Advice: Starting Engineering n DCU in Sept

KeithTS

Hi all,

hopefully you can offer some advice.
I'm starting in DCU in the undenominated entry into engineering program in a couple of months as a mature student and I'm looking to get a headstart on some study and get cracking on it now.

As I'm out of school ages I'm going over all my maths and I'm working through "Basic Engineering Mathematics" by John bird so I have that material fresh in my head.

Is there anything else i could be working on now to make things a little easier once I get started on the course?

Thanks in advance for any input.

godtabh

I used that book when I was in college ( over 10 years ago) so make sure you have the most up to date edition.

If you have time have a look at the course work that was done previously. But in saying that maths is key as every thing else will probably be new to every one.

CatFromHue

the other people in your class will just have finished their leaving and so the course will be geared towards following on from there.

so have you thought about looking at some leaving cert textbooks?

remember though you dont want to burn out too early or get caught up thinking you cant do something before the course actually starts.

look to see if dcu has a maths advice / help centre. i know ul has one and alot of people find it very helpful

KeithTS

Thanks for the advice guys,
I am working from the basic engineering maths text book, latest edition, and i'm also looking at leaving cert maths books and trying to get as much out of each as I can.
I'm fairly confident that I'm covering all the bases on the maths front, won't be quite an A student but I'll be able to understand what's going on and hold my head above water.
Can you recommend I study anything else?

brownacid

Applied maths and the mechanics section of the LC physics course.


A friend of mine in college has come out of countless exams thanking his stars that he was good at applied maths in school, he reckons the applied maths saved him.

godtabh

applied maths helped me a lot in college.

i think i used the oliver murphy book (could have just pulled that name from the air!)

breadmonkey

brownacid wrote: »

Applied maths and the mechanics section of the LC physics course.

This! I would strongly urge you to try to get a good grasp of some of the LC applied maths course before you start. Linear motion and statics are two topics that spring to mind straight away.

Your course assumes no knowledge but I found that a lot of the people who had never studied applied maths for the LC never really "got it" and this has consequences as you progress through the years.

Oliver Murphy is the correct name of the author. There is another book but the name escapes me at the moment. Ask in any school book shop; there are only two afaik!

Also, the LC physics mechanics course would be beneficial. In truth, it's piss easy once you've covered the relevant sections in the applied maths books so I'd concentrate on that first.

You'll probably do a lot of calculus and Thomas Calculus (God knows what the latest edition is) is an absolutely fantastic book!

brownacid

I wouldn't go so far as to say if you didn't do applied maths you will never really get it. I admit in first year when they first introduced mechanics (static and dynamics) I was compleytely lost. I never did applied maths, only got the C1 in maths but was fairly good at physics. Evntually when we moved on to the "harder" stuff it clicked with me and I understood it and could go back to do the earlier stuff that I hadn't a clue about.

I would say that if you are determined to get it and have a good capacity for learning you will do just fine.


I've seen that Thomas Calculus book in the library once or twice I have flicked through it does seem fairly good. We used Anton's "Calculus - Multivariable and transedentals" or something like that. I found the book to be very good and very easy to teach yourself the required info.


You will be required to teach yourself a lot, your lectures tell you what you need to know i.e. they will examine you on, you then have to go and try make sense of the stuff they were just ****eing on about for the last hour.


Best piece of advice I can give you is make sure that you go to tutorials, this is where you will mostly get help/guidance that you need.

wonderfulname

Hi,

I just sat the leaving cert this year and by the looks of how it went it is quite likely we'll be in the same year, so I guess you and I are expected to be on the same page going in?

With regards to math I would recommend Thomas Calculus as well, I found the leaving cert textbooks hard to work from, they made a big deal out of very little, so a friend in college introduced me to it, fantastic for integration. Have a look over Higher level maths papers, that is the only standard assumed, and from what I gather, it will still get a brief going over. Don't push yourself to do much more than this and a bit of physics, its not expected, and by the sounds of your post you will do whats required when you get there so its not necessary either.

I didn't do applied maths, and I don't expect to be the only one in my year not to have.

The funny thing about engineering courses in general is the only relevant entry requirement is maths, you can fulfill the science one with ag science or biology, and people are not expected to have studied DCG or construction. So it has to be covered in first year (anyone I know who studied their chosen degree at leaving cert level says this is why first year has such an easy reputation, people have done it before so they can go off on the piss if they want and still do ok).

Don't worry too much about it, and good luck.

KeithTS

thanks again for the feedback guys, I'm definately going to look into a bit more calculus and some applied maths before Sept.