Panic attack. Engineering first year is so hard. (1 Viewer)

[Wake Up]

Hi

I am mature age student. I did TPC from TAFE last year and achieved great marks in physics and maths. (98 for physics,100 for calculus,100 for advance maths)
I am doing electrical engineering first year at UNSW right now and finding it so hard to understand the lectures and tutors. They talked very fast and I find I don't get anything from them.
FYI, physics in TPC TAFE is a basic physics first year at uni whose content mostly is theory and math applications. Maths in TPC TAFE teaches calculus,complex number,and vector. So basically I was confidence that i could tackle first year maths and physics at uni.

I am doing math1141,phys1131,comp 1911 and engg1000.
I will elaborate more later. I've got comp1911 lecture right now

 

[OzKo]

Care to share why?

 

[chewy123]

Standard procedure is to wait and see what your result is for your first assessment (also compare the result to the average result). If it's obvious that you are struggling relative to your peers, speak to your tutor/lecturer. You might want to drop a subject or two to help you ease in the pace of uni, or change courses if this course is not for you.

At any rate, it's too early to tell. Just keep your head above water for now.

 

[TheStallion]

You may have terrible lecturers. Try learn the content at home from the course packs/textbooks if you bought them, at your own pace, and see how you go. If you still struggle with it when trying to learn by yourself, then you might be in for a little bit of trouble.

 

[kaz1]

Firstly you can probably drop to MATH1131, the lecturer in physics is too fast for everyone and ENG1000 would be one of your best subjects in your degree.

 

[cheezcake]

Yeh the only friend I knew in my degree just dropped out and took a gap year after one week because he said he didn't understand anything...time to meet some new people

 

[jamesfirst]

I find it a bit hard too...

Math is to "formal" now. Not used to it as I learned math the informal way (no fancy symbols, definitions and what not). I moved to higher physics on friday... I'll see how I go this week... if it's too hard, I'm going to drop back down to 1121

 

[benji_10]

lol i think was in the same comp lecture as you (daniel woo and something about identifiers?) and i think everyone's in the same boat as you are, tbh, except for the really smart kids, of course. i know 2 friends that already dropped down to math1131 cause they found it too hard, and they both did 4u :/

some advice given was basically to wait for exams and see how you are doing relative to the cohort. if you're doing the same as everyone else is, then don't be too alarmed, but if you're getting below average marks then yeah, just drop something or talk to your lecturers.

i know; advice from another first year isn't too comforting, but just some food for thought. also, i'm doing the exact same courses as you are and i'm finding it challenging as well, but haven't seriously thought about dropping anything...yet. i'm waiting until assessments, and also waiting for a fuller experience of uni...i don't think 1 week is enough to determine whether one is suitable for any course.

 

[jamesfirst]

4 unit kids in math1131 finds the stuff we learn hard also. :S

 

[UnrealAnchovies]

Firstly you can probably drop to MATH1131, the lecturer in physics is too fast for everyone and ENG1000 would be one of your best subjects in your degree.

Joe Wolfe makes me want to neck myself

and i can't stand 2 of my lab demonstrators

one would just refer you to another - the other having the english speaking capability of an ewok

just make an active effort to self teach etc and you should be fine

 

[unsw-maths-guru]

Chill everyone. The transition from school to uni can be a bit of a shock cos everything comes much faster. But its like that for everyone. For maths, just sit down with the problem book and try the tutorial problems. If you can't do anything after rereading your lecture notes you might be in trouble. But if there are only some you can't do, ask in the tutorial.

I don't think that you should expect to understand everything straight off in the lectures. What is important is can you do the main problems after going to lectures, reading your notes and going to the tutorials?

 

[twistedrebel]

welcome to uni and fucking start self teaching cunts. There is a reason no one goes to lectures, because most of them arent great and more academia stuff and teach on the side (for many teaching is just so they are employed) and more interested in research etc. Thats why after week 4 lecture halls are empty.

Also all the higher subjects are the same, only difference is that the exams are harder for higher.e .g. maths 1131/1141 maybe a bit more detail in topic but the rest is the same. Same assessments bar the exam.

 

[OzKo]

Chill everyone. The transition from school to uni can be a bit of a shock cos everything comes much faster. But its like that for everyone. For maths, just sit down with the problem book and try the tutorial problems. If you can't do anything after rereading your lecture notes you might be in trouble. But if there are only some you can't do, ask in the tutorial.

I don't think that you should expect to understand everything straight off in the lectures. What is important is can you do the main problems after going to lectures, reading your notes and going to the tutorials?

This is a very important point. Unlike high school, these things come with time so I don't think jumping to conclusions one week in is really rational.

 

[TheStallion]

I find it a bit hard too...

Math is to "formal" now. Not used to it as I learned math the informal way (no fancy symbols, definitions and what not). I moved to higher physics on friday... I'll see how I go this week... if it's too hard, I'm going to drop back down to 1121

1131/1141 isn't very formal. You're in for a shock when you move on to 1231/1241 and 2nd year maths, and definitely if you do discrete (1081). 1131/1141 isn't formal at all apart from a few definitions for things like the pinching theorem.

 

[Drongoski]

As a last resort I provide 1-on-1 tutoring for Maths 1A and Maths 1B. But it'd be a lot cheaper and more practical to get a good UNSW student to help you.

 

[soloooooo]

Firstly you can probably drop to MATH1131, the lecturer in physics is too fast for everyone and ENG1000 would be one of your best subjects in your degree.

I agree. Defiantly switch to MATH1131 (normal math).

 

[unsw-maths-guru]

There isn't any great rush to drop down. You can do it until the census date (31 March??) if you see the maths office. You can always try going to some 1131 lectures to see if they seem any better.

 

[muzeikchun852]

just out of curiosity - is MATH1141 really much harder than MATH1131? how would it compares with MATH1151?

 

[TheStallion]

1141 isn't much harder than 1131 at all. If you're good at maths doing 1141 is a no-brainer decision.

 

[jamesfirst]

how hard is phy1131 compared to phy1121?? I changed to it because I enjoyed physics in year 12 (came first in the grade) and it scales better, apparently.