How do you survive Engineering?

[elmo909]

....

[Aleks]

Make sure you buy lots of Lube. Then grab the ankles real good and hold on! LOL JK.

Anyways I went thru it still a big blur actually. Why are you recopying your notes? Dont do that. Get together with a group of peeps and do assigments together. Help each other out. Use roadmaps to get thru those 8 hour write ups for first year labs! Seriously if you have to copy a few labs in first year do it. Everyone does it. They are way too time consuming. Just make sure you study hard for the midterms and finals. If you dont' get everything right away dont' panic. Most of all don't get discouraged. yeah it will get tougher but you'll get used to it. Like I said a study group with friends is a good way to go.

[USED]

Like Aleks said, get some friends and work with them on everything. If you think that you can get through engineering on your own, you'll be in for a big disappointment. First year is going to be rough as the University is trying to "weed" out people, just keep up on the material and try to have some fun.

GOOD LUCK!

[elmo909]

I take notes at school and copy them out when I get home, as I heard this was an effective way of studying. When you were in engineering did you proactively do problems (say in the text) or just do homework assignments and study for midterms/finals? I think I’ll get the hang of university after a few more weeks.

[Aleks]

Everyone has a different style, but to me recopying stuff is a waste of time. Use that time to do other things. I did problems that were assigned only and problems from old exams. You'd be amazed how similar exams are from year to year. At U of C we had a study center that had old exams and such. It's all about being efficient tho. With 5 or 6 courses there is no time to dwell on things too much.

[cman]

i am in eng also.
i get up at 630am everyday. its by no means easy, but yours sounds overly insane. 6 hours a night? jesus christ thats just rediculous.
just keep motivated by what ever is driving you to be successful.

[littledan]

just stick with it. if you are feeling overloaded maybe drop 1 course and extend the program by one year. i did that and worked great for me.

[V6-BoI]

Been through 3 years of it, luckily I got a co-op job so I don't have to go back for one year.
But it's all about time management. Recopying your notes, I find is WAAAYYY to time consuming. I agree it does help you study, but it's going to be hella hard during crunch times, when you got like quizzes/midterms/assignments/labs all in like the span of a week or so. Just make sure you learn the material for the exams. I've found throughout my past 3 years, that labs (other than programming ones) don't really help you learn much stuff, so I say just copy those damn labs! haha. And work together will a group of people when studying or working on assignments. Better to have 2 or more brains trying to solve a problem, than just one.

[A2VR6]

I was in the same boat as you last semester. It basically takes a semester for you to get used to the workload (I found that out the hard way, had to get everything back 2nd semester) but what I reccomend most is do the assigned problems! They really help. Reading the textbook may or may not help (It did for me) but the thing that really saved me 1st year were the roadmaps and my friends. If you get together with a study/work group kinda thing you'll be surprised on how much easier it is. Most importantly stay postive! Thats what really helped me.

[kaput]

.

[Seanith]

I'd suggest to stop recopying your notes everyday. That has got to be the biggest waste of time. It will only make you lose your mind. That time could be better spent reading the notes over and over, and reading the text and doing problems. If you did 6hours of actual homework everyday you will be really ahead of the game. I found I have spent too much time reading when I should have spent the time doing actual problems.

[gpomp]

study smart. pay attention to what the prof emphasizes on during class. don't waste your time studying things that are not important. look at previous year's finals to get an idea of what questions will be on the exam. and stuff like assignments and midterms are free marks. study your ass of for midterms and copy, er... check, your assignments with everyone else before you hand them in. there's usually not much to do during the semester except to stay on top of shit. don't try to be a hero, that's what reading week is for.

[GTS Jeff]

This might help.

http://www.su.ualberta.ca/su/businesses_and_services/infoserv/examsonline

[greg288]

Having just finished my first year of Eng at U of A, I know what it can be like trying to adapt to University life. Like everyone else says, study and do assignments with your friends, not only does it make it easier, but it'll help you keep your head. Remember to make time for play as well as work, so you don't burn yourself out. People may tell you it gets easier after first year, I figure you just get used to the workload.
Don't get down on yourself and just stick it out, you'll end up having a great time in the end.

[FiveFreshFish]

Originally posted by Seanith
I'd suggest to stop recopying your notes everyday. That has got to be the biggest waste of time.


