What Do I Keep Doing Wrong in my Engineering Classes

<p>I've been getting C's in all my engineering classes for the last year and each time, I tried to recalibrate and change my studying skills after each failure, but my methods still do not work and was hoping the CC community could see what I was doing wrong.</p>

<p>Basically, here's what I do to study during the semester:</p>

<p>a) Go to every lecture and listen well.
b) Read the chapters in the textbook twice before lecture, and then maybe another time after lecture
c) Try to do every homework problem before asking for help
d) Know how to do every homework problem eventually</p>

<p>And here's how I study for the final/midterm:</p>

<p>1) Redo all the homeworks twice
2) Go over notes with friends and ask them about concepts I don't know
3) Know most of the equations used until I almost memorize them.</p>

<p>For most of my engineering classes though, it's always the final that I do worst in which is unfortunate because the final usually is worth most of the points in the class. It's that the level of difficulty for the final is much harder compared to the homeworks usually and I can't go back and revise the test after I turn it in. Most of my classmates though have an easier time dealing with the final than I do. What makes it worse is that the tests are usually open note and open book too, but I always try to learn as much as I can so that referencing my notes/book would be kept to a minimal. I'm almost at a point of desperation now because it seems like I can't do this major. Please help!</p>

<p>In engineering, it is always important to know “why” you do something more than “how”. You can usually figure out the “how” from the “why”. From your poor performance on the finals, I suspect that you aren’t focusing on the “why” enough. It is hard to remember all the details of the “hows” over the course of the term, but if you understand the “whys” then it is easier on the final, in the next class that builds on the previous classes and on the job where you use all your engineering skills.</p>

<p>I find that working as a group to study is very beneficial from several standpoints. I didn’t see that listed in your “what I do list”. In a study group, you discuss the concepts behind the problems which helps reinforce those concepts. Just asking friends about concepts that you don’t know probably isn’t enough (you should know ALL the concepts well before the final and the ones you do know may not be firmly enough in your mind without the give and take discussion within a study group). It is especially reinforcing if you have to explain it to a classmate, which would normally occur within the study group. So, if you are not part of a study group, join or form one. It should help you.</p>

<p>I always do ask why and how though. When I ask for help on my homework, I always do so with friends or with those in office hours and try to completely understand everything about the assigned problems. I also do work in groups when I review for tests and question others about sections of notes I don’t understand well to try to better understand them.</p>

<p>I mean, I don’t work in groups when I feel like I understand everything about a particular subject, but I’m not afraid to jump in when I have trouble. </p>

<p>Just a suggestion. You say that what you are doing now isn’t working.</p>

<p>Oh, and by the way. I was (now retired) an engineering manager that hired many a college hire. One of the biggest things I was looking for when interviewing a college applicant was their ability to work as part of a team (i.e. group) as that is how the company was organized. So, I always asked about how you studied when you were in college.</p>

<p>It also sounds like a lot of your pre-exam studying is being done in a cramming type fashion, which doesn’t lend itself to actually internalizing the topics so that they can all be brought together for the final. Try spacing all that studying out a bit more. If you play your cards right you should be able to get away with only studying a few hours before each exam because you already have the concepts internalized and you just need a little brush up.</p>

<p>Your situation is more typical than you think. It is hard to tell because I have been struggling too, I have tried everything but I still don’t know the magic formula to doing well in all of my classes.</p>

<p>There are so many factors and variables though. I know a guy who is on academic probation but he has been working a co-op in Engineering for almost a year and he is well liked by his employer, the employer probably has no clue that he is struggling academically but he is good with people and communicates well.</p>

<p>Other people excel with little effort in Engineering classes but don’t communicate well, don’t work well in groups and have undesirable personalities.</p>

<p>I am afraid many people graduate with degrees in Engineering without ever finding the answer to your question.</p>

<p>What year are you? Engineering students often find their GPA increases over the years. (That was not true for me, but in Freshman year I benefited from AP background and had a great GPA.) . </p>

<p>I’ve just ended my second year and I will propel into all engineering classes next year. Bonehead’s comment might be accurate. I have noticed that I usually push off understanding of some difficult concepts until before finals. It’s just hard because my classes go at a quick pace but I guess I’ll have to sacrifice sleep in order to internalize concepts as I learn them.</p>

<p>I do have hope though because I’ve talked to some graduating seniors in my major who were in the same predicament as I was at this stage. They said that they managed to push their GPA’s up much higher in their latter 2 years to make up for the C’s and D’s of the first 2 years. </p>

