<p>I go to a top engineering school but I'm a few years older than my classmates and haven't gotten to know many of them. I'm starting to wonder: what are these kids doing in their free time?</p>
<p>I went to a final review session and nobody there knew how to do some of the most basic problems. The professor was visibly disappointed - it was obvious that almost nobody had even looked at the material. He'd try to go over some of the harder problems, but he kept getting questions about basic trivial stuff. For example, some had never seen a formula he used that was part of 25% of all of the homework for the entire semester, not to mention used many times in lecture. It's like not knowing what the derivative of x is at the end of a semester in calculus. What the heck are these people doing all semester? Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but I went to a two-hour review session for the class just to have absolutely trivial stuff explained to me because I was practically the only one there who had even glanced at the homework. It's embarrassing, not to mention disrespectful to the professor, who is known by name by pretty much anyone in his field. </p>
<p>Another thing that baffles me: finals week all-night studying. Just about every night this week there is some sort of organization putting on an all-night studying event. The library is open 24/7. I left at 11pm last night and just about every desk was occupied and some people were just showing up. Why do these people do this to themselves?! If you're so behind that you would benefit more from staying up all night studying the night before a final instead of getting rest, you are doing something very wrong!</p>
<p>Maybe more disturbing than anything is that I overheard a kid basically telling his friend that he was uncool for studying... and called him a "curve breaker."</p>
<p>Hahahaha, you are not alone. I’m older, (I’m pretty sure you’re a veteran, same here) and I go to NCSU… it is the same way here. A lot of people do not have their priorities together at all. I don’t really mind though because, honestly, they need to learn the hard way and it just makes it that much easier for me to beat them out for a job.</p>
<p>exactly; they don’t value success in competition. my drive to do well is mostly because of my selection at a summer research position; i realized then how much harder i had to work just to be competent. but of course, by having these successes, i value time and the processes of working towards an end goal. i feel like i learn things better if i actually oversleep, and feel clear and focused in learning.</p>
<p>Being someone who has taught a class, it is certainly soul-crushing as the instructor at times when students ask questions that blatantly imply that they haven’t looked at anything since I mentioned it in lecture.</p>
<p>Though I guess I can’t be too mad. My study habits were far worse as an undergrad than they are now.</p>
<p>As a tutor, my income is based on the bad study habits of those kids. I wish I could spend more time giving them a false sense of hope, but then I’d start cutting into my study time.</p>
<p>This is exactly the problem I had during my undergrad. I quite literally cruised through high school. My AP classes were not taught very rigorously (as most aren’t) and I came to college with basically no previously developed study habits. I had to learn how to study before I could really learn. I never even really developed truly good study habits until I got to the end of my degree on into graduate school.</p>
<p>I agree. I get weird looks because I carry around a stack of notecards … instead of perusing Facebook for three hours a day , I am flipping through notecards - reinforcing concepts and memorizing key equations etc…then when the exam scores come in , I get more weird looks … how dare I put forth the effort and time to learn the material and ace the exams ?!!</p>
<p>I hate the weird looks! It’s worse for me at the community college, because I get this feeling like I’m the only one who takes classes seriously.</p>
<p>I remember this one time when we all got our tests back, and the guy next to me, who I never really talked to, nudged me and said something along the lines of “this class is ridiculous and the professor is too”, although I believe he used a more vulgar vocabulary He showed me his grade, which was something very low, and then asked me what I got. That professor always put one bonus question on the exams, which I answered, so my grade was over 100%. He looked at it and went silent; never heard a peep from him again, but he and his friends would always try to see what my test grades were, and give me stupid looks.</p>
<p>This semester I took my classes online, so I avoided that. Next semester, though, will be a different story.</p>
<p>The “few years older” from work or military experience makes a huge difference in maturity. Many undergrads stuggle with the appropriate mix of play and work. Give those same undergrads a dose of the real world and most will dedicate themselves more towards studying. I know my brother-in-law stuggled with his engineering grades; left college to work for two years; and then came back motivated enough to maintain a 4.0 his Junior and Senior years. He realized that life was going to suck in a major way without the degree and without a better gpa.</p>
<p>Imagine you have some chocolate bars which are 55% Cocoa and Some other chocolate bars that are 25% cocoa.?
If you melt them down and mix them together and end up with chocolate that is 49% cocoa , how many of each bar was used?</p>
<p>Can someone please help me with this math problem!</p>
<p>That is pretty intense. I am glad it works for you but I would argue you are still working too hard. There is no need for rote memorization of equations and facts if you are strong in the fundamental concepts.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, and I apologize if so, but I really don’t think that that is correct. See this link and note that first example lists the total quantity used and is in the format of the equations I posted above:</p>
<p>Lol yea it is a bit intense . … I definitely agree that a firm grasp of the fundamentals is key …I do try to build on the conceptual framework first . .once I understand the relationships, I memorize the equations that describe them …I could get by without memorizing certain things .but i find its much more effective to just decide what tool I need and recall it from the ol’ memory box , rather than trying to derive it on my own in the middle of a timed exam</p>