How to study engineering
Different content than usual, but I’m hoping that this can be helpful to some people. It seems like most of studyblr is on the premed or prelaw train, and while there are a lot of study tips available, they tend to focus on memorization or content organization, which isn’t great for engineering. I learned the hard way that for technical classes, memorization is bad. Everyone is different, so your mileage may vary, but this should be a good starting point if you’re struggling through application-heavy classes.
In class:
Take good (handwritten) notes! There’s a misconception on here and on Instagram that pretty notes are good notes. If that works for you, that’s great, but I’ve found that in long, fast-paced lectures, I can’t focus on style while also listening to the professor. I take notes using a mechanical pencil and graph paper because I can keep things organized, draw nice diagrams, and erase mistakes if I need to. Switching from ruled paper to graph paper has been really helpful for me in technical classes, especially for following along with derivations and adding margin notes. I underline or box results and important conclusions.
Doing homework:
Call me a bad student for this, but I typically don’t look at my notes after I write them. I see note taking as a tool to stay engaged during lecture. If I need to refer back to something, I look at the professor’s notes if they uploaded them, or I read the textbook. Memorizing your lecture notes won’t help you on exams in most engineering classes. The absolute best way to prepare for exams is to do practice problems. Where do you get practice problems? Your homework.
How I approach homework:
Look at the problem. Do I know how to do it? Probably not. Do I have an idea of where I can start? If I took good notes and paid attention in class, yes!
Try to solve it on my own. By on my own, I mean without referring to my notes, the professor’s notes, or the textbook. This is the hardest part. If I get stuck, I look through the book for similar examples for a process I can apply. I spend time thinking about ways to approach the problem and then trying them, making liberal use of an eraser along the way. It’s worth it.
Check my answer. I always try to check my solution before submitting an assignment. In engineering, your process is more important than your actual answer, and the homework is supposed to teach you how to solve problems related to a particular concept.
If my answer was incorrect, think about why. Arithmetic error? That’s okay, I’ll just pay more attention next time. Algebra mistake? I’ll rework the solution to figure out where I went wrong. Misunderstood concept? Professor’s notes, textbook, and office hours, in that order.
Doing homework takes me a long time, and I usually do it alone. The vast majority of my “study time” is homework and problem sets, and this is a good thing. It may seem like a lot of effort for a low reward when you could ask friends for help, use Chegg, or go to office hours, but struggling with a problem helps build intuition for future problems.
Preparing for an exam:
I try to start preparing the weekend before the exam. This gives me time to work through things on my own before I go to office hours for any final questions. I’d like to say that I always start a week in advance, but that definitely didn’t happen this semester and is pretty much impossible on weeks where I have exams in every class. If there’s a time crunch, I condense the process by not going over every homework problem or making a less detailed study guide.
Exam prep workflow:
List all topics/book chapters/lecture numbers that will be covered.
Depending on how I feel about the material, summarize everything. In engineering, summarizing doesn’t mean copy your professor’s notes or the textbook. It’s looking at formulas, where they come from, and how to apply them. This is where I go back to my notes and skim for the things that I underlined or boxed. The end result is usually a 3-5 page summary of what can be on the exam.
Practice problems! Remember your homework? Redo the problems, and do them the hard way. Compare your work to what you wrote on the homework, and then compare that to the full solution. If it’s a physics-based class, redo the derivations. It’s slow, boring, and exhausting, but it makes you better.
Make my notesheet, if I’m allowed to have one. After doing practice problems, I have a pretty good idea of what I need in front of me during the exam. Usually this is a condensed version of my study guide along with some derivations.
Practice exams, using my notesheet and nothing else like it’s a real exam. I check my answers and go to office hours if I have a question.
The day of the exam, I take a last look at problems I was struggling with and write out the full solution, mostly as a confidence builder.
I’m not going to guarantee that doing this will get you the grades that you want, but I can say that it’s helped me get the grades that I want as classes get harder. If you’re in engineering and struggling, it’s not because you aren’t smart enough or good enough. You got in, so you have what it takes to succeed. Effective studying is a skill, and finding a method that works for you is what will get you your degree.
