Can Poor First Year Grades Be Overcome in Pursuit of Excellence?

[th3plan]

Does everyone who is an engineering major spent most of there time studying during school. Cause I'm in my 2nd year and all I do is study and no time for fun. Or is it cause I'm slow :D? I also know people in other majors and they have crazy free time. This is toward students who are full time

 

[Choppy]

I spent a lot of time studying in undergrad (physics) and I lived with a house of guys in kinesiology so there was certainly a difference in study loads. But as with most things, what you get out is proportional to what you put in.

 

[lwasmund]

I totally agree. Put in the time. Only worry about the grades you get. If your getting 100% take some time off. Other than that the other pple are proably copying and not learning. I took civil engineering. I studied all day and night dude.
Good Luck,

 

[lisab]

I had a roommate who was studying to be a teacher. I never saw her do any homework during the semester I lived there, until the night before the final.

I came home to see her at the table cutting out pictures from a magazine...her final was to make a collage poster. Unbelievable!

(I was a physics major...I studied every day of the semester, probably 8 to 10 hours a day!)

 

[rootX]

I had a roommate who was studying to be a teacher. I never saw her do any homework during the semester I lived there, until the night before the final.

I came home to see her at the table cutting out pictures from a magazine...her final was to make a collage poster. Unbelievable!

(I was a physics major...I studied every day of the semester, probably 8 to 10 hours a day!)

That's why I hate those people

I am in engineering and I also study whole semester each day - nothing else

 

[nicksauce]

Studying all the time is completely normal. For me during the semester (physics) a typical day is 7am wake up, 830-5 classes, lab work, studying when not doing either, 5pm-2 am study, 2am-7am sleep (or study, on a really bad day, using coffee to temporarily replace sleep). Time for eating and using the bathroom can be allocated as needed.

 

[Howers]

Not uncommon for physical scientists. Trust me when I tell you those that seemingly have time for fun time are likely getting Cs. This may not happen in first year because a lot of students already know first year material.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Does everyone who is an engineering major spent most of there time studying during school. Cause I'm in my 2nd year and all I do is study and no time for fun. Or is it cause I'm slow :D? I also know people in other majors and they have crazy free time. This is toward students who are full time

Unfortunately, this is the way of the world. I remember having lab reports due the day after spring break.

The reward for your years of misery is a job where you treated as fungible- replacable by the next crop of fresh-outs. So don't expect to get paid well, either.

Hence, you should *enjoy* what you are doing, rather than doing it thinking you are going to be financially secure.

 

[BioCore]

Not uncommon for physical scientists. Trust me when I tell you those that seemingly have time for fun time are likely getting Cs. This may not happen in first year because a lot of students already know first year material.

My Professors just gave the class an interesting 15 minute lecture on how we shouldn't go about whining about our grades as they are not the only most important thing an employer will look at. He also said that sometimes the reference letters are way more important. Would this be true?

My other question is about your comment as well. If someone does not do well in first year would they still have a chance of becoming the best or improving their grades to an excellent level of 85%+? I am currently in this position right now after first year, although I tend to love a lot of the topics that were taught and I am currently going over them to strengthen my knowledge some more. Thnanks.

 

[JOBe]

Likewise, I study a lot. My school is slightly bipolar, half cores sciences/engineering, half business. There were always people slacking off and then I found out they were business while all of the physics and sciences were studying like hell. Put the time in, you'll appreciate it more in the long run.

 

[Howers]

My Professors just gave the class an interesting 15 minute lecture on how we shouldn't go about whining about our grades as they are not the only most important thing an employer will look at. He also said that sometimes the reference letters are way more important. Would this be true?

My other question is about your comment as well. If someone does not do well in first year would they still have a chance of becoming the best or improving their grades to an excellent level of 85%+? I am currently in this position right now after first year, although I tend to love a lot of the topics that were taught and I am currently going over them to strengthen my knowledge some more. Thnanks.

Your prof should be stabbed in the face for saying grades are not important. Although I'm almost certain he meant it in the context of knowledge being more important than grades, which is true. However, grades are the best way we have developed to assess knowledge so do the math. As a general rule, employers won't ask questions as long as your GPA is above 3.0.

What I was saying is a lot of those people who claim they have a lot of free time tend to get Cs, though they usually can get away with As in first year. You are not in that lot. Screwing up first year is a common tale. There is nothing preventing you from getting excellent grades in the following years. Just be sure you understand the first year stuff really well. You really need to figure out why you screwed up first year and how you will fix it.

 

[Defennder]

My other question is about your comment as well. If someone does not do well in first year would they still have a chance of becoming the best or improving their grades to an excellent level of 85%+? I am currently in this position right now after first year, although I tend to love a lot of the topics that were taught and I am currently going over them to strengthen my knowledge some more. Thnanks.

It's rather common to screw up the first few courses of college education, despite the fact that they're introductory courses. I matriculated in college during summer vacation under a special early enrolment programme and did a couple of courses then, but somehow despite the fact I was doing so few courses I managed to screw one of those up, not failing but receiving a poor grade on it which served as sort of a wake-up call to me. But because of that experience, I've become much more conscious of my individual learning pace and have learned how to adapt to college life and expectations. When I began my first semester and was doing the standard course load of 5 classes, I was able to focus and study better. It paid off in my second semester too, as my semestral GPA was better in my 2nd semester then in my first.

And if there is anything I learned about studying it's the importance of doing it in groups. I remember spending 4-5 hours on a single concept which I simply couldn't grasp but later somehow managed to understand it easily when I overheard a group of students discuss it while studying together.

 

[BioCore]

I see, thanks for the quick replies. I will try to heed the advice and actually will look through all my past study habits and maybe even tests to see what went wrong with my studying and how I can improve it.

 

[Andy Resnick]

My Professors just gave the class an interesting 15 minute lecture on how we shouldn't go about whining about our grades as they are not the only most important thing an employer will look at. He also said that sometimes the reference letters are way more important. Would this be true?

My other question is about your comment as well. If someone does not do well in first year would they still have a chance of becoming the best or improving their grades to an excellent level of 85%+? I am currently in this position right now after first year, although I tend to love a lot of the topics that were taught and I am currently going over them to strengthen my knowledge some more. Thnanks.

Reference letters are increasingly useless.

If you do not well in your first year, but then follow with 3 years of excellence, the first year will be ignored.