1st year of University (Engineering)

I just graduated in an engineering discipline.

First year is not a huge jump in terms of difficulty. As someone mentioned, your first year will mostly include A-Level maths and A-Level physics content and you will probably have seen most of the first year content in your A-Levels. I remember sitting my formative engineering exam in my first year and literally the whole exam included just A-Level physics questions about EMF, gas dynamics (internal energy, work done and heat transfer), kinetic and potential energies and statics (calculating reaction forces, centres of mass etc.). Obviously, this would depend on what engineering subject you're studying. I studied Aerospace, so a lot of my content included fluid mechanics and gas dynamics, however if you study electrical engineering then it will involve more electronics stuff like ohm's law etc. However, you can mostly just expect A-Level stuff in your first year. My first year maths module was all just A-Level maths and A-Level further maths. You will likely review topics such as trigonometry, vectors, differentiation, integration, complex numbers and matrices etc. Easy stuff.

In your second and third years the difficulty will increase a bit. In my second year, I studied maths modules and topics that I was unfamiliar with. In particular Laplace transforms and Fourier series. It can be a bit difficult to get your head around these topics, but take things slow and always ask for help. One thing that has really helped me in second and third years is getting the reading material required for each module. So for example, in every module, the lecturers will tell you what books you should use throughout your studies. I suggest that you don't rely too much on the lecture content and try to get yourself some of these textbooks and go through them in your own time. I had exams where the lecturers haven't covered certain material in lectures but the content was covered in the book, so having a textbook that covers all the content really helps and it really enhances your understanding.

I did a BTEC Extended Diploma for Engineering and only did A-level maths alongside the subject. However, we covered only a few physics content either from mechanics for maths, or some stuff for the electrical engineering aspect in the btec diploma. Am i screwed, and do you have any experience where someone else was in a similiar situation and whether they did alright?

You're not screwed. Most people in my course have only studied A-Level maths and physics. If you haven't done A-Level physics then that's not a problem because you will likely review this content in semester 1 of your first year. So even if you haven't covered some of the physics stuff, you will learn it anyway. Also, if you have done well in A-Level maths then you should have no problems with any of the maths content in first year. I have completed the entire maths module in 4 weeks because it was simple and most of it was just A-Level maths stuff. Also, a lot of content in first year is not hard to understand, like Ohm's law for example or adding some currents and voltages and analysing circuits. A lot of the statics and dynamics content is simple and I think that the mechanics part from A-Level maths is sufficient for you to understand this content.

The main piece of advice I can give you is to stay organised. Second and third year engineering exams tend to be quite tough. My third year exams were a literal nightmare and a mess. Don't miss any assignment deadlines. You will be bombarded with coursework and assignments pretty much every week in second and third years and you will study a lot of modules, so try not to miss any deadlines and take all of your coursework seriously because they all contribute towards your final grade and every single mark counts and can make a big difference whether you get a 2.2 or a 2.1. Also, in your third year you will do an individual project of some kind and make sure that you pick something that you would enjoy doing. My third year project involved implementing machine learning algorithms to recognise the sound coming from new species of a whale. I thought it was very fun and I enjoyed it and got a good mark, so make sure that you pick a project that you would like to do because this will give you motivation to do well.

Hello!
I was just asking what would be expected in the first year and perhaps experienced students can give some advice on how to survive.