Syllabus
week isn’t the same for everyone
The first week
or two of each semester is always very hectic as you begin to adjust to class
times, normal homework due dates, and what each professor expects from you in
order to perform at your best level.
Your friends in other majors may have the luxury of blowing off
assignments and partying until the sun comes up, but I’m sorry to say that this
is just not possible for the majority of engineers. It would be wise to do your
work slightly sooner than normal in order to avoid instances of not allowing yourself
enough time to complete a particular task.
Sometimes an assignment that I thought would be really easy turns out to
be quite time consuming (and usually this trend will continue for that
particular class so be aware of that). Doing it the hour before class starts
just isn’t going to cut it.
I can usually
tell how my semester will go based on just my first week or two. If I start out behind, it becomes extremely
difficult to catch back up and have a truly successful semester. If I could offer one thing to take away from
this section it would be to abandon the mindset of ‘Hey, it’s just syllabus
week’ and use it to get ahead while the rest of the pack falls behind. When you complete your assignments due the next
day then you can go have fun with your friends. As a side note, in case you’re
suspicious of my seeming lack of interest in having fun, I was the head social
chairman at a 100 plus member social fraternity, so I’m not just some nerd who
stays home on Saturday nights to study. However, it took me a very long time to
be able to say no to a good time even when there was work that needed to be
done.
Make
a schedule and stick to it
After the first
two weeks of class you should have a pretty good idea of when assignments are
normally due, and roughly how long they take to complete. At this point you
should make a schedule for yourself each week (I usually make mine each Sunday)
that includes time for classes, the gym, clubs, sports, and even allotted
nights for parties or video gaming or TV.
Schedule each item in order of how important they are for your future
and end with items that are most important to keep your sanity. So for me, classes come first, then my work
schedule, then my eating schedule (takes more time than you would think), then
my school work schedule with blocks of time to complete each assignment, then
time for sleep. After the absolute necessities I put in time for the gym, and
finally whatever is left I use as free time however I see fit that week. If you actually follow the schedule you set
for yourself in the beginning of the week you should see great results with
your grades, feel good by not skipping meals or sleep, and be able to stay sane
by doing the things you truly enjoy.
Go To
Class!
As obvious as it
sounds, this is one thing I cannot stress enough. Not only should you go to
class but you should make a true effort to listen to the professor and absorb
as much as possible during class time. It makes no sense to show up to class
and play games on your laptop the whole time.
If you listen in class it will save you hours of going back to relearn
information for homework or exams when you could have just done it the first
time around. Aside from the obvious,
what are other good reasons to go to class?
One, most teachers give out massive hints in class as to what the exam
will cover, and not just in the days leading up to exams. Two, even if you are
thinking, “whatever I learn better from the book then from this guy anyways,”
consider pop quizzes and other in class participation grades. If you are consistently skipping certain
engineering classes I can almost 100% guarantee you will not get an A in that
class. Perhaps in some majors it is
possible, but at least at Purdue, many of the little points holding some
students back from A’s stems from lack of consistent attendance.
Put
the phone away
Most of the work
we are expected to do requires a great deal of concentration and focus.
Answering text messages, playing games in class, and twitter are not going to
help you to focus on the work at hand.
When in class and doing homework I’ve made it a habit to put my phone in
my backpack in a place where I can’t peek at every five minutes. This will help reduce the amount of time you
spend on each assignment so you have more time to play around later.
Hobbies
are great stress relievers
Stress is just a
part of college life, and the difference between the winners and the losers is
how you cope with that stress. Everyone
has different ways of going about this, most of my friends play pick up sports,
I prefer going to the gym because I can go on my own time and I don’t have to
wait around for anyone else. I find this
especially helpful when my schedule is packed during an exam week for example. Whether it be crocheting, Frisbee, Rubik’s
Cube, or even video games try to pick something you can do any time you want,
something you can improve at over long periods of time, and something you truly
enjoy. That way when you need it most it will be there for you.
Partying
is a part of college life, but know when to get down to business
Pretty
self-explanatory, if you have a huge week coming up ahead of you, skip the
partying for one weekend and do what you need to do. You can party any time but midterms and
finals only come once, so know when it’s time to get to work. At the very least, put in a solid Saturday
afternoon of studying to get a little ahead of the game. If you must drink on
that Saturday night, go light, because nothing kills a planned Sunday of
studying quite like a bad hangover. Like a senior told me freshman year, “you
can party your ass off for one year and fail out, or you can almost party your ass off for four.”
