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chicengineering-blog · 5 years

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Recollecting

Recollecting: to bring back the level of conscious awareness.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for quite some time now.The reason being the fact that I believe this is quite relevant for a lot of people. I truly believe this will hit home for many students, specifically students in the STEM field. Being a senior engineering student, I’ve just now come to terms with really experiencing what it means to be “burned out” or “jaded” for that matter. You put all of your energy into attaining that one specific goal. The constant pressure you have in maintaining a high GPA. The constant pressure of wanting to pass that really difficult “weed out” engineering class, that in reality only %30 of the students in the class actually successfully pass. The constant pressure of failing a class and now you have one last attempt at it. The constant pressure of comparison among students in your department of who got the better grade or who landed that amazing internship.The constant pressure of wanting to graduate “on time”. The constant pressure of wanting to be one of the 15 students from the 250 admitted in your program every year to actually graduate in your discipline of engineering. I understand completely. I understand the exhaustion you face on a daily in hopes of achieving your dream goal. I understand those long sleepless nights you spend working hard. But, take a moment to RECOLLECT. Breathe. I promise it’s going to be okay. There’s no rush. You need to focus on yourself first. Nothing is worth more than your physical health, mental health, happiness or relationships. Figure out what’s going wrong. Talk to your advisors, mentors, professors, friends and family. Talk to students who have graduated from your program. Plan out your degree plan to what works for YOU. Seek help from your professors to see how you can overcome the temporary difficulty you are experiencing in your academic career. It’s important to understand that you’re not going through this alone, a lot of students go through this. If you need to take a break, take it. Take a full break, half break, lighter load in a semester do whatever works for you. Remember, sometimes a break can be a shortcut for you. You know your capabilities best, so do what works best for you. Work with those blinders on. It’ll be worth it I promise. Good luck you future engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen and everyone else:) I hope you all achieve what your heart desires.

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chicengineering-blog · 6 years

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How to Ace Any STEM Course!! (Study Tips)

Being a Biomedical Engineering Student has really forced me to understand and increase my knowledge in various Engineering and Medical related topics. A very general way of describing this field is that we are the bridge between the Engineering Field and the Medical Field. It is our job to fully analyze and make sure the design we create and process is safe from an engineering point of view, and at the same time we are trained to make sure that our engineered prototype is medically safe enough for the given patient. Due to these factors we are trained in various different courses across the board really. So, as time has progressed I’ve gained many studying techniques I use to this very day that help me do well in an analytical engineering course or a heavy memorization based course such as Biology or Biochemistry. However, all of these courses require you truly to understand the topic. Simply memorizing things never really worked well for me!

For Biology/Biochemistry Related Courses

These courses usually required me a bit of time to understand and really memorize some of the material. So firstly I would plan out a chunk of time before any exam which I would fully dedicate to just simply study. I usually give myself 5 -7 days. If you need more take more that’s fine! Utilizing your lecture notes is key here. I would read my lecture notes right before class and after class as well. This should just take 10-15 mins. This isn’t meant to make you know everything about the topic, it’s just simply easing you into each lecture. That way you feel somewhat confident going to class. Next, every night I would take the lecture notes and make them into my own separate notes. This is the part of actually understanding the concepts in detail. I find writing everything out while saying it out loud actually really helped me grasp the material faster. So I would make my notes for each chapter, before the exam. Again reading it out loud, while writing it. Also I was never the person to really focus on making my notes aesthetically pretty. A lot of students in my classed had beautiful notes, and when I tried doing that I found I never really understood as much material as I should have. So find what works for you! If you love making pretty notes and it helps you do well, go for it! I however, have notes that look like chicken scratch. I would only highlight/underline key vocabulary and points I knew the professor would test on their exam. The notes I would usually have done around 4 days before my exam. Next, was just reviewing my notes and adding to them. I also have another tip which is something that I’d never heard anyone do. You guys know those access codes you have to buy early in the semester, the ones you uses to access your mandatory homework assignments. Well use that online portal. I would ALWAYS use the “Study Area” or “Testing Area” from those portals. I would print out the practice exams from there with the answers and try to understand why those were the answer. This method would always allow me to understand key concepts. And if you think about it, the textbook publisher website definitely will know what you’ll be tested on. Since the professor is using their textbook! YouTube videos also really helped me better prep for exams. I would watch tutorials anytime I got stuck on a concept. Great accounts I would suggest you checkout are BozmanBiology and AKLectures!

