Taking Engineering Classes. eg. CBEE 211 (material balances and stoichiometry)

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around strategies for tackling engineering classes, specifically CBEE 211, which focuses on material balances and stoichiometry. Participants share their experiences and seek advice on managing the workload and improving their understanding of the material.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses concern about the extensive time required for homework in CBEE 211, noting that it can take over six hours to complete assignments, which affects their performance in other classes.
  • Another participant suggests creating flowcharts to set up problems without fully solving them, which may allow for more practice in less time.
  • A participant acknowledges the requirement to use flowcharts for assignments but emphasizes that this still consumes a significant amount of time.
  • There is a discussion about the effectiveness of flowcharts, with one participant suggesting that while they take less time than solving problems completely, they still require a considerable effort.
  • One participant proposes that gaining enough practice with problem types could lead to quicker mental formulation of solutions, followed by checking against provided answers.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best approach to manage the workload in engineering classes. There are differing opinions on the effectiveness and time efficiency of using flowcharts versus solving problems in full.

Contextual Notes

Some participants mention the challenge of balancing multiple courses alongside the demanding workload of CBEE 211, indicating a potential limitation in time management strategies discussed.

Who May Find This Useful

Students enrolled in engineering courses, particularly those struggling with time management and problem-solving strategies in classes like CBEE 211.

Obelisk017
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okay, Through lurking, I've gotten a better understanding of how to tackle math, physics, and chemistry classes. My question is then how would you tackle Engineering classes? namely my CBEE 211 class. I know the key is practice, but this class takes a ridiculous amount of time. It's nice to practice, but some of the assigned work takes forever. It's not uncommon (even for some really good students) to spend 6 hours + on the homework. I don't mind this, but usually, I'm taking other classes, that suffered because of this. How do I tackle such classes? It seems to be most effective to do the homework, do the practice exam, and hope for the best. I tried tackling other problems from the book, but I eventually gave up. It simply took too long, and the rest of my courses suffered for it. Is there a better way to tackle these classes? do I have to deprive myself of sleep in order to do good in this class, or do I rework the homework problems for a better understanding, do practice exam and hope for the best. The most cost effective seems to be to do the homework, redo the problems, do the practice exam, go over the class examples, then go do the exam, but I feel that this approach may be limited in the spectrum of things to learn so, I ask you Physics Forum, What do?
 
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Try to see if you can just set the problem up/write a flowchart for solving the problem, so you don't actually go through the tedium of actually solving the problem. Also, one can rip through many problems this way and actually get practice.
 
flow charts. Yeah. Our teacher demands that we do this for all of our assignments. I don't mean to whine, but even if we make a flow chart, it still takes a great while to complete.
 
I should also thank members of the physics forum for answering the questions that I have posted. It was rude of me not to acknowledge the previous help that I have gotten.
 
Obelisk017 said:
flow charts. Yeah. Our teacher demands that we do this for all of our assignments. I don't mean to whine, but even if we make a flow chart, it still takes a great while to complete.

However, it's still takes less time to write up a flowchart then it does to do the whole problem right? If you can gain enough practice doing the types of questions that are asked of you, then eventually you can look at the question, then formulate a plan in your head. After your have your mind made up, check the solution to see if you were on the right path.

Good luck. I know school can/is frustrating.
 
are you perhaps suggesting to 1) make a flow chart, ans then, 2) think about how to solve it, but not solve it, and check to see that it's right?
 
That's exactly what I think you should try.
 

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