Originally posted by gpomp
study smart. pay attention to what the prof emphasizes on during class. don't waste your time studying things that are not important.

:werd: Take notes right the first time, and don't blindly write down everything the prof writes on the blackboard or puts up on the overhead. You can miss a lot of what the prof is saying by trying to copy everything.

[accord823]

Don't worry man
you will get used to it
:D

[in*10*se]

find smart friend

copy smart friend assignments

study fucking hard for midterms and finals

get a 42% on your final = C

do this for the semester

repeat

and like damn wtf and we have u engineers building shit w/ 42%???
dammnnn...

[Loose]

I did it, first year is hell.

They key is obviously time management, since there is so much shit. 2nd year courseload is even higher, but hopefully you know how to manage the workload.

Tips:
- work in groups (make sure there is a brain in the group)
- try to get asignments done ASAP, while the material is still fresh in your brain. Doing them last minutes piles up the stress.
- See if "carmen and marcus" still teach math tutorials. If they are around, take the tutorials! They'll teach you the course material 5 times faster than the proff ever would.

[sabad66]

Hey man I know EXACTLY how you feel. In High School, I literally did about 2 hours of homework in the entire year, didn't study and just learned by watching the teacher do the examples. Now the fucking profs go by so fast, and I actually have to start doing something at home :(

[bspot]

You take notes? :rofl:

Seriously though, I wouldn't suggest my study style, which was forget about it all until the very last minute. Sure I was the most relaxed guy there for 7 of the 8 months of school, but jesus it was brutal when I let stuff pile up for so long and had no time left to do it.

If you do a bit to keep up, you'll be alright. Don't worry about falling behind because its going to happen no matter what. Just accept you'll be behind for 4 years. Its all about how far behind you get.

[86max]

Originally posted by bspot
You take notes? :rofl:

Seriously though, I wouldn't suggest my study style, which was forget about it all until the very last minute. Sure I was the most relaxed guy there for 7 of the 8 months of school, but jesus it was brutal when I let stuff pile up for so long and had no time left to do it.

If you do a bit to keep up, you'll be alright. Don't worry about falling behind because its going to happen no matter what. Just accept you'll be behind for 4 years. Its all about how far behind you get.

:werd: I had a similar method in engineering at Mt.Royal lol. I just paid attention in class and didn't bother studying for exams, and I did fine. Maybe I did well because I was less stressed than everyone else? Stuff never really piled up on me, but having friends in the program helped a bit.

[GSR Zero]

As said by most, don't worry too much about recopying the notes. Just a waste of time. Best bet is always to work in group in Engineering and to get hooked up with those road maps. The lab write ups can be extremely long. This might be a stretch but go and ask your prof's if they have copies of their course notes that you can photocopy. By doing that you spend more time listening and less time burying your head to copy notes. Then only make quick notes.

Welcome to Engineering though! Just try to keep your head above water and ride the bell curve. Scoring 50-60% isn't that bad when the class average is 35%.

Oh another thing, if you aren't planning to work the entire 4 months during summer, drop a class and spread out your course load to the spring.

[elmo909]

My Statics Prof today told us if we aren't feeling overwhelmed we probably aren't doing our work or slacking :nut:

[Aleks]

Ahhh statics...good times, everything always = 0! Just wait for dynamics :banghead: :banghead:

[elmo909]

lol just when I though I had 2d statics figured out, we have to do in 3d now. :banghead: time to read the book lol.

[86max]

Originally posted by elmo909
My Statics Prof today told us if we aren't feeling overwhelmed we probably aren't doing our work or slacking :nut:

haha.....probably true



3d is nuts, fun though once you get the hang of it. Learn to enjoy it, and you'll do well.

[ehos]

Can't you use laptops for notes?

It would save you tons of time and for me personally I can type faster than people can talk.

[Chiram000]

Originally posted by ehos
Can't you use laptops for notes?

It would save you tons of time and for me personally I can type faster than people can talk.

Problems is i find there is alot of diagrams . and as for my schedule

Up everyday at 6:30am review what was done previous day , school by 8. Then atleast 2-5 hours homework a night. Reading isnt terrible, but theres alot of work because the material seems to be covered very briefly.

[bspot]

Do you have Dr. Wong for Statics?? That guy is the man.

