HI,
You need to think about this realy seriously.
You dont have to have a degree for many jobs and especially once you have several years experiance in the relavent field BUT the degree DOES help, some companies specify you must have a degree for two reasons.
1st you know how to apply your self and solve tricky stuff.
2nd, Your qualified and it legally helps protect them (a bit, might not be much but everything helps when the Sh*t reall hits the fan) ), they emplyed an person PROVEN to work to a given standard. Anything you do, design or make is backup up by the fact that you once (i.e. your degree) proved you could work to a high engineering standard.
later in you carear a degree can help when joining engineering institutions, working for certain companies, bolstering customer confidenceand sometimes it can even help you get a job!v :-)
A degree is by no means the answer to everything, common sence and perseverance win almost all the time but do not discount the advantages of holding a decent degree. 'Decent degree' means it was hard to get. Bristol have a good rep, saying you have a good engineering degree from somewhere like bristol does actually mean something.
I have employed and will continue to employ people with every concievable level of education and experiance, qualifications are only one aspect of an employee and I probe a new graduate more on what they have done in thier hobbies (tells me quite a bit) than the content of the course. The level of the degree already tells me about there 'academic' ability.
Doing an interesting engineering job is fantastic but at some point, the real world will work you 10x harder than anything you will ever do at UNi. Uni made me work, but it was Work that nearly drove over the egde, you cant give up in the real world, people depend on you finding the solution.... it can be real hard but when its good, engineering is the best job in the world.
I found Uni tough, my maths was also very poor and I struggeled badly but squeaked though on the staight mathmatics, better on the applied stuff like Thermodynics and had a natural affinity with some of the deisgn stuff. We all have our strengths and the best ones are, perseverance and a love for your field of work. Perseverance is not EASY...you just have to find a way to push yourself on. Easy to say, I know. :-)
What ever you want to do in engineering, just keep heading towards it a little bit at a time (with or without a degree)...just dont give up or expect to get the perfect job first time. I've done some real rubbish jobs and was told loads of times that too many people were chasing the 'interesting jobs, BUT I found my way in and spent 10 years doing electroincs in motorsport (so far!), which took me around the world for free and recently finished working on research equipment in Antartica for 18 months.
Now working for myself and having to work as hard as ever learning new stuff every day. I was not an A* student and struggeled quite a bit at uni, I was just a person who knew they were an engineer, period!
My maths is still awful and I regret not spending the time at School and colledge sorting the basics, I now get by and rely on lots of techincalm books and a calculator.
2nd Yeasr? Yeah it will be hard and the second year can be quite a shock as they often push hard and expect to loose quite a few people. Talk to your tutor, the maths lecturer or another maths lecturer, there are often additional lectures put on for people struggeling in maths, its just so common...try them... try anything, just dont give up. I really think you will kick your self if you drop out now.
Lets face it you have invested a lot of time and cash so far.. make the most, maybe a change to an alternate course will work better for you..thats fine but make sure you chage for the right reason and not just becasue the course is pushing you.
Oh yeah, loads of your course WILL seem irrelevant to real industry or overly academic b ut you just dont know what bits you'll use in the future... a your career is long and you'll use more that you think over the next 40 years in industry.
J. Best of luck dude, lots of us here have been there..but its one you gotta do on your own.
Also remember to have the odd beer :-) A 2:1 is the drinking mans 1st !