School/College and my life

[ATOMICxTomato]

Its good that you're aware of the situation and are taking steps to help minimize the impact of your job on your school work.

Where do you want to end up? As a car shop owner (that won't require a degree), as a mechanical engineer (that will require a degree in mechanical engineering), somewhere else? Once you figure this out, everything else will get a lot easier.

So I have to things in mind here. One would be as a mechanical engineering, who would be working on designing either better suspension set ups or possibly exhaust systems. From which then maybe partner up with colleagues and start business where we would design and produce everything. OR, as a shop owner.

One of my problems which I have noticed is that Ill recognize where it is im lacking or falling behind in, but I never do much to better it. Ill just let it pass me by and i'll either continue to struggle or just completely drop it and leave it alone. My supervisor at work, who also is kinda like a mentor, really has helped me a lot in examining myself in such ways.

 

[squids]

i was in your situation a few years ago, but in high school, so maybe i can offer some insight;

i was unmotivated in high school, felt like everyone was just understanding things and moving along the grain and im just falling ever behind. i thought id go to music school and id fit and stuff but i took a year off after graduating, and just decided music school wasn't right either. i started taking classes at community college and for whatever reason, i found i was really good at chemistry. i got an A, the first i'd had since being a freshman in high school, and just chased the feeling.
i am now in pharmacy school, and looking back, i'm so glad i just took a step back and just explored to see what else is out there. trust me, engineering is not for everyone, my buddy is in his last year in an engineering program, and literally half of his freshman class is gone. sometimes its just not for you. another friend of mine went to the army out of high school with like a 1.9 gpa, barely graduated. hurt himself in the army, came back, took a chemistry class and found out he's insanely good at it.
if you want to work on cars, you can always do that as a hobby. it sounds like if you're unmotivated and finding trouble taking the classes needed for engineering, it might be good to just switch things up a bit. try getting another job, don't go to school for a semester. you're young, you have plenty of time, college will always be there.

 

[kingpinMS3]

I don't have a high school diploma, and I was mistakenly enrolled into college where i screwed off in some audio engineering classes. I didn't even finish that stuff. but I've always had a career in IT. I went from lowly helpdesk to sysadmin work at a major retailer. I didn't like it, but i did it and i worked my way up.

I've been blessed with a chance to go into high level IT security. I'll tell you what, security is the absolute bomb. i've had more fun this last year than i have in my entire career. I just found out my company is sending me all expenses paid to Vegas for defcon in july.

If i can be an unmotivated dropout to making 6 figures and a killer job, anyone else can.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

If the mathematics classes get tough, maybe someone here can help you. It seems like half the members here are physicists, engineers, mathematicians, or some other career heavily steeped in maths. This isn't a tutoring site, of course, but if I'm on, I'd be happy to talk about calculus for a few minutes.

Likewise, I'm good through Calc3, Linear Algebra, and Statistics (graduate-level, both theory and applied courses).

I don't have a high school diploma, and I was mistakenly enrolled into college where i screwed off in some audio engineering classes. I didn't even finish that stuff. but I've always had a career in IT. I went from lowly helpdesk to sysadmin work at a major retailer. I didn't like it, but i did it and i worked my way up.

I've been blessed with a chance to go into high level IT security. I'll tell you what, security is the absolute bomb. i've had more fun this last year than i have in my entire career. I just found out my company is sending me all expenses paid to Vegas for defcon in july.

If i can be an unmotivated dropout to making 6 figures and a killer job, anyone else can.

At one point this may have been highly possible or even slightly probable, but I'd have to say you're more likely to be an exception than the rule.

 

[linthat22]

Have you ever thought that school was a waste of money and time with your headspace? Because your critical thinking skills meld perfectly with "security" or "loss prevention."

 

[Edika]

If you want to be more mechanically aware of cars and work /own a garage you don't have to graduate as an engineer. It might help and give you a more theoretical understanding of engines but not hands on experience of how an engine works and how to repair it.
I don't know what kind of education you need in the US but in my country it's usually a 2 years course.

Concerning college the main question is do you enjoy the subjects? If you don't find the subjects stimulating and can't focus enough to study then you probably need to re-evaluate what does really interest you.

