biiiiiiig question
I've enjoyed my degree so far, every year has been intellectually challenging and has put my resilience to the test (but last year was a par). I liked first year because it sort of eased you into the work, you had a nice and easy first few weeks before you started the harder, new stuff.
Second year I think was the hardest because there was quite a lot of report/project work, and I have heard that 4th year is similiar (possibly even worse!) but we get to do robotics next year so I'm looking forward to
Third year is the year in which you get to do your biggest self-directed project yet; the individual research project. I absolutely loved it, including the sleepless nights, staying in the flat on my own, staying in the lab until 10 and having to find a door that wasn't locked, trying to get my flaming thing to work. During the second term/semester it took up pretty much all my time, at the expense of all my other modules, so I'd advise that when you have lots of projects to do, serously don't neglect your other work! You may at times doubt that you're doing the right thing, I think this is a natural reaction to
hard work. I myself am finding it difficult to muster the enthusiasm to face all my current modules
but at times I can think of anything other than sinking my teeth into a gnarly problem sheet
It seems like we cover topics in thermodynamics, materials, fluids, electronics/control, design & manufacture every year, and you get a little more specific every year. I don't get to choose any modules until 4th year, and the modules seem quite specialised (e.g. Power Generation, which I imagine would be related to thermo). Not sure where I'm going with this.
As far as tips and hints go, I don't think there's anything I could tell you that isn't turtly obvious. I don't know anyone who hasn't had to stay up all night because they left something until the last minute so I won't say anything about that......... but time management is really important in engineering, if you want to have free time and go outside
(P.S. I'm still in my pyjamas)
Sometimes you don't learn from lectures, and you feel like they're a waste of time. In this country we are lucky that the lecture notes are readily available, as well as textbooks, which means we can learn in our own time and at our own pace, so it's not
that bad if you miss some lectures, but don't make it a habit. The lectures near the end of the semesters tend to be useful because the lecturers go through past paper questions and might give you hints on what may be a waste of time to revise
My old tutor frequently emphasised the importance of using the Easter holidays for revision, and I think it was wise advice. If you want to get a holiday job get one for the Christmas holidays, then smash the life out of your lecture notes over the holidays, then you can use the holidays and the start of the summer term for past papers (just as important as they were at A-level!)
I think every engineering student has a lecturer whose accent is hard to understand... that's something to watch out for.