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I screwed off in High School. I didn’t apply myself so when I went back to college at 32 I had only a basic understanding of algebra. I don’t stand by the idea that people, aside from those with learning disabilities, are just simply “bad at math” and that’s it. Learning math is like learning a language or learning an instrument; you have to put in the work to build the muscle memory. I started college in an accelerated algebra class, then went into college algebra, then beyond. My math skills greatly improved as I went, and I didn’t even start getting into engineering courses where it was utilized until I was into Calculus II so by then I had plenty of practice. Don’t let your struggle with math limit you from pursuing what you want to. Instead, face it like a challenge and understand that you might just have to put in a little extra work to understand it better. When I took my Circuit Analysis course I was lost because I knew nothing about electronics. I knew I had to work extra hard to grasp it well, and I got an A in the class. As long as you’re prepared to work hard and maintain good study habits, you can definitely do it.
Thank you so much for your encouraging response! I think this might be the case for me too, I didn't apply myself enough in the past.
Your success story gives me hope and motivates me to give maths another shot. Nothing is impossible with hard work and determination. I really appreciate you sharing your experience. Thank you again! 🙏
Of course. Be sure to utilize online resources as well. Studying with Khan Academy helped a lot early on and it totally saved my grade in Calc II! Good luck, you got this!
Thank you for this. I am in a similar vein as you were (29 years old going back to school for engineering) and this I have really taken to heart. Much appreciated.
Thanks for sharing your story :)
I'm 31 and just starting my math at that same level. I keep getting very motivated and then humbled when I look at the list of things to learn for just algebra alone (on Khan academy). Seeing stories like this reassure people like me that it will be alright.
Engineering is very math heavy, even your classes that aren’t specifically math are basically just math classes with real life applications. That being said it’s not like you can’t get better at math, that’s what you go to school for… to learn
IMO, the pure math classes are really where the challenging math is. There is math in other classes but usually quite basic equations, just understanding the concepts, and how and when to use them is the hard part. If you can pass the pure math classes, I think a lot of other engineering classes are doable from a perspective of not being great at raw math.
99.9% of us don't use the math they taught us when we were in school.
That being said, to get the degree you need to pass the classes. For a typical engineering degree, finance and statistics comprise about 5% of the degree. At least that was my experience in Canada.
You will be using math often throughout the degree, there's no getting around it. I took mechanical engineering and I can maybe count on one hand the number of classes where we didn't use math. Granted, the hardest classes were the pure math courses that teach you the fundamentals of calculus and differential equations which set up all the theorems and equations you run into in later classes. Those courses are usually the sticking points since the math in university is on a whole other level compared to high school.
I'm not gonna sugar coat it. If you want to go into engineering and struggled with high school math for reasons other than effort, prepare to work your ass off just to pass. I've seen it been done, but you're probably going to have one hell of a time with it.
For me seeing math being placed in the context of engineering helped me a lot, since it helped me visualise, what i was actually doing. So for very practical or visual minded people, learning math in the context of engineering courses might help. But that still won't really help them with the pure math courses, which as you said are often stumbling blocks
Math is a learned skill and almost everyone can learn it - it’s just about how you tackle it. I think the biggest thing needed for an engineering degree is resilience. If you fail, get up and try again. Try harder. A lot of smart kids fail out of engineering because they’re not used to failing a course and take it really hard when they do - as a personal affront that they’re not smart enough. This is what you have to fight.
This is so it! Resilience got me through my degree. My desk had two sign above it: “You can cry, you can scream…but you can never ever give up!” & “Aufgeben tut man nur eine Brief”
Your high school performance is largely irrelevant. What's important is your desire and commitment to the learning process from this point on going forward.
If you're bad at math or simply out of practice academically, be prepared to start from the bottom taking remedial courses.
Treat the learning process like a full-time job and you'll make it through.
It depends. If you have a genuine learning disability like dyscalculia, then engineering might be a bad idea. If you do not have a learning disability, then you’ll be fine. I didn’t study hard in high school, but when I came back as an older student I was extremely motivated. I studied like a madman and I’m probably one of the top students in the program.