On the other hand understanding the material and passing a course are two different things as I painfully learned when I was in Uni. I would follow the courses, understand the material and when I gave exams I would fail the courses. I finally realized that the way they treated exams in my school didn't necessarily have to do only with understanding the material but learning how to solve the problems in the exams. It might seem self evident that one leads to the other but it's not.
In an exam situation you have limited time with lots of questions and so your time to think is insufficient. You need to do exam drills with various problems so when the time comes you just go on auto mode. You still have to think but not how to solve the problem, just that you're solving it correctly and checking your calculations.

But you need to understand the material to go on to exam drilling mode. In that case don't be shy asking questions during the course or after the course to the professor. If there are some students that are doing better than you and you are friendly don't be afraid to ask for help. See about making a study group. In this case two or three or four heads are better than one. Discussing a problem with others really shows how much you understand the concepts and some times might even lead to more interesting questions. But most of the times speeds up the understanding/learning process.

Motivation can come from anything. I was actually quite depressed when I was in Uni as my personal situation sucked, I was failing classes and felt quite useless and that I had lost too much time. What got me out of it was starting to learn how to play guitar. The fact that I was able to have progress in something and relatively fast, made me feel that maybe I could more stuff. So I doubled down and read my ass off and managed to cover most of the ground and courses I had to complete. It took me a couple of years more than what the actual time to finish my school was but I manage to come out of it.

TL;DR Clarify if you want to be an Engineer or a Mechanic. If you still want to be an Engineer but worry about the time and material, change the way you study and find motivation in other things other than college to help you feel that you can do this. Don't give up if you really want to do this. It's not bad to ask for help from other people that have a better grasp of the material or go and ask questions to the teacher if you don't understand something.

 

[bostjan]

On the other hand understanding the material and passing a course are two different things as I painfully learned when I was in Uni. I would follow the courses, understand the material and when I gave exams I would fail the courses. I finally realized that the way they treated exams in my school didn't necessarily have to do only with understanding the material but learning how to solve the problems in the exams. It might seem self evident that one leads to the other but it's not.
In an exam situation you have limited time with lots of questions and so your time to think is insufficient. You need to do exam drills with various problems so when the time comes you just go on auto mode. You still have to think but not how to solve the problem, just that you're solving it correctly and checking your calculations.

In my personal experience, exams are as much about how well you know your professor as they are about how well you know the material.

My favourite example to reminisce is question number one on my final exam in Ordinary Differential Equations:

"Fill in the table:

[ | | | ]
[ | | | ]
[ | | | ]
[ | | | ]
[ | | | ]
[ | | | ]
[ | | | ]"

You should have seen the puzzlement of the entire class. No instructions, no examples, no headings, nothing. Just fill it in.

My answer, which was incorrect:
"
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
[ xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx | xxxxxxxxx ]
"

Seriously, though, even the professor knows that question is bull..... But professors still do that kind of stuff anyway. They feel powerful or something, who knows?

There should be a policy at universities that, if you fail an exam, you should be allowed to take one other professor's exam for another section of the course, and if you pass the other exam, you should receive a passing grade.

 

[ATOMICxTomato]

So ive been doing quite abit of thinking the past couple of days, since im only working weekends currenty its allowed to start getting back into exercising which kinda always cleared up my head. I realized i really dont enjoy any of the classes im taking. Programming is kinda cool but just doesnt hold my interest. I started to think why I wanted to do engineering in the first place, and well it was because of cars....but then I gave it more thought and.yes its a huge hobby of mine but that doesnt mean its what my career has to be based around. I realized that I actually really dig the whole Loss Prevention gig and do like my job, the management sucks but thats just about every grocery store lol. I talked about it with my supervisor/mentor and I think it would actually be better to pursue a career in this. Its something i enjoy doing, not to brag but im getting quite good at it, and I have been trying.to move up. I think the reason in the past why I never considered it was cause in my head it was just another job, and I was like engineers make hella cash so why not do that...but if this is something i truly enjoy doing why not try to move up into a much higher position.

 

[tedtan]

So ive been doing quite abit of thinking the past couple of days... i really dont enjoy any of the classes im taking... I realized that I actually really dig the whole Loss Prevention gig and do like my job... Its something i enjoy doing... im getting quite good at it... if this is something i truly enjoy doing why not try to move up into a much higher position.

I think that should help give you direction as you move forward in life.

 

[MFB]

yes its a huge hobby of mine but that doesnt mean its what my career has to be based around

I've found that's often the worst idea, as now you're turning something you enjoy doing and want to do for fun, into something you then HAVE to do because it's your job; and nothing kills motivation for something like knowing you have to do it

It's always great in theory, but bad in execution