how maths heavy is engineering?

Deadbot22

ok, i understand engineering has a lot of maths involved, but i'm just wondering exactly HOW much and how intense it is.

i'm going into 6th year this sept and seriously considering a degree in engineering (most likely civil) so just looking for some advice.

i'm... average at maths. doing higher level at the moment but failed my summer exam, did terrible.

if i was to get the required 55% in the leaving cert next year would you say engineering would be a big struggle for me in college? i'd say i could only scrape the 55%.

civil is the course that interests me the most out of everything, so i'd really like to do it (i really enjoy tech graph in school too...) don't want to do architecture as i wouldn't get the points and am not that interested/good at art.

in college, and then when you get a job, is it all just maths maths maths? or are there areas where not much maths is involved?

thanks in advance!!

pauln

Coming from having just finished mechanical engineering:
Well we used to joke that the exams with the least amount of maths in it were the maths exams themselves. The vast majority of your course exams will be doing somewhat practically based maths questions. There are the odd few modules that have “wordier” questions but they are rare.

Are you good at other science subjects like physics/chemistry etc. I ask because the maths in engineering exams tends to be similar to those exams, involving looking at a problem and understanding it then working out something, not quite the same as just doing a pure maths problem.

The maths in general isn't that difficult and tends to be pretty similar in each exam getting a bit harder as you go along. Understanding the problem and setting up the maths part is the bit that you have to work harder at.

When you go into the course you will be taught all the maths again but at a quicker pace so if you’re willing to work at it you will pick it up

Shiny

If you think you can get a C in higher level maths and physics then you can do engineering.

ART6

Deadbot22 wrote: »

ok, i understand engineering has a lot of maths involved, but i'm just wondering exactly HOW much and how intense it is.

i'm going into 6th year this sept and seriously considering a degree in engineering (most likely civil) so just looking for some advice.

i'm... average at maths. doing higher level at the moment but failed my summer exam, did terrible.

if i was to get the required 55% in the leaving cert next year would you say engineering would be a big struggle for me in college? i'd say i could only scrape the 55%.

civil is the course that interests me the most out of everything, so i'd really like to do it (i really enjoy tech graph in school too...) don't want to do architecture as i wouldn't get the points and am not that interested/good at art.

in college, and then when you get a job, is it all just maths maths maths? or are there areas where not much maths is involved?

thanks in advance!!

Depends on what sort of engineering career you have in mind. Some branches are very maths heavy indeed -- structural engineering, design, etc. Others are fairly limited to more basic maths. While I am not a civil engineer (I'm mechanical) I have worked with many civil engineers and gained the impression that their discipline was more practical than mathematical. However, like all branches, maths is becoming increasingly important.

judas101

Shiny wrote: »

If you think you can get a C in higher level maths and physics then you can do engineering.

totally agree with this.

got a B1 in higher maths and D2 (:eek:) in higher physics and found the maths and physics in the mech eng degree fairly handy.

that said, some people did struggle.

Darren1o1

Deadbot22 wrote: »

ok, i understand engineering has a lot of maths involved, but i'm just wondering exactly HOW much and how intense it is.

i'm going into 6th year this sept and seriously considering a degree in engineering (most likely civil) so just looking for some advice.

i'm... average at maths. doing higher level at the moment but failed my summer exam, did terrible.

if i was to get the required 55% in the leaving cert next year would you say engineering would be a big struggle for me in college? i'd say i could only scrape the 55%.

civil is the course that interests me the most out of everything, so i'd really like to do it (i really enjoy tech graph in school too...) don't want to do architecture as i wouldn't get the points and am not that interested/good at art.

in college, and then when you get a job, is it all just maths maths maths? or are there areas where not much maths is involved?

thanks in advance!!

Depends on alot of things, your college and discipline mainly I guess!

While all degrees accredited by EI will all be about the same standard, Universities tend to be a bit more theorethically based whereas IT's tend to be more practical although this is not always the case. We experienced guys from IT's transferring to out courses and having to work hard at the maths side.

Courses like electronic will be more "mathsy" for the most part then building streams but again that can be argued for and against..

