What are some study tips for engineering courses?

Hi Shaye!

Take advantage of any tutoring services your university offers, they are commonly free of charge to you. I was an undergraduate tutor through my university's Equal Opportunities in Engineering program, and I know that other colleges have comparable programs. You just have to sign up and you'll get direct mentor-ship from folks who have taken and passed the courses you are in!

Also, be aware of any student study/problem set groups that form in your classes. Learning as a group can make everything more efficient; don't struggle endlessly on your own, know how and who to reach out to others. TAs, Professors, and tutors are available to help you succeed, so make use of those resources after giving it your personal best.

Hope this helps a bit, it sounds like you are already thinking with the right mindset ;)

Keep up and get help when you don't understand. You don't want to get behind because many things build off other basic items. Seek out fellow students or tutors if needed. I was an average student at best and made it!!! Good luck

Try your best to stay current with homework. The last minute cramming approach does not work. However, if you do your problem sets diligently, you will be OK. What I found best for me was to have regular hours that I would go to the library to work on problem sets. Getting into a routine and being in the library, away from distractions, helps a lot. Don't bring your computer and turn your phone off.

Shaye:

I will give you one good tip that I actually never followed in my high school or undergraduate studies:

Always read and thoroughly review the course material AHEAD of each lecture. That way you have a good idea of the material which is being presented. But more importantly, you can highlight the area(s) that you do not understand and then ask meaningful questions during the lecture. This approach, of course, requires a high degree of focus and determination. But that's also what paves the way to success during your career after college.

By the way, I did not start doing this until my Masters Degree work. And this technique really worked well for me when I took preparation courses for the Engineer-in-Training and Professional Engineering tests.

Good luck, Pete Sturtevant, PE

I found that while there was a lot less hand holding in College, there were also a lot more opportunites.

In College, nobody is going to make you do your work. You have to make yourself do it - it is actualy part of the process of becomming an adult, one of those intangible things you learn in college.

However there are also loads of resources. Somone mentioned that tutors are available. Also, many times Grad Students / TAs in your field will also be available to help. Students tend to form Ad Hoc study groups as well. We had a number of topic specific buildings as well (Center for Advanced Mathmatics, Physics Lecture Hall, Packaging Engineering center, etc) and often there would be mini-libraries in those buildings devoted to that subject matter. Professors would file their lecture notes in those mini-libraries, so you could retreive and review them if you needed.

As others have said, the key to studying (as opposed to available resources) is to stay up to date (or ahead of) with your subject matter Playing catch up never works,Nneither does cramming. I had a routine before exams. I used to come into the exam with a cup of coffee and the college newspaper, and do the crossword in the time before class started. Other people would be frantically reviewing notes, or asking each other questions. I used the time to relax, and get into a good state of mind. People would ask me how I could be doing a crossword, didn't I know we had an exam today? My response was, I had already studied, and if there was something I did not know, I sure as heck was not going to be able to learn it in th 10 minutes before the exam. - study early.

-dave