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I was an EE major in college at a good school and I can tell you that it is a long, hard grind. I never had a problem with the math/physics pre-reqs. In fact th
by Androsynth 15y ago
I was an EE major in college at a good school and I can tell you that it is a long, hard grind. I never had a problem with the math/physics pre-reqs. In fact those were the fun classes.
It was the soph/jr/sr years where it was very difficult to tie what you are learning to anything real and concrete. The worst part is that you are being asked to remember facts/processes/patterns for a test, then you rarely have to go through them again. So you end up forgetting most of what you learned. Since you didn't know what it was used for in the real world, you end up forgetting about something you didn't even care for in the first place.
The courses I enjoyed, I really enjoyed. At a school on the quarters system, you end up taking about 50 total courses and I enjoyed < 10 of these. My junior year I built a 4-bit processor on a breadboard using discrete parts for everything but the control system (fpga). This was one of my best memories because I understood the real-world applications of a processor and I got to sit in a lab and build it myself.
It's a broken system. It's a long grind thats not effective at getting you up to speed as a professional or getting you interested in your career. Its also terribly inefficient at improving your problem solving and analytical thinking. It still improves your problem solving/analytical thinking through brute force and I think thats a necessary process, but there has to be a better way.
If there was a way to combine the rigors of academic courses (to improve analytic thinking/problem solving ability) with the hands-on experience of vocational learning, I would be all for that. It is more applicable to software than some of the more traditional engineering disciplines, but I think it could work for all of them.
(admittedly my situation was poor because I chose the wrong major. I was an EE who was taking all CE electives and I moved into software after I graduated)
As for not being able to graduate enough STEM majors, ffs let's drop the jingoism and bring in more foreign students.
- kiba 15y agoIt was the soph/jr/sr years where it was very difficult to tie what you are learning to anything real and concrete. The worst part is that you are being asked to remember facts/processes/patterns for a test, then you rarely have to go through them again. So you end up forgetting most of what you learned. Since you didn't know what it was used for in the real world, you end up forgetting about something you didn't even care for in the first place. SRS are your friend. Remember, you will forget everything you will ever know given sufficient time. It's best to exploit study technique that take into account spaced repetition. Your skills and all the things you learn are like a muscle, either you use it, or you lose it. Right now, I have minuscule amount of haskell knowledge loaded, ready to use when I am ready to learn or code something in Haskell. Once I learn something, I add new stuff to my Haskell deck.
- spacemanaki 15y agoI'm curious to hear more about your experience using that kind of system with programming knowledge. When you say "Haskell deck" are you talking about a literal "deck" of flash card type things? (whether physical cards or part of some Anki-like software)
- kiba 15y agoI'm curious to hear more about your experience using that kind of system with programming knowledge. When you say "Haskell deck" are you talking about a literal "deck" of flash card type things? (whether physical cards or part of some Anki-like software) Yes, they are merely flash cards. I am at the point in which my programming decks are minimally useful, mostly because I have not memorize much to begin with. I think I was able to use them a few time in my day to day programming task. With a sufficiently sized deck, I would derive more uses out of them since there are more memory to draw upon.
- achompas 15y agoCan you (or someone else) recommend SRS for iOS? Ideally I'd use it while walking my dog, waiting for an elevator, etc.
- mahyarm 15y agoI used 'Mental Case' when I was memorizing language vocab. It also has an OSX app that lets you edit stacks better.
- genieyclo 15y agoFlashcards Deluxe by OrangeorApple is a great one, not only because of its great use of SRS and fantastic interface, but also because it has the massive and active Quizlet library behind it: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards-deluxe/id307840670?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards-deluxe/id307840670... I've used it to great success in a few classes in the last year. You really have to be dedicated in the first few weeks though, and not skip a day in your SRS routine. That first bit of grind really pays off down the line though, as you have to spend less and less time studying from then on. Skip though, and it'll come back to bite you.
- therobot24 15y ago"If there was a way to combine the rigors of academic courses (to improve analytic thinking/problem solving ability) with the hands-on experience of vocational learning, I would be all for that." This is the goal of lab/recitation. Taking the basic concepts in class and applying them to something you physical build/simulate to get the 'feel' of that design. Rather than making these as 'cookbooks' they should be exercises similar the homework to have a love triangle between hands on learning, lecture, and problem sets.