Mechanical Engineers of TSR

I see, so that's why you did it part time....which company are you working for?

Rolls-Royce in Derby.

Wow nice. Did u first enter RR from the apprentice route?

Yeah, preferred getting paid and having no debt to being full time and having an awesome social life lol.

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't 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.

Yeah, preferred getting paid and having no debt to being full time and having an awesome social life lol.

Biggest solar powered boat in the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd9DgsI95hc

My IP is identical to this, except I have to improve it. Our uni and Bristol are working closely on this apparently. I'm just wondering if +Polarity- knows the student that did this?

on the build up to your last exams how did everyone feel about going to university? Intimidated a little? Excited?

Is this your last exam at school before entering university you're referring to?

After I finished my last higher in the middle of May I was more concerned about what the **** I was going to between then and when university started in the middle of September. I thought the usual 7/8 week summer holiday was excruciatingly boring, and here was me going to have 16 weeks! God, that was a real ****ty time. But then I moved to university and had an awesome time.

you had already been to open days and stuff right? I also have a feeling this summer is going to be sh**ty!

Hi mate, good luck with your exams.

I am finishing first year of mech at lufbra. Its very very hard i think thats a given. Its **** doing 20-30 hours standard a week while your friends seem to have so much free time they might aswell not go to uni! And you need good resilience and determination when your in the library revising while your mates are all going out (although it could have been avoided with good time management but hey. Show me one fresher with good time management!). I cant speak for later years but i have been told it gets more fun later as you start applying learning alot more whereas first year is just pure learning near enough! But if you choose mech despite all the hard work you wont regret it. I love the fact its hard in a way, most people know it and when i tell people i do mech they do show a certain admiration to you for it

Yep, will be hard in first and second year, hopefully it gets better!