Happy Tuesday, everyone!
I hope your semester has been going well so far. If you’re like me, and like most all students on campus, you’re probably in the midst of midterm season.
This week I have my first midterm in MECH 368: Engineering Measurements & Instrumentation. Basically, MECH 368 is a course about electric circuits and how they can be used to represent and measure quantities that we can apply in things such as vibration analysis. I know what you’re thinking: “Electric circuits? MECHANICAL engineers don’t study electric circuits! Leave that to the electrical engineers.”
I thought the same thing.
When I was applying for a second year specialization, part of the reason I chose Mech was because I wasn’t very strong at electrical and I thought that I’d never have to take another electrical course again. I was wrong. Each year, since I’ve been in Mech, I’ve had to take an electrical course. As mechanical engineers, we work with things and systems that move. Nowadays, many of these systems are integrated with electrical systems. It’s inevitable that, one day, you could even be working with an electrical system or an electrical engineer. These electrical courses are tied into our Mech curriculum to allow us to have a basic understanding of electrical systems; so that we can communicate with, or atleast, understand, those electrical engineers one day.
Although I still don’t particularly LIKE electric circuits, I can atleast say that I understand them and their importance better now.
For you first-year readers – I know midterms can seem like a really big deal and can be incredibly stressful. That doesn’t change in upper years (unfortunately), but what does change is your approach to studying for midterms. So a few things that I’ve learned are:
- Study early (Avoid those night-before cram sessions)
- Study with a group
- Ask questions
- Do the suggested problems the professor assigns (They are suggested for a reason)
- Get enough sleep before midterms!!
Midterms come and midterms go. So, whether you’re studying Taylor Polynomials or figuring out a free-body diagram for some system – remember to take some time to breathe and relax and enjoy your time as UBC student!
Best of luck!
Ashley