# failing engineering school !!!!!



## salamander1 (Dec 24, 2014)

I am i'm my second semester of engineering school and just received my first midterm grades and they are bad..real bad. I don't know what to do, i can't ask any of my classmates for help without having them mock my grades...and can't show those grades to my parents. I just want to curl up in my room and cry.


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## slowlyimproving (Jan 2, 2014)

salamander1 said:


> I am i'm my second semester of engineering school and just received my first midterm grades and they are bad..real bad. I don't know what to do, i can't ask any of my classmates for help without having them mock my grades...and can't show those grades to my parents. I just want to curl up in my room and cry.


What's causing the bad grades? Is engineering right for you?


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## Kml5111 (Dec 16, 2012)

Why are you in engineering school and can you drop out of the school? Do you like engineering?


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## salamander1 (Dec 24, 2014)

I DO like engineering, but i did not go straigth to college from high school.I had SA quite badly at that time, and i spend some 3 years in my house ( i had a work and studied some other thing in that time though). Now that i'm in college i feel like all the knowledge has erased itself from my brain, and i feel so stupid. To worse matters i was some kind of straigth A's student before, so i'm not used to this kinds of grades at all.

I was thinking about switching carrers and trying to pursue a degree in electrical engineering, but watching those grades is making me doubt it

Oh i should add, in my college most people have similar backgrounds (best students in school, excellent grades..) so, there's some jealously and competition going on, that's the main reason i don't want to ask anyone for help, because if people realize i'm not that good, they could not want to work with me anymore, and instead would see me as a nuisance.


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## lostinlife (Jun 2, 2010)

salamander1 said:


> I DO like engineering, but i did not go straigth to college from high school.I had SA quite badly at that time, and i spend some 3 years in my house ( i had a work and studied some other thing in that time though). Now that i'm in college i feel like all the knowledge has erased itself from my brain, and i feel so stupid. To worse matters i was some kind of straigth A's student before, so i'm not used to this kinds of grades at all.
> 
> I was thinking about switching carrers and trying to pursue a degree in electrical engineering, but watching those grades is making me doubt it
> 
> Oh i should add, in my college most people have similar backgrounds (best students in school, excellent grades..) so, there's some jealously and competition going on, that's the main reason i don't want to ask anyone for help, because if people realize i'm not that good, they could not want to work with me anymore, and instead would see me as a nuisance.


Have you tried asking your professor for help? I would also contact whoever runs the counseling service at your college/university for assistance. They can help you come up with a plan to get your grades back on track. There is no reason for you to suffer alone. Engineering is tough. It might seem like everyone else has it all together, but they probably don't. If they did, there would be no reason for tutoring services and other forms of student support.

Also, from one perfectionist to another, don't tie your self worth into your grades. You can still become an awesome engineer. You just have to figure out how to make it work for you. This is one instance in the rest of your life. If this is what you want to do, you can fight your way out of this. Then one day you can look back at this and see when you were the underdog before you made it.


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## salamander1 (Dec 24, 2014)

lostinlife said:


> Have you tried asking your professor for help? I would also contact whoever runs the counseling service at your college/university for assistance. They can help you come up with a plan to get your grades back on track. There is no reason for you to suffer alone. Engineering is tough. It might seem like everyone else has it all together, but they probably don't. If they did, there would be no reason for tutoring services and other forms of student support.
> 
> Also, from one perfectionist to another, don't tie your self worth into your grades. You can still become an awesome engineer. You just have to figure out how to make it work for you. This is one instance in the rest of your life. If this is what you want to do, you can fight your way out of this. Then one day you can look back at this and see when you were the underdog before you made it.


Thank you for your words, and you are right, i asked for tuttoring in college, but it just covers the math area so for some other subjects (like material science) i will have to make do. As for the grades not being important, it's not that you are not right about it too, but my situation is complicated:

I'm going to star by saying that my ollege is different that ypu're probably used to. I'm not from the UK and in my country i study in a public college, with few places avaliable each semester for new students, and such with a high competence for those places.

And more important (and for my utterly shame) this is a corrupt country, and a corrupt college, with the resourses destined for it being stolen for politicians and the admisnistrative folks, so despiste the education being excellent and the graduates being succesful generaly...there's a BIG problem, there are very few graduates, the corrupts get more money to steal the less students there are. It has gotten to the point that of each group of 120 students that enter here in their first semester the most that will graduate is 50, and in some degrees like EE and CS just 15 of 20.

Because of this situation he college's rules are set against us, so i can not have a GPA lower than 3.2 without being put in academic probation,..and i'm totally scared about it...¿what should i do? ¿should i pay some other student to tutor me in some of my difficult subjects?¿should i continue what i'm dong (books and youtube tutorials?...i know i'm being dense in this thread, but i'm a first generation student, so my parents have no idea how this is and if i fail they will be very dissapointed.


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## MrEMouse (Jun 12, 2011)

salamander1 said:


> Because of this situation he college's rules are set against us, so i can not have a GPA lower than 3.2 without being put in academic probation,..and i'm totally scared about it...¿what should i do? ¿should i pay some other student to tutor me in some of my difficult subjects?¿should i continue what i'm dong (books and youtube tutorials?...i know i'm being dense in this thread, but i'm a first generation student, so my parents have no idea how this is and if i fail they will be very dissapointed.


Have you thought about starting a study group. With as intense as you make it sound, only 50 out of 120 students graduating, I'm sure every student is sweating bullets and would appreciate some help. Put up some fliers around campus about a study group and I'm sure you'll have dozens of students wanting to join. Then use them to help you get your grades straightened out.