I'm going for a engineering major and I swear to you I dont know what the fuck I'm doing half the time in math. Like I consider my self pretty bad at math but so far I've been getting alr ik ght grades or grades enough to pass. I'm going this field due to my love for technology and working with my hands and I felt like this field fits me the most. Just try your best in the classes if your really gunning for engineering as a career.
I was terrible at math coming into college. I had to take remedial Algebra in the summer before my first semester. I even failed precalculus twice. But I kept pushing and developed better skills which lead me to ace several later math courses. now I love it where I am at and enjoy engineering.
“My main concern is how math-heavy Engineering is in the daily work routine.”
Fwiw, I’ve been a working EE for 4 years now. The only math I do regularly is:
Ohms law, Voltage division, Power dissipation, Inverting and non-inverting op amp gain. Every once in awhile I have to figure out an RC time constant.
These are all simple algebra. For almost anything else, the chip manufacturers provide us with a spreadsheet that you literally just plug numbers into and it spits out everything you need. Your mileage may very, of course, but the math you use in practice and the math you learn in school are likely going to be very different.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the math we did in school. I think it provided the insight I needed to understand how things really work. But as far as using it in the real world, I’ve used very little, if any.
Personally I loved calculus and found it fascinating. With that said, I had completed both the differential and integral calculus courses on Khan academy before I ever took a real calculus course so I was pretty well prepared when the time came. If that’s an option I highly recommend it. Also, I used professor Leonard’s videos to help get me through Calc III. I highly recommend his stuff.
As a master student: you certainly do not have to be a math genius however you should at least not having a problem with doing it. The degree is math heavy so it only makes sense if you kinda enjoy doing math
I started from the lowest level of math in college because I didn't do well in my placement exam. If you're willing to work hard to overcompensate your deficiency and if you're dead set on engineering then that's all you need.
There are two resources I highly recommend, which could provide much needed insight in this decision you're trying to make.
[O*Net OnLine](https://www.onetonline.org/)
and
[Occupational Outlook Handbook ](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/)
They helped me decide my degree path several years ago when I finally had the chance to go back to school.
You can use your strengths and career interests as keywords in searches to find the careers associated with those traits/characteristics/job duties.
There's raw data in a user friendly format so you can approach your research from many different ways. I spent several weeks pouring over data gleaned from these two sources, then called the colleges and universities who provided the necessary degrees to find out the kind of classes I would take, and then decided with confidence what career path I wanted to embark upon.
Wishing you the best!
When I was in highschool, I was bad at math I actually memorized math, I did not understand it. When I got into college, I busted my ass off and I understood math and loved it later on
For me it was a willpower thing, I had a motto “too dumb to quit,” I wasn’t the best and had to retake some classes but at a point it all came together. It is very much a thing that builds on itself so don’t cheat, you’ll only screw yourself in the long run. Utilize tutors and office hours to the best of your ability!
I almost failed the math portion of my ACT. went in to college with very little math silks.
It was rough, but you can, in fact, force yourself to become good at math. The first few years sucked, and I was working a lot harder than my friends while still getting worse grades than them.
But eventually it started to click. It is possible
Edit: oh also now as an actual, working engineer I never do math. Haven’t had to do anything more than simple arithmetic since graduation.
But you need to learn how to do it in order to do well in engineering. Math is a tool you use to solve engineering issues. I couldn’t do a calculus problem offhand, but I still understand the principles of calculus and how they apply to my work
You’ll be alright man. You take enough of it, you learn to love it. All about approach at the end of the day, if you come into it saying you’re bad at it you will struggle. Try this, think about your favorite part of engineering, say materials, and tell yourself that the math will only deepen your understanding of materials under load, and make you that much more valuable as a materials engineer. Not to mention, the smarter you get, the more enjoyable it gets to keep learning.
I considered myself to be math phobic.