Best way is to look at the course description for the area you are interested in and ask questions. Ask students there and the course coordinator. For the most part if you are interested in it and can get a C in Honours maths you should have no problem. Working at it is the key.

Pi^2

Right, I just finished 1st year of an Engineering course and we had a maths module with all the other first year engineers. I passed all my exams, thank goodness, but a lot of people failed maths. This could be for a number of reasons. Maybe you could argue that it wasn't thought very well but I'm certain peoples attitude towards the maths exam was one of "oh my god, its college maths, this is impossible"! But it's not impossible, you just have to sit down and do it and study the past papers etc. Basically all I'm saying, is it doesn't matter how capable or not you are at maths, if you have the work ethic and corect attitude to just sit down and put the time in you will pass. End of Story. Also, with regards to mathematics cropping up throughout the other modules, well its basic maths, more applied mathematics. They test your ability to use simple mathematics when applied to seemingly complicated scenarios. So, all in all, your level of smarts at the moment does not matter in the slightest, its all about your attitude towards hard work. You really do get out what you put in to an engineering course. Goodluck

judas101

^

Good post

geurrp the yard

It depends on the college. Ive heard universities are more theoretical. It does help if you get a good honours grade in the leaving, it would come to your advantage and make the maths fairly handy. With anything else in your course if you have the right attitude and your up to date with the stuff your doing, you should be grand.

Question related to the topic: Why is it that with the university engineering courses you need a higher b or c but with the IT's all you need i think is a pass in ordinary maths?

Pi^2

Question related to the topic: Why is it that with the university engineering courses you need a higher b or c but with the IT's all you need i think is a pass in ordinary maths?

A lot of that has to do with the fact that, for whatever reason, most people if offered the exact same course in a university and in and IT they would pick the University. I'm not sure about the underlying reasons for this. But basically, because of this IT's must offer some decent incentive to join their ranks - in this case lower entry requirements. And they do reel in loads of students who are certainly capable of being good engineers, they simply fluffed maths in the leaving or were never strong enough to get the b or c.



Also, for the OP.

I forgot to mention that most ITs offer a mathematics entrance exam whose results can be taken in place of your actualy mathematics leaving cert result (most likely capped in some way). However, this test is has most likely finished and so would probably not help you! Sorry!

Darren1o1

Pi^2 wrote: »

I forgot to mention that most ITs offer a mathematics entrance exam whose results can be taken in place of your actualy mathematics leaving cert result (most likely capped in some way). However, this test is has most likely finished and so would probably not help you! Sorry!

Some Universities have started something similar as less and less people are taking higher level mathematics.

Sherifu

The better you are at Maths, the easier you will find the going in Eng.

With a C and some hard work there's no problem really.

Pure Cork

geurrp the yard wrote: »

It depends on the college. Ive heard universities are more theoretical. It does help if you get a good honours grade in the leaving, it would come to your advantage and make the maths fairly handy. With anything else in your course if you have the right attitude and your up to date with the stuff your doing, you should be grand.

Question related to the topic: Why is it that with the university engineering courses you need a higher b or c but with the IT's all you need i think is a pass in ordinary maths?

Just to clear things up:

Level 7 courses don't require higher level maths.
Level 8 courses require a B or C in higher level maths, both for ITs and universities.

IT's offer both level 7 and level 8 courses. Universities in Ireland only offer level 8 courses.

Level 7 courses train people to be engineering technicians. If they do well in their course they can enter into third year of a level 8 course in either an IT or university. It would take 5 years instead of 4 to get a BEng(Hons) degree.


As for the original question, Pi^2 and pauln have summed up my views.

token56

From my experience engineering is very maths heavy. I am going into my final year in electronic engineering and so far it has been very maths orientated. In each semester I would have six modules, one of which is a pure maths module, and on average 4 of the other 5 are failry maths heavy and more than often more difficult than the pure maths one, this is down to alot of maths theory however. I do not believe some of the other branches of engineering are quiet as maths heavy although they still involve quiet alot maths.
I do believe there is a difference in the level expected depending on whether it is a level 7/8 course and also if the course is in an IT or a university

With regards the Maths entrance exam if you do not recieve the required grade, some universities also offer this for example Galway and Maynooth. You can also find past maths entrance exams on their websites. I would recommend checking out some of them to see the level of maths they expect, bearing in mind all you have to do for these exams are pass them.

