Taking a course that doesn't rely much on textbook

[member 392791]

Hello,

I am taking my first upper division chemical engineering course, which is sort of a survey class that introduces the various topics and methodologies in chemical engineering.

This is my first time having a professor that doesn't rely much on the book, and in his own terms "the lecture loosely follows the textbook''. To me there is a lot of uncertainty in how to prepare for the exams since there is not a lot of information to go on. The lecture can be written in notes on one side of one piece of paper.

I am worried because this class is known as being killer, and I could see how, given how sparse the information is available to us, and at this level there isn't a lot of tutorials on youtube like one would find for physics and chemistry topics. This stuff isn't on khanacademy

Basically, how does one deal with a class with so little information presented, yet so much expected?

 

[Vanadium 50]

The lecture can be written in notes on one side of one piece of paper.

Is this a statement about the lecture or about your note-taking skills?

If someone talks for an hour, that's ~5000 words. It would be unusual for a summary of that to fit in only one side of one sheet of paper.

 

[aworrystudent]

You may consult students taken this course in previous years. They may have practical solution for this "killer".

 

[member 392791]

Is this a statement about the lecture or about your note-taking skills?

If someone talks for an hour, that's ~5000 words. It would be unusual for a summary of that to fit in only one side of one sheet of paper.

So if one was to copy everything written on the blackboard, one would find there to be 1 side of 1 sheet of paper of information.

I know your next response is to copy what is orally said, but I think that not much more was given. I mean saying in words what the equations say I suppose.

 

[Vanadium 50]

There must be an awful lot of silence in a class where the professor writes on the equivalent of one side of one sheet of paper and only reads that.

 

[member 392791]

Does anyone have advice for how to go about taking a class that has limited questions to practice with? I'm of course used to a full textbook with 100 problems/chapter to accompany the lecture.