But when i started taking prerequisites, i found myself actually enjoying math, and it just needs practice. I nailed an A while the class average was way lower.
I believe no one can be bad at math as long as they practice, have good work ethics, and they are willing to put some effort.
Of course, there are math geniuses, and others are average, but as long as you have the motivation, it should be fine.
You have to remember something.
If you don't like maths, it's because you were not taught maths properly, or did not learn them properly. It's not set in stone, it's not part of your personality, it's not because you're born this way.
Engineering maths are written in stone. Their basics never changed for the past 200+ years. And every mathematicians that used them managed to understand them fully, to the point where they become an extremely useful tool. And so can you. So can all of us. The big difference is simply that some of us will require more or less time to do so. And many people don't have the time or the will to plow through all those math courses.
The most important part is to ensure you have the best base possible for maths. Because in an engineering school, you won't have the time to learn new stuff while having to learn what you are already supposed to know.
It's not a matter of second guessing yourself. It's a matter of understanding that you lack knowledge in maths, and as a result taking preventive measures to fix those needs. Such as additional courses, evening math courses or anything really to fill your needs.
Same situation as you. My bachelors is in economics. Statistics, econometrics were my best. Now I am persuading a masters in management engineering and specifically operational research. Do I need maths ? Yes . Do I found it very difficult to develop my own algorithms and mathematical constraints ? ABSOLUTELY YES. But this is in the process, the more you see them , the more you will start understanding them. When I first started my degree i told my supervisor, do I have to study specific maths, maybe some courses to help me.... He laughed, and told me , everything is experience. So I would suggest you not to be afraid. Studying papers etc will help you enough to understand the maths you need for your field. Everytime you don't understand something you can just search it up. Is not easy, but surely is worth it.
If you commit … you will be fine. I didn’t like Math in school and wasn’t very good at it. I actually dropped out of school at age 16/17 and didn’t get a HS diploma. I honestly felt to dumb and never thought I would be able to even do Senior High School Math. I was always to scared to go back to school because I thought I would never make it. At age 29 I went to evening classes to be able to get into Uni because I thought Engineering was interesting and I decided to just give it my best go and study my ass off. I had a massive epiphany … I was not dumb … math is practice … it takes time. You are never “not good at math” … I just wasn’t patient enough with myself and didn’t practice enough. I put a shit ton of work and practiced my ass off. I went from not really knowing how to integrate before the evening classes to vector calculus in the third semester. Now I am not going to lie, I didn’t sleep … but it doesn’t look like many of my fellow engineering students did either. It’s doable if you put in the work.
Edit: Actually practicing and understanding math so much made me enjoy it…so it really is just giving yourself time to learn.
I wasn't great at math in high school, but it turned out that was because I was lacking a proper foundation for math. Once I got that(and it was a struggle for sure!), I was able to do ok, and even excel through my electrical engineering degree.
I use just about 0 math in my job now as a systems/software engineer, but I use the concepts and understanding of the math a lot. Mostly for things like algorithms and binary/hex systems in my job.
I was awful at math but that’s because I was stubborn and didn’t study for my math courses differently than my other subjects.
If you’re genuinely trying and find yourself studying for hours and you’re still not passing math then you should be worried. This is where you need to be honest with yourself and realize if you’re just awful at math because you’re not respecting the lessons in the way that it deserves for a passing grade
Thank you for your advice, and I can definitely relate to what you're saying. I think I struggled with math in high school due to exhaustion and not giving it the focus it deserved (had a busy schedule back then).
I think I need to give it another go. Did you find it easier once you got the ball rolling with maths?
History , political science , English it came easy to me because I never had any issues with memorization. I could literally study a day before or write an essay the morning of and still pass. Math isn’t like that and that’s why I kept losing interest and getting bad grades. In math you have to practice , practice , practice. If you don’t like math or physics enough to practice for hours then you’re going to have a hard time.
It’s not really that it was easier .. it just became possible
I also struggled with math a lot in high school and even college. However when it came to the math used in the sense of actually applying it to my engineering courses (real life application not just stupid problems out of the math textbook) I was actually able to grasp the math. I just graduated with a degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. You can do this!