<p>There is also such a thing as studying too much. A healthy work-life balance is necessary to keep your focus and concentration sharp. Your goal is to try and find your sweet spot… study too little and you will not have a good enough understanding of the material for the exam, study too much and you end up second guessing yourself and getting confused. </p>

<p>You have to experiment a little to see what works best for you. Not sure what you are currently doing, but maybe try adding a few blocks of time each day to spend on yourself. Pick up a hobby, go work out, get into a routine where you have something to take your mind off of academics for a little while every day. </p>

<p>I think the problem is you aren’t exposed enough. You said yourself the final is more difficult than hw. Then logically, you should seek more difficult problems to solve. Ask a prof or ta for an old exam or alternative text. However, you say you’re only doing poor the final. Do you know where the disconnect is exactly?</p>

<p>Or it could be that you aren’t doing anything particularly wrong, you just aren’t a good test taker. That said I think you’re looking at the groups the wrong way. You should work in groups when you DO understand everything (or think you do). The questions they ask you will force you to think about how to explain the concept or technique clearly and concisely. As well the questions in a group setting are like practice/study questions for the exam.</p>

<p>Good point on work/life balance. Many students find it easier to think and sleep if they make some time for exercise. That could be intramural sports, running, biking, walking instead of bus/car, etc. . </p>

<p>@xinzin‌ I think the disconnect is that the homework is all based on book problems, but the test is all made by the professors. </p>

<p>I might have also spent too much time studying this semester. I only had 13 units yet I spent around 60-80 hours per week doing stuff related to my classes. I definitely did second-guess myself too much during the final and changed a bunch of my answers at the last few minutes. But then again, I thought that my main problem was that I wasn’t studying enough?</p>

<p>If you are studying 60 to 80 hours per week for 13 credit hours, that definitely seems like a red flag to me that your study habits are not very effective for you and that studying more is not going to be fruitful. Instead, you need to figure out how to study smarter rather than longer. Focus on the fundamental concepts rather than specific solution processes, as a good understanding of the math and physics underlying the problem should help you be able to reason out the proper solution processes without needing to resort to rote memorization, which is generally just forgotten after the exam anyway.</p>

<p>Getting a good grasp on the fundamental concepts also helps immensely when tying it all together at the end of the class to solve larger, more complicated problems and should help out quite a bit on final exams where the problems tend to require a grasp of all of the topics and how the fit together.</p>

<p>%100 agree with boneh3ad. it’s not the amount of studying you do, it’s the quality of the studying. As previously stated it’s also important to understand the underlying principals behind the techniques you employ.</p>

<p>Let me ask you something. Did you not pay that much attention back in HS or freshman year in college? Sometimes you have gaps in your knowledge in physics or math. You get by, but as time progresses those concepts come back into play and those holes in your knowledge become more and more apparent.</p>

<p>If you have a firm grasp of previous topics and classes, may i suggest trying to increase the efficiency of your study time? No facebooking, no txting. Just study 50 mins & rest 10. Couple of hours early in the morning, couple of hour in the afternoon, maybe a 1 or 2 at night. </p>

<p>With technical courses I usually only write the examples the professor gives and break it down into the techniques employed. Stuff like concepts and ideas you can just pay attention and grasp. </p>

<p>Hope it helps</p>

<p>In addition to trying to get old exams from the professor, I’d suggest doing sample problems that are representative of the type of exam you might get. There are many online resources, such as OCW, Coursera, and Chegg. Also try review books such as Schaum’s outlines.</p>

<p>It could be that you are getting C’s because the other students are very talented, and working very hard (and effectively). If the professors are using bell curve grading, an average grade might be a C.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t redo the homework, I never did any homework and convinced my professor to not count them in my grades. I think get a copy of previous exams and try to see if you can do them and see what areas the professor put emphasis. Also the finals are usually important, some kids go into the final with a high A and flunk the final and receive less than expected grade, so study ahead for the finals, don’t wait for the last minute. Don’t do any all nighter, you can’t think that well when you crammed. I never did any all nighter, gave my daughter the same advice, she did pull a 4.0 last quarter because she finally learned to study ahead of the finals. There are too many things going on at once to study the last minute.</p>

<p>If you’re just doing the homeworks or problem sets given by the professor/TA, you’re not doing enough. Search for old tests/homework/problem sets from previous years and from other schools and from other books. Connect with a group of Eng’g students like you. They probably have some of these to share. When I was an Eng’g student, I would hang around at the Copy Center (this was before the internet, now a days, a lot of sites have tests bank) to look for old tests (we call it OT (as in Old Testament or Old Test).</p>

<p>Another thing I want to add is that open book test often means test will be hard. So don’t underestimate open book test either.</p>