#management engineering

Okay so I just finished my first semester in university and lets just say I've got to change my whole learning/studying style to be able to survive here. Here are some of the things I’ve learnt to do and will be doing in second semester:

1. Start backwards:

 I highschool, you try to learn the subject by going to class, listening to the teacher, then going home, reading the textbook, then doing the homework, then making notes, then studying for the final. In engineering, you have to do this backwards: You will realize that you are going to be basically teaching yourself the content one way or another soon before the finals, so better start now. First, go through the past exams and past papers - make a list of all the major topics covered (example: if in an electrical circuits course, a question on a past final exam is “find the equivalent circuit using thevenin’s theorem” then write Thevenin’s theorem as a topic to be learned). Then go on youtube and find videos that explain each of these topics to you and make rough notes on these topics. (Reblog if you want me to make a master list of all the youtubers that teach engineering really well). Then go through he textbook and find sample questions not he theorem/topic you learnt off of youtube, and solve them. Then write your doubts in a notebook. Then go to class and have two notebooks open : one where you are taking notes of what the prof is saying, and one which has your practice problems solved, and see if the prof clarifies your doubts in the lecture. The lecture should be review of what you learnt at home!!!! Then, after class go to the prof and clarify any doubts. Then go home and make final notes on the topic. I like to make notes on cue cards (more on this later). Then go back to the final exam and see if you can solve the problem.

2. Make cue cards:

I like to get index cards and write a short note on how to solve each type of question I am likely to see on a final exam on each question card. Example: one cue card for “how to find resistance using wheatstone bridge” . I link the cue cards with a clip and its easier to carry the around and study.

3. Get pretty notebooks and organize your stationary. Its easier to stay focused when everything is pretty. 

Well, I don’t think a lot of people know of the technical aspects of ME, so I’ll explain it from the briefing I got from my GTKM experience.

The majors are:

Marketing - good for you if you’re a creative person. This is basically using the marketing principles––products, placement, promos, and pricing––to create a campaign for a chosen product or company. You only get one marketing course, but it contains one of two major projects. It’s a sem long group project which you have to present to a panel, and there’s the thing called the “final four” who automatically gets A’s. Be warned. This project, according to past students, ruins friendships. This is what gave Ryan Yu is only lowest grade, B+.

Finance and Accounting - There are two accounting courses, financial and managerial accounting, and one finance course, financial management. From what I inferred from what the upperclassman said, accounting is pretty easy. There is also a finance minor which is pretty popular. Tsk, math people.

Operations Research - This is the real shit. ME has like 4 courses (12 units) of this. It’s what makes ME, ME. You learn “efficiency” through a quantitative approach in relation to management problems. Basically, they teach you how to get the shortest distance from int A to point B through a lot of math. It makes you discover math in the little things in life.  And you finally apply all that calculus in first year.

Operations Management - It’s like OR except less quantitative and more qualitative. You “learn how to handle and organise resources efficiently”. It’s just one 3 unit course (Intermediate Production Operations Management). .

Leadership & Strategy - It’s a combination of all the rest except put in the perspective of a corporation. You use whatever shit you’ve learned and use it to solve company problems. There are 2 LS courses (organizational behaviour and strategic management). It involves plenty of group works and pretty heavy on research. Under LS 125 (strategic management) is the superproject. This is the second major life-changing group project.  It’s the culmination of everything you’ve learned and what you have to do is to form a strategy for your chosen company that would help them. That means a whole lot of research (interview, field work, google, etc.)  about your company. It’s a solely ME experience.

ITM - Information technology application programming. Not in the GTKM manual, but this is important. It’s taken on the summer before second year. You learn how to use excel to do basic programs and sometimes games. Useful for making registration program for events. Final output is a group project. There was that epic year when only 5 students passed this course...