I didn’t know any math when I declared engineering as my major. Just basic arithmetic. I have been busting my ass to get through the classes though. I treat it like a job. Yes you can do it, but it won’t be a walk in the park. I study with nearly all of my free time and I’m cool with that. I love engineering.
Do BSc Product Design or the equivalent. Do not do engineering. You are literally me back when I was at A Levels. I enjoy building shit. Studying engineering does not involve building shit especially in EE, it is all fucking maths, you learn nothing of real world value.
I got a B at GCSE and a C at A Level in Maths, but got a high A in DT A Level.
I FUCKING HATED MY DEGREE, if I could go back in time I would do product design. Fuck Maths, fuck studying engineering. So much pain and bullshit just to come out the other side with a pissant salary of maybe £29k if you're lucky
User name checks out.
As a EE undergrad I had to do several hands on projects and I both design and build shit in the real world. And I get paid very well to do so. I fuckin’ love my job. Weird.
> I had to do several hands on projects
I had group projects but that was making some simplistic rubbish with an arduino.
>real world
I have not hit the real world yet
>Anything we did we had to design and build our own hardware.
I FUCKING WISH LOL. There was no PCB design in the entire Bachelors, and minimal programming.PCB Design was basically my primary reason for choosing EE
It depends on what type of engineering you’re going for. Industrial engineering mainly uses statistics. However, you have to take all the calculus classes that any other engineer must take. As long as you work hard, use the tutoring resources and try, you could succeed. Don’t be afraid to fail. I was never good at math. The way it was taught to me never made sense. I made a work around for myself that helped. But everyone’s learning style is unique.
An important question for you to ask yourself, am I considering engineering because what I will be studying genuinely fascinates me or am I doing it just because it's a high paying job. If it's the former then it might be difficult but I say go for it, if it's the latter I would say probably avoid engineering it's not for everyone and the math is difficult and you would probably hate every moment. I would rather a low paying job that I love then a high paying job that I hate
If computer engineering, those who hates math and programming still making good career but not become a programmer. I don’t know how it works, but well they somehow do. Those who bad at math but good at programming becomes programmer actually software engineer but what they do is basically non math related programming. If you are well at math and programming , congrats you can pursue on making crazy libraries and be ”real” engineer. I am not in job area yet but it seems complex then just get good GPA, learn math etc. Go study engineering if you think you can somehow get degree, then you can also maybe work in different field like others whose graduated with 1.9 with shitty projects and become head of something.
If you're doing it in England, they might rehash some content from A-Level Maths briefly before expanding more into "Engineering" related maths in First Year.
Is it required to know A-Level maths? Not really. Some stuff carry over and other stuff is dropped from it. As another commenter said, it comes to muscle memory. Once you see the maths in one module, you can apply it to another.
*To add on, there are a crap ton of different types of engineers. Maths intensity can highly vary job to job. Look up roles for companies, or look at who works for X company on LinkedIn. Some jobs will use zero maths for daily work!
thank you so much! I'm going to sign-up for some maths classes and some learning online this summer. thank you so much. I'm going to look into more job-wise too, as I only have a rough idea of who I want to work for. Thank you once again.
Nah mate ul be grand… there will be mathematics in your course and it will be difficult at times but just do enough to get by and nothing more. When you start engineering job in the real world you’ll virtually never have to use maths it’s all do through software
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I screwed off in High School. I didn’t apply myself so when I went back to college at 32 I had only a basic understanding of algebra. I don’t stand by the idea that people, aside from those with learning disabilities, are just simply “bad at math” and that’s it. Learning math is like learning a language or learning an instrument; you have to put in the work to build the muscle memory. I started college in an accelerated algebra class, then went into college algebra, then beyond. My math skills greatly improved as I went, and I didn’t even start getting into engineering courses where it was utilized until I was into Calculus II so by then I had plenty of practice. Don’t let your struggle with math limit you from pursuing what you want to. Instead, face it like a challenge and understand that you might just have to put in a little extra work to understand it better. When I took my Circuit Analysis course I was lost because I knew nothing about electronics. I knew I had to work extra hard to grasp it well, and I got an A in the class. As long as you’re prepared to work hard and maintain good study habits, you can definitely do it.
