Electronics > Beginners

Maths in Engineering

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coppice:

--- Quote from: floobydust on December 28, 2019, 07:59:29 pm ---Taking a year gap is dangerous, many people get a job and relationship and get comfy. They never take any post-secondary and end up with a life of low wages and hard labour.

--- End quote ---
Many others realise the path they were taking was just what was expected of them, and not what they wanted. In general, people who take a gap between school and university take university a lot more seriously, because they have a better understanding of why they are there. A lot of top universities make offers to be taken this year or next, so someone can choose to take a gap year with their course beyond that settled in advance. The universities prefer students who have experienced life a little more.

floobydust:
As long as the parents don't start playing the harp, "what are you going to do with your life?" during the gap year. It can be more pressure unless a good plan is there.
A university classmate said to me "I don't think I like engineering" during 3rd year EE :palm:  I asked why did he take it, "because my parents said I have to take either engineering or business". He side-transferred into the faculty of business and I was shocked because that was such a waste of much time and tuition fees and course material. Who knows if he even liked business, in the end. But his parents were paying for it all.  I sure couldn't afford to do any of that it was my dime for all of it.
OP is lucky to have some real interests in hardware, at least a direction to go after.

My university only cares about your age past 25, as a "mature student".
First year engineering I swear was a cash cow, they made tuition money from students dropping out yet keeping the enrollment numbers appearing high for government funding.
From 1,000 down to less than 400 after first year, the attrition rate really was stunning.

IanB:

--- Quote from: Johnwicc on December 28, 2019, 06:13:55 am ---I love how technology works especially of how computer hardware works, but I find maths vary hard. I normally get around 20% to 40% on exam papers like this: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/d6c0ee8f-7f12-4f19-a62c-716b74015186/2018-hsc-maths-general-2.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE-d6c0ee8f-7f12-4f19-a62c-716b74015186-mVoxsTm

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Although this is called a "maths" test, that is not really what it is. It is a test of logical and deductive reasoning with some testing of memory skills.

This would be a problem for you, because engineering is very largely dependent on logical and deductive reasoning. If you struggle with a test like that you are really going to struggle with engineering, and not because of the mathematics.

As others asked, you need to do a bit of introspection. What is it you find hard about such a test? Why do you only manage to get 20% to 40% marks? Do you not manage to remember the concepts the questions are asking about, or do you have trouble figuring what the questions are asking you to do? Is there some way you can practice, or take extra classes to improve on what you find hard?

To be honest, I am not sure how you would pass an aptitude test for entry into an engineering program with such limited mathematics skills? Something doesn't quite add up here.

jmelson:

--- Quote from: Johnwicc on December 28, 2019, 07:07:42 am ---
I am thinking about a gap year. I need to make a decision before 30 December 2019, to either accept/defer/decline the offer from the university. I'm just frozen what to do atm. I'm really scared if I do accept the offer, I will fail all maths that is shown to me and I will become a dropout statistic.

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Real-world EE requires good algebra and a little specialized math (Laplace transforms and such) but all the heavy lifting can be done with computer assistance.  You do need to learn the fancy maths for classes, but then hardly anyone ever uses it again, with tools like mathcad.  But, it is real good to understand how the math works.

It might be good to get in a couple advanced math courses during your gap year to get totally up to speed on trig, calculus, diff eq. and such things.

Jon

james_s:
I suck at math and I found most of that test to be very easy, I really hate to deliver bad news but I think you will really be struggling if you jump into an engineering program right now. Can you afford a private tutor? Are you self motivated? If the latter you could study intensely for a year on Khan Academy or take some classes elsewhere. You should be able to pretty much ace that exam you posted without too much trouble. You will certainly encounter much, much more advanced math on the way to a 4 year engineering degree.

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