What’s the hardest part about being an engineer in school? I am still taking all the courses to become an engineer and I choose to be a Mechanical Engineer because it’s one of the broadest fields one can go into. Please tell me what should I study for? My algebra skills are not the best but they are improving. Should I study trig more? I find that it’s more in Mechanical Engineering. Next semester I’m taking Fluids, Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Computational MechAnics and Aero structures. How can I get better on determining forces in triangles? Like are there any helpful books or YouTube review videos that will help me prepare for my upcoming classes? I never took these classes before and I just want to know how to prepare for them in a short period of time. I have 1 month out of school due to winter break and I just want to review things that will be helpful for me for my upcoming classes.
It’s not entirely clear to me how you could be bad at algebra but already taking fluid dynamics in year two of your program. However, you will really need to up your math game for that class if you want to do well. It will depend a bit on how your school handles it and how your professor teaches it, but expect it to be pretty heavy on the entire calculus sequence up to and including differential equations.
Computational mechanics is likely to involve a fair bit of linear algebra. If you haven’t taken that as a standalone class, they will likely cover it in this one. It will also involve differential and integral calculus, and you’ll need to be familiar with Taylor expansions, as they are the basis for many numerical methods.
I don’t really know what to tell you about what to brush up on there, because the most fundamental thing will be algebra, and I honestly don’t know what advice to give you about how to improve that.
Ah I see I am taking Calculus 3 now. I’m glad you didn’t mention Physics 2 because that class is difficult to me. I find that I am doing better in my Calculus class rather than Physics. So with Fluids, Dynamics, Computational Mechanics and Areostructues what type of math should I be prepared for? Someone told me solving system of equations is essential which I have discovered multiple ways of solving like the elimination method, Bernoulli equation height pressure. And now you say differential equations but what kind of differential equations shall I brush up on? I took it last semester. Also I find the intergration isn’t too difficult. Should I focus more on spherical coordinates, cylindrical coordinates? Or like what is essential in Calculus that I need to remember to be prepared for my upcoming schedule? I guess what I am asking is what advice will you give a 2nd engineering student preparing for the upcoming classes I have to take? Also does my schedule seem doable? Or shall I take some stuff out and replace it with 1 humanities and social scinece? I only have 1 humanities and social science left?
Also also I’m not bad at algebra. But I am better than I was when first starting out with it. Like I had to retake Calculus 3 but from retaking the course I find that I understand it much better now.
I considered changing my major to a less Physics heavy major but according to my research Mechanical Engineering is the broadest out of all engineering disciplines. So if I don’t want to do coding I could build stuff. If I get board of building I can switch to another department. But I found that Dynamics requires Physics 1 which wasn’t too bad for me. I just don’t want to set myself up for failure. The schedule my advisor gave me looks difficult but she said that is the load of the average Mechanical Engineer. Just wish I knew exactly what to study for. When I took Mechanics of Solids I knew what to study for and that was simply Material Science, Statics and studying moments and reactions about a roller, pin, fixed and their forces. I enjoyed Mechanics of Solids and I am just hoping I can enjoy those classes as much as my upcoming semester. Also I have another suggestion for my schedule and that is
Inventor Auto Desk - Deisgn for Engineers (2nd year class)
Computational Mechanics (3rd year class)
Dynamics (3rd year class)
1 humanities
1 social science
But then I want be able to take Fluids 
This is where I get my advice from so if I am asking too much it’s because my advisor is not very helpful to me. I don’t know who to ask for help. I do ask upperclassmen and they say my schedule looks more doable the one I made instead of my advisors.
If you want to review Algebra, Kahn Academy is helpful. There’s a setting where you can watch it at a higher speed. There’s a sweet spot where it won’t blow by too fast for comprehension, but it won’t drone.
As for the schedule, I can only speak from my son’s experience and his school’s curriculum path. Typically students don’t take dynamics until they’ve finished the physics sequence. It is slotted concurrently to linear. Dynamics is prior to Thermodynamics and Fluids. It seems like too much to me, not necessarily based on the hour load per se, but based on the choice of classes.
I’m not advocating militant adherence to it, in fact sometimes it’s better if you stray, but what does your school flowchart recommend?
Web resource: Edx has a lot of engineering courses archived.
I am pretty sure I already addressed what math you should need, so I am not quite sure why you asked that again. Fluids and the computational class will, combined, utilize pretty much all of the math you’ve learned up until this point. This is why many people consider fluid mechanics one of, if not the hardest course in the mechanical engineering curriculum.
As to your more specific questions:
[ul]
[li]Solving systems of equations is pretty essential in many courses from here on out. I don’t really consider fluids to be overly heavy on this topic, though. It is much heavier on the standard calculus and ODE sequence. It will be especially heavy on multivariable/vector calculus at most schools.[/li]
[li] I don’t know what your comment was about the Bernoulli equation, but that is one of the simpler concepts in fluid mechanics.[/li]
[li]Why do you feel the need to focus on cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates? The general techniques apply to all of them. Your fluids class won’t likely do much in spherical coordinates, but the other two will be common.[/li]
[li]Physics 2 (assuming that is E&M) gets used very little from here on out in mechanical engineering. However, several concepts from that class will be used again, and in particular, they will be used in fluids. Specifically, things like Gauss’s theorem and the concept of a scalar potential are going to show up in fluid mechanics.[/li]
[li]Your schedule does seem a tad on the heavy side, but I don’t know what is normal at your school.[/li][/ul]
I would suggest taking a lighter schedule. Your previous thread was about having gotten some C’s and D’s in STEM courses – which may be due to not having a good foundation, or (as I’m noticing now) taking the classes earlier in your college career than most students, but taking five engineering courses at the same time might not give you the best chance of success at getting better grades.
So do you think Inventor for Mechanical Engineering, Dynamics and Computational Mechanics as well as Humanaites and Social Science is a better load?
Thank you I will definitely use this during the winter break!
Course load all depends on your school and your capacity. Given that you’ve struggled, but are motivated to backfill and succeed, and that the load seems high. Your new proposed course makes more sense. What school do you go to and what year are you?