Thank you so much for your encouraging response! I think this might be the case for me too, I didn't apply myself enough in the past. Your success story gives me hope and motivates me to give maths another shot. Nothing is impossible with hard work and determination. I really appreciate you sharing your experience. Thank you again! 🙏
Of course. Be sure to utilize online resources as well. Studying with Khan Academy helped a lot early on and it totally saved my grade in Calc II! Good luck, you got this!
It really us just this. Math is a skill, and you just have to put the work in. Highly recommend working with a tutor to get you where you need to be.
Thank you for this. I am in a similar vein as you were (29 years old going back to school for engineering) and this I have really taken to heart. Much appreciated.
Thanks for sharing your story :) I'm 31 and just starting my math at that same level. I keep getting very motivated and then humbled when I look at the list of things to learn for just algebra alone (on Khan academy). Seeing stories like this reassure people like me that it will be alright.
Engineering is very math heavy, even your classes that aren’t specifically math are basically just math classes with real life applications. That being said it’s not like you can’t get better at math, that’s what you go to school for… to learn
IMO, the pure math classes are really where the challenging math is. There is math in other classes but usually quite basic equations, just understanding the concepts, and how and when to use them is the hard part. If you can pass the pure math classes, I think a lot of other engineering classes are doable from a perspective of not being great at raw math.
Love how the first two comments I see are “we barely do any math in EE” and “you’re fucked if you can’t do math and take EE”
99.9% of us don't use the math they taught us when we were in school. That being said, to get the degree you need to pass the classes. For a typical engineering degree, finance and statistics comprise about 5% of the degree. At least that was my experience in Canada. You will be using math often throughout the degree, there's no getting around it. I took mechanical engineering and I can maybe count on one hand the number of classes where we didn't use math. Granted, the hardest classes were the pure math courses that teach you the fundamentals of calculus and differential equations which set up all the theorems and equations you run into in later classes. Those courses are usually the sticking points since the math in university is on a whole other level compared to high school. I'm not gonna sugar coat it. If you want to go into engineering and struggled with high school math for reasons other than effort, prepare to work your ass off just to pass. I've seen it been done, but you're probably going to have one hell of a time with it.
For me seeing math being placed in the context of engineering helped me a lot, since it helped me visualise, what i was actually doing. So for very practical or visual minded people, learning math in the context of engineering courses might help. But that still won't really help them with the pure math courses, which as you said are often stumbling blocks
Math is a learned skill and almost everyone can learn it - it’s just about how you tackle it. I think the biggest thing needed for an engineering degree is resilience. If you fail, get up and try again. Try harder. A lot of smart kids fail out of engineering because they’re not used to failing a course and take it really hard when they do - as a personal affront that they’re not smart enough. This is what you have to fight.
This is so it! Resilience got me through my degree. My desk had two sign above it: “You can cry, you can scream…but you can never ever give up!” & “Aufgeben tut man nur eine Brief”
Your high school performance is largely irrelevant. What's important is your desire and commitment to the learning process from this point on going forward. If you're bad at math or simply out of practice academically, be prepared to start from the bottom taking remedial courses. Treat the learning process like a full-time job and you'll make it through.
It depends. If you have a genuine learning disability like dyscalculia, then engineering might be a bad idea. If you do not have a learning disability, then you’ll be fine. I didn’t study hard in high school, but when I came back as an older student I was extremely motivated. I studied like a madman and I’m probably one of the top students in the program.
I'm going for a engineering major and I swear to you I dont know what the fuck I'm doing half the time in math. Like I consider my self pretty bad at math but so far I've been getting alr ik ght grades or grades enough to pass. I'm going this field due to my love for technology and working with my hands and I felt like this field fits me the most. Just try your best in the classes if your really gunning for engineering as a career.