It’s
going to be an uphill battle
So you just started your second semester coming away with a solid 3.5 GPA first round, and are thinking, "calculus 2 is hard, but no problem, I have some leeway just to stay above a
3.0". However let me assure you, after freshman year each semester just
gets harder than the last. Not trying to scare you, just trying to motivate you never to think, ‘I’ll just make up for it next semester’. Maybe you will, but
chances are that you won’t. As long as
you are giving your grades the best possible effort without going insane you
can never be disappointed about a low grade.
Just don’t lie to yourself, is this really the very best that you can
do? So work hard freshman year even if it doesn’t seem that difficult to you.
If all you wanted was a 3.0, aim higher. Wanted a 3.5? Shoot for a 4.0 and
really believe you will achieve it. Grades will never be this easy again.
If
you have poor study habits now is the only time to correct them
I’m not going to
get into specifics in this section, as they will come in the next one, but you
will thank yourself a million times if you are able to get your study habits
under control as early as possible.
There will be all stars that come to college with this area already
taken care of, and these people are your competition. Just like in the sports world, even if you
are the most clever and skillful player, being out of shape will keep you off
the field. Getting into Mechanical
Engineering at Purdue can be quite difficult, and is based solely on your First
Year Engineering grade performance. Very
few people are offered second chances.
Some tips I’ve learned over the years for improving your study skills
are presented below.
Midterm
and final exams
This is a big
one, and a topic of discussion that I have just now after 8 semesters finally
found some answers to. The biggest
problems I encountered and also see with my friends isn’t a lack of effort or a
lack of time put in, but more related to the efficiency of the time you do put
in. Everything I discuss here is a
system that works for me, but everyone is different so it may take some
experimenting to see what works well for you.
First let’s
consider midterms. I’m not sure how
every school does it, but at Purdue there is no “midterm week.” All of your
midterms usually come within a few weeks of each other and in the midst of
other assignments and projects. For this
reason it is extremely important to plan ahead.
Start a week before the beginning of your midterms and make a schedule
like the one we already discussed, except on a more long term scale. Finals require similar study habits but are a
little different since you can focus on studying without worrying about class
and other assignments.
Prioritize your
studying by the classes with the most credit hours and the ones you are
struggling with. Huge key though: NEVER
totally neglect certain classes in light of harder ones. If you do, instead of poor grades in just one
class you are looking at poor grades across the board. Next, do a quick once over of the material on
the exam and look for items that you never quite had a grasp on. If you didn’t understand it in the homework
and you don’t learn it now, chances are that you never will. Pick the topics you least understand and
either have a friend explain it to you or go to the professors office
hours. Ideally you should have done your
homework right the first time and be familiar with each topic, but let’s get
real, that’s not always the case. This
is why it’s so important to do each homework to your best ability, because it
will significantly reduce the amount of time required to study for exams. Once you have a baseline understanding of
each topic, go through the hardest assigned homework question for each
one. Try not to waste time doing the
easy ones because that won’t help you too much for the exam. If you have to, you can go back and do a few
warm up questions, but you will find as you progress through engineering, each
question takes 30-45 minutes to complete, and time is of the essence. If you
can do the hardest question from each homework set then you will do well on the
exam while maximizing your study time.
Finally, if possible, at the very end of your preparation do a practice
exam if they are available. For practice exams of nearly every subject you can
check out my friend’s blog: weeklyjoys.wordpress.com. They are Purdue specific,
but could be helpful for anyone in ME.
Last tip
regarding stressful times of the school year in general: avoid all-nighters at
all cost! Your brain makes connections
for all of the information you’ve learned during the day while you sleep, so if
you are not sleeping, you are not learning properly. It also puts massive strain on your immune
system during an already stressful time. This leads to sickness which is
obviously not something you want to deal with during finals week. And if you are truly putting your best effort
into studying during these extraordinarily trying times, you can never be
disappointed, if you truly gave it everything you have.
Closing Thoughts
So to cap everything off you may have
noticed that most of this stuff is pretty common sense, but executing and knowing are two different things. Engineering (and college in
general), takes a lot of discipline. Anything in life worth earning requires an ability to look toward the
future and avoid being swayed from your goals by the petty pleasures of
everyday life. Of course everything must
be done in balance, but when times get hard you must soldier on and look for
the light at the end of the tunnel.
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