I would advise that if dont particularly like maths or using maths to solve problems etc, engineering is probably the wrong course for you.

chris85

just qualified in mechanical engineering (thanks everyone by the way for help through the year) and its very maths heavy.

A decent grade in the leaving cert will show how much you know your maths but to be honest I lost interest in the leaving cert and got a D in honours maths although I was always very good at it, i just didnt apply myself. I now got a first in the honours degree so i dont really go by leaving cert although it is a good indicator if you apply yourself.

Most subjects involve lots of maths. For instance in my final semester i had six exams and only one of them had no maths and another one had half maths. So there is a lot of maths involved.

I found maths in engineering very practical as in the stuff you learn is used in the industry. This helped being able to view where it is used and was easier to learn due to this. Once you realise the uses and the way it is thought better at college level it aint that bad but you do need a good foundation to do it.

Many people struggle with the maths subject itself as it is very theoretical at time (although we were taught the practical aspects a lot), but the other maths based subjects are very applied and good.

Deadbot-22

Hi guys this is the OP can't for the life of me remember my old password so had to re-reg and can't seem to get the email when i request the password (mods you can ban the old account if you wish, apologies).

thanks a million for all the replies everyone, really appreciate it. looks like i'll have to work at the maths so.

thanks again.

PS tried to give everyone a 'thanks' thingy but there seems to be a limit on the amount you can give in a thread!

Deadbot-22

Deadbot-22 wrote: »

PS tried to give everyone a 'thanks' thingy but there seems to be a limit on the amount you can give in a thread!

Heh, yeah there's a limit of 10 per day. Hope you enjoy whatever you go with! And if you end up not liking it keep in mind that most colleges are flexible with you changing courses within first year after a few months.

Darren1o1

Deadbot-22 wrote: »

Hi guys this is the OP can't for the life of me remember my old password so had to re-reg and can't seem to get the email when i request the password (mods you can ban the old account if you wish, apologies).

thanks a million for all the replies everyone, really appreciate it. looks like i'll have to work at the maths so.

thanks again.

PS tried to give everyone a 'thanks' thingy but there seems to be a limit on the amount you can give in a thread!

Do remember that maths tends to be very different than LC in engineering. It tends to more applied to physical realities which sometimes makes it more interesting/easier for people. I know I did better in my degree than at the leaving. I even ended up writing my FYP on a maths intensive topic, despite not being so keen on LC maths.

That being said you should still work hard at it. Hard work will get you through the 4 years..

WiDGe->

you'll be grand. i got an a2 in ordinary physics and a c3 in higher maths, and ended up with a 2.1 in mech eng. gutted i didnt get a 1.1 to be honest!

chris85

D in higher maths and D in physics, ended up coming out with the first. I found the maths easier to learn in college if you are prepared to work at it a bit.

The maths is actually really interesting once it clicks with you. You start seeing the applications and such and it can be mind blowing some of the stuff.

quagmire69

failed HL maths in 5th year in school, think i failed christmas 6th year HL maths. Got a c1 in LC.

Just finished civil eng in top 20% of my class.

If you can get the minimum entry requirements and have a good work rate when exams come around, you will be fine.

Deadbot-22

thanks again guys

Jonathan

IMO if you can get the basic requirements for your course, you are good enough at maths.

After that, it is just the amount of work you put in. You will see lots of people who have gotten a better grade than you in LC maths, but you coming out with the better end of year grade in maths, simple cause you did work, and they didn't.

It is down to your own work in college. Go to your lectures, your tutorials, and do any assigned work.


(FYI I got a B2 in maths in the LC and got 74 in the maths exam at the end of 1st year)

Shiny

jmccrohan wrote: »

IMO if you can get the basic requirements for your course, you are good enough at maths.

