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

[Obelisk017]

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?

 

[General_Sax]

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.

 

[Obelisk017]

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.

 

[Obelisk017]

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.

 

[General_Sax]

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.

 

[Obelisk017]

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?

 

[General_Sax]

That's exactly what I think you should try.