Hey guys, im a 15 year old guy who's, aspiring to be a mechanical engineer. i've heard that this is a particularly hard career, and it involves alot of math. Me, im decent at math, and i know that i will have to step up my game in math to even be able to be considered in this major. are there any tips that you guys can give on how i should start studying in Mec. engineering, math.... Etc?
Take challenging math and science courses - what your school offers take advantage of it but don't do what you can't handle. And do some math/science related activities too, in both the school year and in the summer. UPenn's SAAST isn't a bad summer program.
Here's the secret they never tell you in school: you don't have to be exceptionally bright to do well in math and science classes, you just need to have a reasonable amount of intelligence and be willing to do the work it takes to really understand and be able to apply the concepts.
Some kids make the mistake of just practicing problems. Practicing problems is a good step, but not if you're doing it so that you can solve similar problems on a test instead of trying to understand the concept underneath them. That's why so many people struggle with word problems, IMHO; its easy to twist the same basic principle a dozen ways so that it doesn't resemble anything you've seen before and yet once seen in the light of the underlying principle it is easily solved.