I wouldn't entirely agree with that.
I did Electronic Engineering and the points were around 400 with a
minimum of C3 in higher Maths and a science subject.

Lately this has dropped to 255 and it retains only the C3 in higher Maths.
IMO if you are doing engineering you should be getting a good bit higher
than 255 as while it would be possible for you to complete the degree, it
will be alot more difficult for someone who barely gets in.

miss no stars

Being honest, it depends entirely on what your strong subjects within maths are. I was never so hot on algebra, sequences and series and that type of thing (could do it, but never enjoyed it) whereas I thrived on matrices, trig, geometry and calc. I've just finised 1st year and having scraped a C2 (more down to lack of work in 6th year) in the LC I ended up with 77% overall in maths for the year.

One thing I really really hated in LC was derrivations. However, this year I found that the lecturers derrived stuff in such a manner that it actually explained quite clearly WHY you would do certain things and made maths a whole lot easier. Plus you'll be using maths in all your subjects so when it comes down to the actual maths exam it's fairly easy because it's just like "wow, I'm actually being given the problem quite explicitly rather than having to work out the problem from diagrams and descriptions first".

Everyone this year was joking about how maths used to be the hard subject in school and now it's the easy subject. You should look into the different types of engineering too, as some are far less maths intensive than others.

Tim Robbins

Deadbot22 wrote: »

ok, i understand engineering has a lot of maths involved, but i'm just wondering exactly HOW much and how intense it is.

i'm going into 6th year this sept and seriously considering a degree in engineering (most likely civil) so just looking for some advice.

i'm... average at maths. doing higher level at the moment but failed my summer exam, did terrible.

if i was to get the required 55% in the leaving cert next year would you say engineering would be a big struggle for me in college? i'd say i could only scrape the 55%.

civil is the course that interests me the most out of everything, so i'd really like to do it (i really enjoy tech graph in school too...) don't want to do architecture as i wouldn't get the points and am not that interested/good at art.

in college, and then when you get a job, is it all just maths maths maths? or are there areas where not much maths is involved?

thanks in advance!!

Yo!
I loved Maths, did Engineering in Trinity. Nearly all Engineering degree courses are Maths intensive. However - you rarely use Maths once you start working. I ended up in IT as a Software Engineer. It's the same with Civil, Electronic, Telecomms, Mechanical, Chemical - all of them. Rarely will any of them use Hilbert, La Place, Fourier in their day to day jobs. The Maths is really just one of many ways of teaching structured logic and to teach an appreciation for the under pinning principles of Engineering and Science.

I got an A in honours back in the day, but if you got a C in honours I think you'd be fine (or even an A in pass). There's a lot that is not Maths intensive and you could shine very strongly at that.

The bloke who came 1st in my class, in first year, second year, third year and fourth year only got a C2 in honours, but he shone at Engineering. That said, after 10 years he did a MBA and went into business.

As for technical drawing, yeah really enjoyed that, got a B1 in hons. My mate though who wasn't kick *ss at tech drawing think he got a C1 or B3 went on to do architecture and was a serious kick *ss architect. Because architectue is more to do with creativity then engineering and problem solving.

I've another mate, who didn't even do the leaving and went to do architecture as a mature student and by all accounts is flying it.

Tim Robbins

Shiny wrote: »

I wouldn't entirely agree with that.
I did Electronic Engineering and the points were around 400 with a
minimum of C3 in higher Maths and a science subject.

Lately this has dropped to 255 and it retains only the C3 in higher Maths.
IMO if you are doing engineering you should be getting a good bit higher
than 255 as while it would be possible for you to complete the degree, it
will be alot more difficult for someone who barely gets in.

Would agree. You'd want to have been at least ok at Maths and a Science subject or so - so you should hitting at least 350. You don't need to be mega hot at languages but you'd want at least a reasonable academic ability or you'll struggle with the volume of work and exams and won't enjoy college.

Andrewf20

I actually found the Maths in the leaving cert harder toget my head around than the Maths in Engineering in years 1,2 & 3, although we did have good lecturers. In year 4 the control systems stuff was heavy enough, but if you get the Maths requirements for the course, you should be fine.