"You pay $350 for only 3 equation?? What a waste!"

"Special tutorail today, only 5 dolla!"

[Altezza]

Originally posted by bspot
Do you have Dr. Wong for Statics?? That guy is the man.

"You pay $350 for only 3 equation?? What a waste!"

"Special tutorail today, only 5 dolla!"

Dr. Wong is still there? haha...he's still using the same jokes/lines I see...

[GSR Zero]

Originally posted by bspot
Do you have Dr. Wong for Statics?? That guy is the man.

"You pay $350 for only 3 equation?? What a waste!"

"Special tutorail today, only 5 dolla!"

haha, after all these years and Dr. Wong is still there huh? We used to call him Uncle Wong.

[szw]

Originally posted by Chiram000


Problems is i find there is alot of diagrams . and as for my schedule

Up everyday at 6:30am review what was done previous day , school by 8. Then atleast 2-5 hours homework a night. Reading isnt terrible, but theres alot of work because the material seems to be covered very briefly.

wake up at 6:30 to review what was done yesterday? wtf?

Other guy is copying out his notes everyday? wtf is wrong with you people!

You are nuts!

[n00bit]

Yeah if you need to recopy notes for hours daily or read notes in the early morning just to stay caught up, you'd better start finding new ways of doing things because that is not going to last you the 4-5 years. Every year there is more work and more material is covered which builds on the previos material learned.

My advice is take it easy, actually enjoy the stuff you learn and you'll do better. Plus it does help to have a super smart friend who can do all the assignments and labs. All you'd have to worry about is the midterm/final.

[turbotrip]

Damn, i must be doing somethinig wrong? cuz i havent done a minute of work outside of class yet. All the stuff so far seems like review? that or im gonna be in for one hell of a surprise on my next quiz

[heinz256]

Originally posted by turbotrip
Damn, i must be doing somethinig wrong? cuz i havent done a minute of work outside of class yet. All the stuff so far seems like review? that or im gonna be in for one hell of a surprise on my next quiz

Ya same here man, this whole week for me has been pretty much intro to the course or just review..

[A2VR6]

Originally posted by turbotrip
Damn, i must be doing somethinig wrong? cuz i havent done a minute of work outside of class yet. All the stuff so far seems like review? that or im gonna be in for one hell of a surprise on my next quiz

Um basically just wait till after the fee deadline (sept 23 for u of c) the week after that is usally when all hell breaks loose.

[n00bit]

Yeha first week is review to get everyone up to speed. Overall I found first year to be the easiest compared to the other years. The only challenging courses I found were engg201, phys259, and engg205. The other courses do not have crazy labs or crazy assignments and are taught fairly well. What I found is that those who were good in engg201 went on to chem engg, those who were good in phys259 went on to electrical and those good at engg205 went on to civil/mech.

2nd year was more work than first and 3rd year was more work than 1st and 2nd combined for me. I'm in electrical so I'm not sure if other departments have the same workload.

[Phy]

What I found is that those who were good in engg201 went on to chem engg, those who were good in phys259 went on to electrical and those good at engg205 went on to civil/mech.

259 is the weeder course at the UofC. 269 used to be a ballbreaker but apparently they moved it to second year. I ended up in Mech because I did good in dynamics but barely pulled it out in 269. Arg. And I even had Ritchie as a dyn prof.

Anyway, :werd: to what everyone else is saying about working in groups. Even if you're a loner like I was, find a couple of guys who are smart in different areas than you and your courses will simplify immensely.

Study the problems. The side courses (everything that isn't entirely math-based) will test you mostly on the reading, but the real eng courses will be either similar to the problems, or easily derived from the problems. Unless it's fluids, in which case your prof may decide to surprise you with a midterm based entirely on the history of fluidics. (I'm talking to you, JACK you ancient bastard.)

As to whether it gets easier/more fun as you go on... this may only have been my mindset but it only got harder for me. Ah well. I've got my degree, so it didn't beat me.

[elmo909]

Originally posted by turbotrip
Damn, i must be doing somethinig wrong? cuz i havent done a minute of work outside of class yet. All the stuff so far seems like review? that or im gonna be in for one hell of a surprise on my next quiz
I don't go to the U of C but review at the U of A lasted all of 5 minutes per class.