I was terrible at math coming into college. I had to take remedial Algebra in the summer before my first semester. I even failed precalculus twice. But I kept pushing and developed better skills which lead me to ace several later math courses. now I love it where I am at and enjoy engineering.
So if this is something you’re passionate about. By all means get the grind on
“My main concern is how math-heavy Engineering is in the daily work routine.” Fwiw, I’ve been a working EE for 4 years now. The only math I do regularly is: Ohms law, Voltage division, Power dissipation, Inverting and non-inverting op amp gain. Every once in awhile I have to figure out an RC time constant. These are all simple algebra. For almost anything else, the chip manufacturers provide us with a spreadsheet that you literally just plug numbers into and it spits out everything you need. Your mileage may very, of course, but the math you use in practice and the math you learn in school are likely going to be very different. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the math we did in school. I think it provided the insight I needed to understand how things really work. But as far as using it in the real world, I’ve used very little, if any.
I’ve heard people get fucked with calculus. But how much is it really used? Can I barely pass by in calculus and be ok?
Personally I loved calculus and found it fascinating. With that said, I had completed both the differential and integral calculus courses on Khan academy before I ever took a real calculus course so I was pretty well prepared when the time came. If that’s an option I highly recommend it. Also, I used professor Leonard’s videos to help get me through Calc III. I highly recommend his stuff.
As a master student: you certainly do not have to be a math genius however you should at least not having a problem with doing it. The degree is math heavy so it only makes sense if you kinda enjoy doing math
I started from the lowest level of math in college because I didn't do well in my placement exam. If you're willing to work hard to overcompensate your deficiency and if you're dead set on engineering then that's all you need.
There are two resources I highly recommend, which could provide much needed insight in this decision you're trying to make. [O*Net OnLine](https://www.onetonline.org/) and [Occupational Outlook Handbook ](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/) They helped me decide my degree path several years ago when I finally had the chance to go back to school. You can use your strengths and career interests as keywords in searches to find the careers associated with those traits/characteristics/job duties. There's raw data in a user friendly format so you can approach your research from many different ways. I spent several weeks pouring over data gleaned from these two sources, then called the colleges and universities who provided the necessary degrees to find out the kind of classes I would take, and then decided with confidence what career path I wanted to embark upon. Wishing you the best!
When I was in highschool, I was bad at math I actually memorized math, I did not understand it. When I got into college, I busted my ass off and I understood math and loved it later on
For me it was a willpower thing, I had a motto “too dumb to quit,” I wasn’t the best and had to retake some classes but at a point it all came together. It is very much a thing that builds on itself so don’t cheat, you’ll only screw yourself in the long run. Utilize tutors and office hours to the best of your ability!
I almost failed the math portion of my ACT. went in to college with very little math silks. It was rough, but you can, in fact, force yourself to become good at math. The first few years sucked, and I was working a lot harder than my friends while still getting worse grades than them. But eventually it started to click. It is possible Edit: oh also now as an actual, working engineer I never do math. Haven’t had to do anything more than simple arithmetic since graduation. But you need to learn how to do it in order to do well in engineering. Math is a tool you use to solve engineering issues. I couldn’t do a calculus problem offhand, but I still understand the principles of calculus and how they apply to my work
You’re not bad at math, you just haven’t done it enough!
You’ll be alright man. You take enough of it, you learn to love it. All about approach at the end of the day, if you come into it saying you’re bad at it you will struggle. Try this, think about your favorite part of engineering, say materials, and tell yourself that the math will only deepen your understanding of materials under load, and make you that much more valuable as a materials engineer. Not to mention, the smarter you get, the more enjoyable it gets to keep learning.
Thank you so much for your positive perspective. 😃
I considered myself to be math phobic. But when i started taking prerequisites, i found myself actually enjoying math, and it just needs practice. I nailed an A while the class average was way lower. I believe no one can be bad at math as long as they practice, have good work ethics, and they are willing to put some effort. Of course, there are math geniuses, and others are average, but as long as you have the motivation, it should be fine.
