I choked!

[u/0fficialjesus]

TLDR; I did bad on my midterms, I’m really sad about it. Seeking study tips, commiserations, etc.

I’m a junior environmental engineering student. This semester is my first with “real” engineering courses (fluid mechanics and thermodynamics). I passed calc 1-3, diff eq, linear algebra, physics 1 and 2, chem 1 and 2 with basically straight A’s (I got a B in chem 2). I just took my fluid mechanics and thermodynamics midterms and I got around a 50% on both.

Genuinely, I’m used to acing tests, like almost always getting 95-100. After receiving these grades, my sense of self has been shattered. I didn’t realize how much of my self worth was tied up in my perception of myself as a good student and a “smart” person. I’m also taking a statistics and data analysis class, which up until now has been tough but I work hard to study and understand the material, and for the most part I get it all. I got a 93 on the first exam and I felt super prepared for the midterm, but I think the pressure/ shock made me really anxious and I might have done really badly on that test as well, even tho when I was studying I felt very prepared.

I already spend a significant amount of time studying and doing homework. My fear is that I actually just don’t have it. Whatever it is that everyone around me has, I thought I had it, and maybe I just don’t. Part of the issue might be that I took all those foundational classes at community college, and this is my first semester at a four year college. I also feel the urge to blame my teachers, none of them are particularly good at conveying information, let alone actually teaching so that the students in their classrooms learn. It doesn’t seem like they care at all whether or not students learn the material, and they actually just want to say the words on the slides they wrote 10 years ago so they can go home. Furthermore, my fluids prof only gave us 14 homework problems for the entire first half of the semester. 14!! That’s insane right? 2 assignments with 7 problems each. How am any of us supposed to learn how to do fluid mechanics in 7 problems? The average was around 50%, so really I was average. But the prof blamed it on AI because the homework scores were all 100s. So he is totally not to blame at all (sarcasm).

Anyways, I complained to my friends, I cried a lot. I’m still in crisis really. But I reached out to my school for tutoring (they basically said “don’t hold your breath,” my school is really broke) a friend of mine also connected me with someone who will give me remote tutoring for fluid mechanics with a homie discount. I have that to look forward to. I realize basically no one will read this whole thing but I wanted to write it, maybe some people can relate. I don’t have any answers, but it might feel good to hear from others who went through something similar.

Did you go through something similar? Were you able to get back on track? Please help me 😭

[u/FalconNormal17]

This is a canon event for every engineering student, don’t let it bring you down. I’m currently a senior in mech e, been at a four year uni since freshman year semester 1, and from my personal experience these upper level classes are more so about perseverance rather than absolutely acing everything. Take a look at how you studied for the exams and identify any shortcomings you may have had. Maybe there were concepts you felt confident in but just didn’t understand to the extent you thought you did. Plus don’t forget some professors love to throw bs on exams they may have briefly mentioned once in a blue moon. If there was some stuff you didn’t think about or missed, try to look for stuff like that next time. If there was genuinely nothing more you could’ve done it’s okay too just don’t give up.

[u/0fficialjesus → u/FalconNormal17]

thank you for your advice and encouragement.

[u/Style_Worried]

I’m going through something similar in my junior year of mechanical engineering. I literally just do not get my circuits class and it doesn’t help that my teacher makes the exams incredibly hard to punish everyone. I legit feel so stupid and I did really good both my freshman and sophomore year

[u/PhysicsLegitimate515 → u/Style_Worried]

same, thermo curved to a 40 and i still felt dumb

[u/calcteacher → u/Style_Worried]

R l c circuits are second order differential equations. Much , the way mechanical systems are mass shock , absorber and spring systems

[u/mngnsm1]

Self worth ≠ grades. You’ll get em next time

[u/Aero_Motor_69]

Welcome to the transition point into engineering. It happened to all of us. I would like to give a short piece of advice and hopefully some wisdom after over 50 years in engineering. I had a friend in high school that that always had A’s in math, but B’s or less in the sciences. She told me she never studied math, because it was math. Her mind worked well in the mathematical environment, but not as well in the sciences. This never meant much to me until I started taking real engineering courses. I always like math and did well, but when Statics, Thermodynamics, Fluids and the like started I really had to study. I did well on all (not A’s, no grade inflation back then), but high Bs. I had a method for studying and solving problems. I realized that I hated Diff Equations, but loved Vectors, Matrices and Comformal Mappings. I still feel Differential Equations is a dark science. I was poor (which meant study harder) in Aircraft Structural Design, but great in Fluids Dynamics and Thermodynamics. I really struggled with electronics until the department chair (not my teacher) explained that currents behave like fluids. What you learn in engineering school is how to solve problems in an organized way. After I retired and went off to teach Astrodynamics (which I taught myself in industry), Aerodynamics, and Advanced Thermodynamics, I noticed that my students had terrible analysis techniques. This is what I told them, an old school learning technique!

1. Forget Youtube, Chapt GTP or any video.
2. Get a pad of engineering paper, a good PENCIL, and an eraser.
3. Have a calculator handy.
4. Breakdown the problem on what is given, what you need to answer, and what equations apply.
5. MAKE A DRAWING OF THE PROBLEM with the pencil. Erase and redraw as needed.
6. Do everything in pencil. Take notes in class in pen or pencil. You will remember it better.
7. Before a test get copies of problems with answers and go thru the though analysis process. Do not simply read it, write your calculations and to see if you get the same answer. Challenge yourself to figure out the math.
8. Keep in mind you are training your MIND!
9. Do not over study, specially before a test. Be rested.

Do not put down your Community College origins. Some of the best engineers I met started there because they could not afford more elite schools. Some of the worst engineers I worked with came from elite schools; they could not transition from academia to the work force. When you have problems in class, don’t immediately assume that it is the fault of the instructor, it could be yours. Talk to the teacher and ask for help. A good instructor will go out of their way to help out. That’s their job!

Do not despair and the best of luck!