Recent content by dsking

Depending on the topic you may be able to find a free online course that will guide you through. One example is MIT open courseware. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/

Try to meet people who will take similar classes to you. It helps to discuss things with other people so that you really know what you're doing. Also join organizations related to your field as soon as you can (AIChE for chem.).

I'm a junior in Mechanical Engineering and one big thing I wish I knew is that I can learn a lot from looking at many different sources. When I was a freshman I read the textbook, went to lecture, and did problems only, but now I use google, talk to people (professors, other students, TAs), and...

ODEs are essential to know before you start looking at PDEs. If you knew how to deal with PDEs and not ODEs that would be like knowing how to do multi-variable calculus before you knew single-variable. However, there are some exceptional ODE's, such as non-linear, that require different methods.