<p>I did horrible my first two years because I didn’t understand anything. When I transferred to another school my understanding of engineering increase signficantly and my GPA went from 2.5 to 3.5 cumulative. My major GPA is 3.21, so I’d say I’m basically a B engineering student who aces all lab courses and non-engineering electives. But even if you understand engineering very well, your GPA could be low because some schools give very hard exams in order to shine light on the best of the best. And it is easy to get tricked up on an exam. I once made once made a mistake that cost me 28 points, and it was on a problem that I knew how to do but I read it wrong. My current exams in general are not nearly as difficult as the ones at elite programs. However, although I think they are easy and we do have open book, many students do not have GPAs above 3.0. My school is more about teaching engineering instead of promoting competition between students during exam time. It takes the pressure off and many of us do very well in lab and design courses where our skills really matter, not on some dumb exam. Exams aren’t really a bad thing. I’m just at the point where project work is more beneficial than exams. I never cared for academia, hence my hatred of exams.</p>