How can I improve my problem solving skills in engineering?

[jaredogden]

Well I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this but I guess I'm going to anyways. I am a ME student as San Diego State University and I am having a little bit of trouble with Mechanics of Materials and some other classes. The problem that I see myself having is when it come to test time. I can seem to get the homework problems done and understand most of them. however when I get a test I often cannot understand how to tackle the problem, I know I have all the tools and our professor gives us any equation we ask for and since it it relatively early in the semester most of the topics we have covered aren't too difficult to grasp. I guess is what I'm trying to ask here is if anyone might have a good approach or mindset to try and have when doing these sorts of problems or any engineering problem for that matter..

I know the best thing about engineers is their problem solving skills and I want mine to be as sharp as possible. So my next question would be is if there are some sort of exercises or mind games/puzzles besides normal course work that anyone knows of that I can do to help sharpen a mind to be more geared toward intensive problem solving?

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

 

[viscousflow]

Just giving general advice here, I think the most important way to go about that is knowing and understanding where you want to be (i.e. the ultimate goal, the piece to the puzzle, etc..) then taking the steps you already know to get there.

As my senior design professor always says "First you need to know where you need to be (understanding the problem clearly) then all you need to do is find out how to get there. You already have the tools given to you"