep making them.
Your stupid mistakes are unique to you, but until you really analyze them and commit to fixing them, they will continue to haunt you. Think of it as low hanging fruit: your stupid mistakes are much easier to understand and fix than the concepts of calculus, so a bit of work will go a long way.
I have a kid whose 2’s needed some serious work, especially little twos in exponents. But, for a lot of kids, sloppy handwriting or general organization of the work is fundamental to stupid mistakes.
@AroundHere you pretty much hit it on the head, thats kind of what I did lol, At first I saw that I miss added an exponent because my 7 looked like 1 and my handwriting was sloppy. So during the end I ran out of time (3-4 minutes left and 3-4 questions left, and started rushing a little and just got sloppy.