For Engineering Courses e.g. Circuits, Mechanics, Processes Course, etc.…

I can’t emphasize enough that practicing problems is key here. There comes a time in your engineering degree, where the further you progress you don’t really get assigned homework. So all your grade depends on is essentially exams which are typically weighed 30-40% each. So this means, you are fully in charge of how much effort and work you put into a class. If your professor is using a specific textbook in your class use that to do your practice problems. I would usually go crazy doing this lol. I 99% of the time usually did all of the problems from the textbook before any exam. This would usually range from 100-200 problems. You do not have to do this many problems. If you do 10 and you understand that’s great. Personally, I just found the more I did the more I would understand each different scenario. And any time I would I would get stuck at a specific step, I would mark it first. Then I would refer to the solutions manual. The solutions manual is something that really helped me personally. But if I didn’t understand the solution in the manual I would put a sticky note on that problem. And I’d go running to my professor lol. I used office hours like no joke. I practically lived outside my professors’ office haha. There I would learn a lot more, on where specifically I was going wrong. Also keep in mind engineering exams are all about your process. When professors mark your work they could care less about the final answer. The answer itself is probably worth 2 out of 30 points. There’s been times where a problem is given and I’ve filled out 2 pages of work showing my process, but got 0 points for it. Simply because my process was wrong. So really understand how your professor grades, ask them questions. But show your work. Always. I would also be a part of a lot of group chats with my engineering friends. There we would post problems together and work on them together. These GROUP-ME chats are so useful because you can send pictures of your work to one another. I would highly suggest you join the GROUP-ME chats for your specific engineering course. Last but not least, before any of my engineering exams, I would create my own practice problems package. This usually consisted of 4 problems for each chapter. The first one would be the most basic/simplest example and the 4th problem would always be the most difficult practice problem possible. Between these 4 problems I would compare the differences and analyze why I did certain steps. I would use these packages all the time. Heck, I would even work on these packages with my friends. And when it came time for the final exam I already had around 12 packages ready to review quickly and efficiently.

I really hope you enjoyed reading this post, and found the tips above beneficial! I know it was long, but I really wanted to share these techniques I’ve learned over the years. I’m also thinking to write a blog post geared towards acing your coding/programming course! Since the studying for that is completely different. Let me know if you’d like for me to share that as well! Thanks for reading!

- Ramsha

#studyingtips engineering STEM AceYourExams

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chicengineering-blog · 6 years

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Confidence Tips

Confidence is something I really struggled with in my early preteen years. I was fortunate enough to have experiences and opportunities in my life that I feel really drastically improved my self-confidence. I wanted to share the tips below that I believe really do work. Keep in mind that confidence levels vary across the board, so some steps below might not be big for you, however they can be big ones for others.

1. ALWAYS make eye contact

This is something a lot of people would consider as a basic attribute, however many people still do not do this. Whether you’re having a conversation with someone, or even listening to them speak in a group setting it is important you maintain eye contact. This allows people to take you seriously and know that you are engaged in the conversation.

2. Ask questions

Now, I’m definitely not saying force yourself to ask a question. But, when you genuinely do a have a question or want to know about something ask it. This allows people to understand that you’re not intimidated by that fact that you don’t know something. It just shows that you genuinely want to know more. When you’re sitting in that 500 people lecture hall and don’t understand what the professor is talking about. Raise your hand and ask the question. When you’re at a dinner or party ask someone how they’re doing. But please be sure to actually listen to their answer haha.

3. Take the Initiative

This is something I firmly believe in. Offer to help someone. Volunteer to MC that big event. Lead a fundraiser. Whatever it is just do it. Taking the lead in many activities/situations does have a lot of responsibilities. However, they get people to notice you in a positive manner. And on top of that you’ll realize your strengths and capabilities. A sense of fulfillment you gain from helping others really does boost your self-confidence.

4. Join that Club

You know those clubs that you always are inspired by and just in general love what they’re doing. Please join them! You get to do what you’re passionate about. You will get to work with like-minded people. Volunteering at various settings through a certain club will get you to meet a bunch of different people. It’ll polish up your interpersonal skills.

5. Surround yourself with GOOD company

This is pivotal. Having good company around you will really boost your self-confidence. Having people that genuinely care about you and want to see you succeed is a huge asset. Negative vibes/company will just drag you down. So please avoid those Debbie Downers at all costs!

#confidence #confidencetips #self esteem

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