Nope. Many engineering students take maths courses purely because they are compulsory, and many have no interest in theory and struggle with abstraction (which

Nope. Many engineering students take maths courses purely because they are compulsory, and many have no interest in theory and struggle with abstraction (which is often how they view maths in general, even though engineering maths is very concrete relative to what many mathematicians do). The thing is, you need proficiency in the basic tools and skills to be able to do the interesting applications later, and tools and skills in isolation seem abstract. Working to keep students engaged in a maths course when they're not doing a maths degree is an important part of that teaching.