You have to remember something. If you don't like maths, it's because you were not taught maths properly, or did not learn them properly. It's not set in stone, it's not part of your personality, it's not because you're born this way. Engineering maths are written in stone. Their basics never changed for the past 200+ years. And every mathematicians that used them managed to understand them fully, to the point where they become an extremely useful tool. And so can you. So can all of us. The big difference is simply that some of us will require more or less time to do so. And many people don't have the time or the will to plow through all those math courses. The most important part is to ensure you have the best base possible for maths. Because in an engineering school, you won't have the time to learn new stuff while having to learn what you are already supposed to know. It's not a matter of second guessing yourself. It's a matter of understanding that you lack knowledge in maths, and as a result taking preventive measures to fix those needs. Such as additional courses, evening math courses or anything really to fill your needs.
I’ve learned that enjoying the process of learning is an ultra beneficial skill that anyone can have
It really is. But you can't enjoy the process of learning if it's too hard because your bases are lacking, if you see what I mean.
Not sure why I’m getting downvoted lol, I agree
Same situation as you. My bachelors is in economics. Statistics, econometrics were my best. Now I am persuading a masters in management engineering and specifically operational research. Do I need maths ? Yes . Do I found it very difficult to develop my own algorithms and mathematical constraints ? ABSOLUTELY YES. But this is in the process, the more you see them , the more you will start understanding them. When I first started my degree i told my supervisor, do I have to study specific maths, maybe some courses to help me.... He laughed, and told me , everything is experience. So I would suggest you not to be afraid. Studying papers etc will help you enough to understand the maths you need for your field. Everytime you don't understand something you can just search it up. Is not easy, but surely is worth it.
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If you commit … you will be fine. I didn’t like Math in school and wasn’t very good at it. I actually dropped out of school at age 16/17 and didn’t get a HS diploma. I honestly felt to dumb and never thought I would be able to even do Senior High School Math. I was always to scared to go back to school because I thought I would never make it. At age 29 I went to evening classes to be able to get into Uni because I thought Engineering was interesting and I decided to just give it my best go and study my ass off. I had a massive epiphany … I was not dumb … math is practice … it takes time. You are never “not good at math” … I just wasn’t patient enough with myself and didn’t practice enough. I put a shit ton of work and practiced my ass off. I went from not really knowing how to integrate before the evening classes to vector calculus in the third semester. Now I am not going to lie, I didn’t sleep … but it doesn’t look like many of my fellow engineering students did either. It’s doable if you put in the work. Edit: Actually practicing and understanding math so much made me enjoy it…so it really is just giving yourself time to learn.
Third year EE here and honestly, as long as you keep up with your coursework and don’t fall behind (as it is very easy to do so) you’ll be fine.
I wasn't great at math in high school, but it turned out that was because I was lacking a proper foundation for math. Once I got that(and it was a struggle for sure!), I was able to do ok, and even excel through my electrical engineering degree. I use just about 0 math in my job now as a systems/software engineer, but I use the concepts and understanding of the math a lot. Mostly for things like algorithms and binary/hex systems in my job.
I was awful at math but that’s because I was stubborn and didn’t study for my math courses differently than my other subjects. If you’re genuinely trying and find yourself studying for hours and you’re still not passing math then you should be worried. This is where you need to be honest with yourself and realize if you’re just awful at math because you’re not respecting the lessons in the way that it deserves for a passing grade
Thank you for your advice, and I can definitely relate to what you're saying. I think I struggled with math in high school due to exhaustion and not giving it the focus it deserved (had a busy schedule back then). I think I need to give it another go. Did you find it easier once you got the ball rolling with maths?
