#engg

hi! I’m currently writing exams to finish off my first year of mechanical engineering. these are all taken from my own experience. hope you find them useful!

they’re going to try and scare you.

in one of my classes, they asked us to find partners, then told us that only one of the partners was going to graduate in four years. ignore them!!! just do your work and tune them out.

you’re going to have to learn to work in groups

engineering is BUILT on collaboration. every year you’ll work with your peers on a design project, and every day in your career you’ll work with fellow engineers, technicians, and technologists. the earlier you learn teamwork skills, the better.

you need to figure out if you genuinely enjoy engineering

don’t just take it because it has a reputation, or because it’s what smart people do. if you don’t genuinely enjoy it, it will be torture. there’s no shame in choosing another path in science!

you need to socialize, occasionally

make friends. reserve your Friday nights for going out and having fun. just make sure to drag yourself to the library Saturday morning.

you need to prepare for everything in advance.

don’t walk into any lab, tutorial, or class without having at least read what you’re going to be covering. don’t expect you’re going to be able to figure it out on the fly. you might get lucky, but it won’t help your learning.

do all optional coursework

just. do. it. you’ll thank yourself later.

don’t skip questions you don’t understand

if a question seems a little above and beyond what you’ve done in class, sit down and figure it out. google it. yahoo answers. ask your prof. ask your peers, because that question will be on the midterm or exam, always.

you’re going to spend more time doing work than your friends

engineering is a tough program! and first-year is (for better or worse) often designed to weed people out. be ready to have to get up earlier and be on campus for longer hours than your friends in other majors. the most important thing is that YOU are doing what YOU need to get through.

if you’re a girl, it might feel intimidating

sadly, most unis still have very male-dominated engineering programs. don’t be scared to assert yourself and never feel like you don’t belong there any less than anyone else.

you’re going to get a ‘bad’ mark.

it happens! don’t think that it means you aren’t good enough, or you don’t belong in the program. keep your head up and keep trying.

you can plagiarize almost every assignment, but you shouldn’t

it’s math and physics, very easy to copy someone’s work. only do this if you’re desperate, and at least try to understand it.

you need to stay active

uni often has great fitness classes! walk to class! don’t be sedentary, moving makes the brain work better.

design projects can be really fun, or the absolute worst

first-year design projects are an opportunity to do whatever you want. take creative liberties. most importantly, focus on consistency over everything. also be prepared to bang your head against a wall, repeatedly.