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## salamander1 (Dec 24, 2014)

That's quite a good idea!!! i could help some of my classmates with the subjects i'm good at, and ask their help for my worse subjects, i had not though about it that way. I guess i will star looking for people tomorrow morning.

Thank you all for the support and the advise, and i hope my grades will be good this semester 

PS: And MrEmouse even with only 50 graduates for each 120 my degree is not the most intense in college, that place is ocupied by our EE degree that graduates something like 20-25 students for each 120 that enter:sigh

PS: as you will all suppose i'm not an english native speaker, so i apologize for my writing mistakes.


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## lostinlife (Jun 2, 2010)

Ah, that's tough. There are a lot of problems with education in the US, but at least the whole system isn't against its students. I think MrEMouse's suggestion to form a study group is an excellent idea. You might try a paid tutor but it can be tricky to find the right fit. Usually it is easier to find a math tutor because that topic is more standardized so I understand if it's difficult to find a tutor who knows a more "obscure" subject like material science. So try the study group first and then a paid tutor if you aren't able to get one together.


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## jfruedam (Apr 2, 2014)

Advice from me, as an engineer: Books are your best friends. Grab one that is friendly to read, and do it 10 times if it is necessary. Also, don't go and kill yourself with 100 excersises as many people do (calculus, physics, thermodynamics,...), first you have to understand what you are doing, so LEARN the theoric part before getting to that.

Also (and this is the best way to survive), don't try to solve the stupid excersises from the books, if you have acces to prior midterm test from your teacher, then practice solving them. They usually tend to use the same pattern in their evaluations. Once I learned that, I was unstoppable.

To me, it is better to study alone, writing what you don't understand to ask latter, then and only then you should try to study with someone else. You better have a plan when you do that, otherwise it will be wasted time at chit chat.

Remember, two heads do not necessarily think better than one, I learned that the wrong way. 

Good luck and don't give up.


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## jfruedam (Apr 2, 2014)

Tutors are not always the best solution. I have seen it enough to be sure about that. You think you are learning while you are with them, but guess what? You don't have a partner while solving a test or someone to give you hints. You have to be able to face the problems by your own. It is fine if you look for help to try to solve some excersises, but if someone tells you watching another person solve the thing for you is a good way to learn, then get far away from them.

And I'm telling you this as someone who nailed the basic subjects, almost perfect qualifications.


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## jfruedam (Apr 2, 2014)

salamander1 said:


> That's quite a good idea!!! i could help some of my classmates with the subjects i'm good at, and ask their help for my worse subjects, i had not though about it that way. I guess i will star looking for people tomorrow morning.
> 
> Thank you all for the support and the advise, and i hope my grades will be good this semester
> 
> ...


Where are you from? I'm from Colombia


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## jfruedam (Apr 2, 2014)

Final advice: Everyone has a way to aboard excersises which could be very different from your own, so that's another reason why I am against study groups. If you are not sure and comfortable with the way you do things, you could easily end really confused.


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## salamander1 (Dec 24, 2014)

jfruedam said:


> Where are you from? I'm from Colombia


wow for real?? so am i!!!


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## jfruedam (Apr 2, 2014)

salamander1 said:


> wow for real?? so am i!!!


Seriously. Well I suppose I will write in spanish from this point then xD

¿En que universidad estudias? Si eres de la Nacional, los consejos que te di son infalibles. Si hablamos de las materias básicas como Cálculo, Estadística, Termodinámica,...no hay mejor forma de estudiar que resolver parciales de semestres pasados, te lo digo por experiencia propia. Y en cualquier universidad debe ser similar. Aléjate de los talleres, muchas veces simplemente no valen la pena. Aunque como práctica adicional, nunca esta de más chequearlos para que estés seguro que puedes resolver los ejercicios (simplemente lee el enunciado, ya con eso te da una idea si lo puedes resolver o no).

Espero que tengas suerte, y no te rindas. Conozco gente MUY vaga que logro superar esos primeros semestres, y si ellos pueden estoy absolutamente seguro que vos también.

Si necesitas cualquier otra cosa, no dudes en preguntarme. En lo que pueda colaborarte, de una.


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## VeMuñeca (Sep 5, 2013)

Engineering school is hard work. That is why so many people switch to other majors. I wasn't one, but I met a few engineering majors and had to take classes with a bunch of them. They seemed to start out with hundreds of students. Then by the end, only less than half of who they had graduated.


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## Lisa (Jul 8, 2006)

salamander1 said:


> I DO like engineering, but i did not go straigth to college from high school.I had SA quite badly at that time, and i spend some 3 years in my house ( i had a work and studied some other thing in that time though). Now that i'm in college i feel like all the knowledge has erased itself from my brain, and i feel so stupid. To worse matters i was some kind of straigth A's student before, so i'm not used to this kinds of grades at all.
> 
> I was thinking about switching carrers and trying to pursue a degree in electrical engineering, but watching those grades is making me doubt it
> 
> Oh i should add, in my college most people have similar backgrounds (best students in school, excellent grades..) so, there's some jealously and competition going on, that's the main reason i don't want to ask anyone for help, because if people realize i'm not that good, they could not want to work with me anymore, and instead would see me as a nuisance.


OP, you an either quit or you can make changes. Study... hard  Make it your goal to get top grades.


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## Tiffiduliu (Jul 7, 2014)

stop seeking your parents approval, be an adult, who cares if your parents know you bombed an exam

let them know with dignity

adults take responsibility for their aktions


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