Is My Dream of Becoming an Astronautical Engineer Over?

[EternityMech]

I FAILED Math!

A in Chemistry
B in Physics
C in Biology.

my dreams of becoming an astronautical engineer are over!
now i have to become a fruit and study something useless like interior design.

 

[lisab]

I understand you're disappointed, but I wouldn't give up quite yet.

Are you in college or high school? What math did you fail?

 

[Cyrus]

A in Chemistry
B in Physics
C in Biology.

my dreams of becoming an astronautical engineer are over!
now i have to become a fruit and study something useless like interior design.

Practice saying: "Would you like fries with that?"

(You never had a chance of being an astronautical engineer anyways, as it's an aeronautical engineering degree. The second one is still a possibility.)

 

[EternityMech]

HS pre calculus.

ya but I am thinking if i can't even pass this kind of easy math then i should just forget about university math.

is there maths in chemistry besides counting mole and q ratios?

 

[LeonhardEuler]

HS pre calculus.

ya but I am thinking if i can't even pass this kind of easy math then i should just forget about university math.

is there maths in chemistry besides counting mole and q ratios?

I wouldn't be too worried about that at all. I mean, it's important that you do better eventually, but you're still in high school. There was a semester in high school when I nearly failed math, and I now have already graduated as chemical engineer and am working on my PhD. I definitely need math all the time, but it's not a problem now since I've found a way of learning it that works for me. I personally found calculus to be easier than pre-calculus because of the focus on proofs and the emphasis on understanding why what you're doing works.

My advice to you would be not to give up so easily. There are a lot of reasons you might not have done well. If you have to retake this class, that might be a good thing because hopefully you'll really understand it this time around.

And yes, there is a lot more math in chemistry depending what field you study. You eventually would learn thermodynamics and quantum mechanics which require a lot of math. But don't worry about it, you will learn it all one step at a time, and if you put the time in now to understand the fundamentals, it won't be unrealistically difficult.

 

[arunma]

Dude, don't sweat it. I got held back in math until I was in eighth grade. Now I'm a PhD student in physics with a second BS degree in (of all things) math. You too will be fine. Your grades in high school aren't all that important. What matters is that you figure out what it takes to get good grades in your classes, and start doing well by the time you get into college. That's where grades start mattering. Once you graduate from college, no grad school, med school, law school, or potential employer is going to give a rip what you did in high school. They will, however, look at your undergraduate transcript.

 

[Borek]

is there maths in chemistry besides counting mole and q ratios?

I wouldn't call counting mole and q ratios math... Simple arithmetic perhaps.

And yes, there is much more serious math further down the road.

--

 

[cragar]

ya don't give up yet

 

[Proton Soup]

bah, i was failing calc II in college once myself. analyzing the situation, i realized my trig skills were simply not up to par. so i went backwards three steps to precalculus I and buckled down. and from then on i got A's in all my math courses. which is real important in engineering anyway since it's all applied math.

you can do it if it's what you really want. but you need to approach it from an attitude of mastering the material, not simply cramming a bunch of facts into pass a final exam. the reason is because successive courses build on material learned previously.

 

[cragar]

yes i will agree , even when you get to classes like differential equations algebra is used a lot and is very crucial that you are very good at algebra and trig .

 

[BobG]

A in Chemistry
B in Physics
C in Biology.

my dreams of becoming an astronautical engineer are over!
now i have to become a fruit and study something useless like interior design.

Everyone's just trying to make you feel good. They're just cushioning the blow.

Math is supposed to be hard! Otherwise everyone would do it (even you) and then it wouldn't pay any better than making fries.

Just take consolation in the fact that your failure makes life better for the rest of us.


Besides, inerior design isn't so bad. It may be useless, but at least it's fruity.


(By the way, don't mind me. My favorite course ever was General Chemistry. The young nursing students would literally cry when they got their test scores back. Having people cry somehow makes the grade you get feel worth more.)

 

[cragar]

if u can get a B in physics then you certainly can do math , so maybe you just need to put a little more time into math . I barley got a C in engineering physics but i got an A in differential equations i always thought physics was harder then math .

 

[Borek]

inerior design isn't so bad. It may be useless

Useless? You have not seen the bruise I had on my thigh, just because some idiot decided that 40 cm is enough space between the tables at the local restaurant.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Unless you sincerely feel like you can not do it, and I mean really sincerely not just feeling dispondent over your grade, then you should take the class again. My high school counselor found I wasn't doing very well in my algebra class, mainly because I was not doing the homework, and placed me in begginers math for my next semester. I wound up with a B in my algebra class after finals but went ahead with the lesser math course and never went back to anything more advanced. I always felt like a dunce when it came to math after that. So the moral of my long winded story you see is that you should take the class over and DO NOT allow your guidence couselor to put you in a lesser math class.