[V6-BoI]

Originally posted by heinz256


Ya same here man, this whole week for me has been pretty much intro to the course or just review..

Yeah first week isn't too bad. Wait until they start having weekly quizzes or assignments. You might think "Oh well a quiz or an assignment every week, and a lab every 2 weeks isn't that much work at all". But multiply that shit by 6 (or how every many classes you are taking) and the work load just piles up.

But yeah I'm with noobit, I'm in computer (which is almost the same as electrical), 3'rd year is like first and second year combined. Heh so just kind of a heads up for those of you who want to go into electrical or computer.

[Chiram000]

Originally posted by szw


wake up at 6:30 to review what was done yesterday? wtf?

Other guy is copying out his notes everyday? wtf is wrong with you people!

You are nuts!

Well gotta be at school by 8, and i bus it at 7:30.. So realistically its only like 20 minutes of just reading over things. But as far it goes its pretty much all review, im actually suprised because i thought there would be alot more work.

[tulit]

I did the same thing. For like the first week or two, I was like "oh damn this sucks".

Then I realized, this is stupid.

My suggested course of action.

Show up to class but don't bother listening or taking notes. Just kind of space out or screw around (eat, throw stuff, talk, etc). If it's like an 8am class, then it might not even be worth showing up except for the first day, the day before the midterms, last class. Make sure you have a friend in the class that is a keener though so that you actually find out when these things are.

Don't bother studying during the first half of the semester. This means you're likely to take major hits on quizes and stuff, but don't worry they aren't worth much.

Copy assignments the day they are due. If you don't have a lot of time, you can often get away with skipping steps in your solutions/etc (TA's are lazy and won't notice).

Don't bother studying for midterms for more than the evening before unless they are worth more than 30%. Especially don't bother in classes where they have more than one midterm.

You need to make your decisions based on the size of the 'hit' you're taking by not caring about assignments/labs/midterms/etc.

Based on your midterm mark, you now make the decision as to whether you need to actually put any effort into the class. If you bombed (i.e. <30%), all you need to do now is spend the next 4 weeks before finals studying for this class once and a while. If you did okay (say the 30-60% range) 2 weeks should be all it takes. Any more than that, you're good to go and shouldn't need to spend more than a few days (or even the night before) studying for the final.

And most importantly ride the curve. If you don't understand what the hells going on, chances are no one else in the class does either. You'll be fine.

[Seanith]

riiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhtttttttt.... thats what everyone ends up doing anyways.. my advice would be study your ass off because you'll end up doing what tulit just said lol

[hammock]

tulit and bspot are two of the biggest slackers i've seen slip through the system. Way to see First Year 1999 block A represent. j/k

Don't worry about classnotes unless you actually want to learn something at university (your gpa will drop though cause it's impossible to soak all that information in the given timeframe). They rarely ever ask questions on exams directly out of your notes.. Notes should only be reference to understanding how to do assignments, and thats where the quiz/test material usually comes from.

Previous exams/quizzes and smart friends that can explain how to get the right answers are by-far the most efficient way to get an A or B. It's not about studying alot to get good marks, it's about studying efficiently. (Who cares if you don't know how to get the answer by thinking about the question, as long as you memorized how to get it for the final exam)

But then you come out with a high GPA and don't know jackshit.

Lab's are a waste of time and really are of no learning value in my opinion. Computer assignments teach you how to program and are more useful, but don't really reflect in your gpa. (bad programmers and good programmers get A's on their assignments because TA's and profs can't tell the difference)

I wish I could start all over again knowing what I just told you.

maybe not, engineering was hell. good luck, you'll be alot looser after 4-7 years (depending)

[elmo909]

I didn't even think tulit was being serious. I don't think I could pull that off and pass at all. I think I'm going to have to work my ass off for a 2.5 (3 best case).

[Fobby]

my advice would be...

the rule of 3.

if you are given 1 problem to solve from the text book. Do 3.
if you are given 1 practice midterm. Do 3.

Usually helps.

[Chiram000]

Originally posted by Fobby
my advice would be...

the rule of 3.

if you are given 1 problem to solve from the text book. Do 3.
if you are given 1 practice midterm. Do 3.

Usually helps.

Agreed, apparently i failed to read the course outlines and of the suggested 20 problems i was doing all of them... lol Grades are good so far.:D