<p>I'm willing to work hard but I think having the ability to grasp concepts and information quickly will be key and I'm decent but not an amazingly quick learner. I was able to get a 98 in Honors Physics last marking period but that was with some studying and asking questions.. I'm in a rather average public high school so I don't know how challenging my class is compared to others in the country. I do know, though, that whenever we learn new information there is always 4-5 students in my class that can pick it up pretty easily and then about 17 or so take more time. I'm kind of in the middle although more towards the 4-5 side.. I can understand the material quicker than most, in my class, but not as fast as some of the smartest students in my class. I'm afraid that once I get to college I will get loss in the physics classes and be forced to change majors.. Should I just look into something else? I was going to major in Construction Management but wanted to look into Civil Engineering.
I'm not looking at top colleges though.. I will probably attend a less known school like Rutgers or Drexel. Advice will be appreciated...</p>
<p>So you got a 98 on your Honors Physics exam and you are worried you will not be able to keep up on the physics side? Chill out man, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>I took physics in high school and ended up as an engineering physics major (basically applied physics, bunch of physics courses with engineering courses thrown into the mix). I didn't get an A in either my Physics or AP physics classes in highschool, but now I am basically a physics major and I am doing just fine (3.5/4). </p>
<p>My advice: relax. The only tried and true method to not succeed is by not trying. I know a lot of people that could do well if they tried. You try and you will do fine.</p>
<p>If failure's not your thing, just made sure you avoid public uni's. They basically want you to fail there.</p>
<p>Re: Luminaire-- I... don't know about that. It really kind of depends upon the professor. There were kids in the class that I TA'd at U of I that I think should've failed that the prof and instructor bumped up to passing grades, and nobody in that class actually ended up failing.</p>
<p>Re: OP-- Try it out. Seconding JohnWillkins. Success in engineering is kind of correlated to brute force learning... Nobody's going to understand absolutely everything they run across. If you deal with it well, you're actually going to be better equipped than the kids that (so far) have been able to easily solve every problem they've run across.</p>
<p>JohnWilkins: No, I got a 98 for my second marking period. But I like I said, I had to study before tests and ask many questions to obtain that grade.. I don't feel that I am that competent in physics because at least 10 other students in my grade can get around 98 with less or no studying. (They're able to comprehend the material faster than I can. I need time to take in and do practice problems and etc.)</p>
<p>Aibarr: Yeah, that does make a lot of sense. Generally, are professors often available for questions or would I need to get help from fellow students? Also, are most of them patient or would they get irritated if I ask too many questions? I know teachers vary though..</p>
<p>In college, professors (and their teaching assistants... incidentally, both profs and TA's can be a little hit-or-miss in terms of teaching skill, but you can get some really good profs and some really good TA's) are usually required to hold specific office hours during which you can go and ask them questions.</p>
<p>In terms of the fellow students, they can be pretty helpful, just don't completely dominate their time... People are typically pretty good about helping, but remember that everyone has their own work to do and everyone's pretty busy. Forming study groups to work through problem sets together can usually be pretty beneficial for everyone involved, though. My graduating class of 12 people in the civ department at Rice my year would all get together to work through our problem sets together, and we all walked away understanding things a lot more than if we'd worked on our own, because we'd explain things to one another until we all understood.</p>
<p>I think your classmates are probably studying more than they let on, Joe. No one in my high school ever admitted to studying, but it was all too clear that they did.</p>
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[quote]
JohnWilkins: No, I got a 98 for my second marking period. But I like I said, I had to study before tests and ask many questions to obtain that grade.. I don't feel that I am that competent in physics because at least 10 other students in my grade can get around 98 with less or no studying. (They're able to comprehend the material faster than I can. I need time to take in and do practice problems and etc.)
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<p>I never studied in HS and it actually became a problem in college. Once I hit material I couldn't learn on my first go through, I didn't know how to get myself to learn it. However, my friends that had had classes they struggled in during HS knew what sort of study techniques worked for them and which didn't. What happened because of that? I got a 3.0 freshman year (at least 0.5 lower than any other year) since I was still trying to learn how to study.</p>
<p>If I do decide to major in C.E. but, in school, I have some trouble understanding the information and I change my major, how bad would that look to employers? That is kind of the main fear I have about choosing to go into C.E...</p>
<p>Something like 70% of undergrads change their majors at least once. I don't think it would be a huge deal as long as you do well in your final major.</p>
<p>If you had to work hard for a 98, you'll do fine, at least you will have a work ethic built up for when you and everyone else run smack into the wall of physics ownage.</p>