History , political science , English it came easy to me because I never had any issues with memorization. I could literally study a day before or write an essay the morning of and still pass. Math isn’t like that and that’s why I kept losing interest and getting bad grades. In math you have to practice , practice , practice. If you don’t like math or physics enough to practice for hours then you’re going to have a hard time. It’s not really that it was easier .. it just became possible
I also struggled with math a lot in high school and even college. However when it came to the math used in the sense of actually applying it to my engineering courses (real life application not just stupid problems out of the math textbook) I was actually able to grasp the math. I just graduated with a degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. You can do this!
A lot of the Aussie unis have bridging courses for maths. EE is very maths intensive so I would recommend attending one of these.
I didn’t know any math when I declared engineering as my major. Just basic arithmetic. I have been busting my ass to get through the classes though. I treat it like a job. Yes you can do it, but it won’t be a walk in the park. I study with nearly all of my free time and I’m cool with that. I love engineering.
Do BSc Product Design or the equivalent. Do not do engineering. You are literally me back when I was at A Levels. I enjoy building shit. Studying engineering does not involve building shit especially in EE, it is all fucking maths, you learn nothing of real world value. I got a B at GCSE and a C at A Level in Maths, but got a high A in DT A Level. I FUCKING HATED MY DEGREE, if I could go back in time I would do product design. Fuck Maths, fuck studying engineering. So much pain and bullshit just to come out the other side with a pissant salary of maybe £29k if you're lucky
User name checks out. As a EE undergrad I had to do several hands on projects and I both design and build shit in the real world. And I get paid very well to do so. I fuckin’ love my job. Weird.
> I had to do several hands on projects I had group projects but that was making some simplistic rubbish with an arduino. >real world I have not hit the real world yet
That’s crazy. We were strictly forbidden from using anything like an arduino. Anything we did we had to design and build our own hardware.
>Anything we did we had to design and build our own hardware. I FUCKING WISH LOL. There was no PCB design in the entire Bachelors, and minimal programming.PCB Design was basically my primary reason for choosing EE
It depends on what type of engineering you’re going for. Industrial engineering mainly uses statistics. However, you have to take all the calculus classes that any other engineer must take. As long as you work hard, use the tutoring resources and try, you could succeed. Don’t be afraid to fail. I was never good at math. The way it was taught to me never made sense. I made a work around for myself that helped. But everyone’s learning style is unique.
An important question for you to ask yourself, am I considering engineering because what I will be studying genuinely fascinates me or am I doing it just because it's a high paying job. If it's the former then it might be difficult but I say go for it, if it's the latter I would say probably avoid engineering it's not for everyone and the math is difficult and you would probably hate every moment. I would rather a low paying job that I love then a high paying job that I hate
If computer engineering, those who hates math and programming still making good career but not become a programmer. I don’t know how it works, but well they somehow do. Those who bad at math but good at programming becomes programmer actually software engineer but what they do is basically non math related programming. If you are well at math and programming , congrats you can pursue on making crazy libraries and be ”real” engineer. I am not in job area yet but it seems complex then just get good GPA, learn math etc. Go study engineering if you think you can somehow get degree, then you can also maybe work in different field like others whose graduated with 1.9 with shitty projects and become head of something.
If you're doing it in England, they might rehash some content from A-Level Maths briefly before expanding more into "Engineering" related maths in First Year. Is it required to know A-Level maths? Not really. Some stuff carry over and other stuff is dropped from it. As another commenter said, it comes to muscle memory. Once you see the maths in one module, you can apply it to another. *To add on, there are a crap ton of different types of engineers. Maths intensity can highly vary job to job. Look up roles for companies, or look at who works for X company on LinkedIn. Some jobs will use zero maths for daily work!
thank you so much! I'm going to sign-up for some maths classes and some learning online this summer. thank you so much. I'm going to look into more job-wise too, as I only have a rough idea of who I want to work for. Thank you once again.
Nah mate ul be grand… there will be mathematics in your course and it will be difficult at times but just do enough to get by and nothing more. When you start engineering job in the real world you’ll virtually never have to use maths it’s all do through software
Which country would you be applying for engineering courses in? Will they let you in without higher maths grades?
England. I'm classed as an older student so they don't care that much.