 

[russ_watters]

Practice saying: "Would you like fries with that?"

(You never had a chance of being an astronautical engineer anyways, as it's an aeronautical engineering degree. The second one is still a possibility.)

Wait, aren't you an aeronautical engineer? How old are you? Today, "aeronautical" has fallen out of favor and colleges tend to offer aerospace engineering. They do also sometimes offer astronautical engineering as well, though you usually just shorten it to say the "astro" track of aerospace engineering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronautics

By the way, it took me 3 tries to pass differential equations (one fail, one drop). Thus I ended up a mechanical engineer instead of an aerospace engineer.

 

[Moonbear]

The young nursing students would literally cry when they got their test scores back. Having people cry somehow makes the grade you get feel worth more.)

I'm starting to wonder if nursing students take a freshman course in crying over test scores. I keep asking the nursing school to provide me with a supply of tissue boxes for my office, or perhaps a floor drain so I don't get flooded out after each exam.

As for math in high school, it's a wee bit melodramatic to be proclaiming your dreams have ended just because of one high school course. Go back and figure out where your studying went wrong and remediate. If you can learn how to study in high school, you'll do well in college (too many smart students crash and burn in college because they didn't need to study in high school so are only just realizing they don't know how to study after they start failing their freshman classes...you'll be a leg up on them if you learn how to study now).

 

[madness]

My maths teacher in high school (pre calc level) recommended I didn't take the maths course next year because I "wouldn't be able to handle the pace". Now I'm doing a masters in mathematical physics and won a scholarship for good grades.

 

[EternityMech]

Ok I have to be honest. I got a C in maths. i didnt fail but i wanted a B and the woman said i was really close but not quite up there. But in my mind a C = fail but whatever. I am really pissed.

 

[Moonbear]

Ok I have to be honest. I got a C in maths. i didnt fail but i wanted a B and the woman said i was really close but not quite up there. But in my mind a C = fail but whatever. I am really pissed.

You could always be a nursing student with this level of drama over a C.

 

[EternityMech]

You could always be a nursing student with this level of drama over a C.

i deserved a B that's what's killing me.

 

[anubis01]

i thought I deserved a B that's what's killing me.

fixed.

This is not a good mentality to have...especially when you go to university in a couple of years.

 

[kldickson]

FFS, high school kids are such drama queens. (By the by, it doesn't get a whole lot better in college; I'm a university student and there seems to be a moderate population of students who seem as if they're still 17 years old.)

Nobody besides the university admissions committee gives a crap about your high school math grades. Not even an aeronautical engineering department.

 

[junglebeast]

Although the math gets more complicated, your learning ability and confidence increases over time...my worst grades in math were all in HS too. Now I'm fairly good at it.

 

[Borek]

I'm a university student and there seems to be a moderate population of students who seem as if they're still 17 years old.

That's quite mature, you sure it is not a typo and you meant 7?

 

[Moonbear]

i deserved a B that's what's killing me.

No, apparently you didn't, or else you'd have gotten a B. Yep, you definitely could be a nursing student. They too think they can get an A or B just by asking for it or crying about it, and not by actually earning it with their exam scores. With that attitude, you're not going to find a lot of sympathy around here.

 

[George Jones]

i deserved a B that's what's killing me.

What does "deserved" mean in this context?

 

[Proton Soup]

No, apparently you didn't, or else you'd have gotten a B. Yep, you definitely could be a nursing student. They too think they can get an A or B just by asking for it or crying about it, and not by actually earning it with their exam scores. With that attitude, you're not going to find a lot of sympathy around here.

nothing wrong with nursing. get your degree, spend a year or so in critical care, go back for two to become an anesthetist, and earn 6 figures. actually, it may even be possible to do that without going back.

 

[EternityMech]

What does "deserved" mean in this context?

made a mistake on a B level question simple stupid mistake...but i have B grade knowledge.
I even got 1 A grade question right but it didnt help.

 

[Pinu7]

You have to "teach" yourself to be mentally organized. Start doing puzzles, they may help.
Or try Nintendo's "Brain Age."


Also, don't go to that party this weekend and study ALL the maths you know. Make sure you understand everything. You would be surprised how just a few days of studying can change your entire future dramatically.

Here are some links.

http://rutherglen.ics.mq.edu.au/wchen/lnemfolder/lnem.html"

http://www.clarku.edu/~djoyce/trig/"

 

[Proton Soup]

made a mistake on a B level question simple stupid mistake...but i have B grade knowledge.
I even got 1 A grade question right but it didnt help.

sorry to beat a dead horse, but better to train for A's and suffer the occasional B because of a bad hair day. later on, the stuff you're studying now will have to be perfect because it will be the alphabet of other languages.