No matter watt!
Considering that we are now entering the mid-semester study break (it’s never a vacation for us Engineering students, unfortunately), I’m sure that you also want to kick it back and not want to think about the work upcoming in two weeks, right? It’s a good time for me to gather my thoughts and give a rundown on student life as an Electrical Student (or as an ESCE student in general) is like at this time.
I would have given you the soft landing approach and say that ‘it gets better in the long run’ but I have talked to older students and they could only shake their heads,
It only gets worse from here.
The seniors of Electrical (and the rest of ECSE)
Even then, I still stand here even with the average smarts having a good time with what I’m working with; good friends, a schedule for myself, and all the lecture content I could ever ask for! For this blog, I’ll do something a little different from previous years (and hopefully you do it yourself no matter where you are).
Below are the questions I checked with myself both at the start of the semester (with only Semester 1 knowledge) and now (mid-break of Semester 2) to see where my thoughts are and how I am doing.
(Spoiler: I’m actually not as worn out as I thought I would be :0)
1) “How hard is the work (as an Electrical Student)?”
Without sugar-coating it (and this applies to both semesters), it takes a while to catch up fully when the lecture content likes taking its time. Everything comes speeding at you all at once but what I find is that the content becomes relevant in the next day or two. Sure, there are a lot of concepts that can be thrown your way within a single week (glaring intensely at ELECTENG/COMPSYS 209 as I type this), but you can catch up with lecture slides, a single notebook (or tablet) and a rewatch of the recordings. If that doesn’t help, there are always others who will be struggling the same as you are willing to talk about it!
Oh, but the only hard work I really have is… communicating my thoughts with other people. Now, this is an important part of ELECTENG/COMPSYS 209 as there are interviews at the end of Laboratories (I had a massive one on Thursday, which I thought I did decently at that!), so it was important for me to practice conveying my thoughts properly. If fumbling did happen… well, I can’t blame anyone else but myself and do better!
My advice here is that you can read the lecture content at your own pace. What helps is that they do upload everything for you so you can even read the content ahead of time. Even if you’re stressed, it doesn’t do you good if you want to rush through everything but not understand what exactly you need to learn. (I touched on this in the second blog: 2) I can’t pay for Electricity anymore…)
2) “Is it worth coming to the lectures?”
Coming from someone with an uncontrollable tendency to sleep in lectures… I still go despite this setback.
In my experience, even if it’s only for a few minutes, just hearing the information for the first time, instantly forgetting (because I got sleepy), and then going back to the recording helps recall some of the information I heard the first time. I got knocked out in a 209 lecture and was surprised at the information retained when I looked back at the recording.
This is the way that I was able to do it, however, and it may not work for everyone. If you ask yourself this question and already have an efficient studying system in place, then keep going! Please don’t break it because I had something work for myself! I just find that I make more productive times with this set-up!
3) “If you had a choice, would you have chosen another Specialisation other than this one?”
I’m actually happy where I am. Don’t get me wrong; there is a lot that has definitely taken years off my life that I probably can’t get back, but I like the challenge and the way that all these concepts that I have learned from the first and a little over half a year into this specialization have come together neatly.
My only real takeaway from having thought about other specializations that I could’ve gone to is that I love gathering information from them; from concepts, to the industry, down to the textbooks that would have filled my collection (I even have random books on Philosophy and Economy stuff). In this mindset, even if I come away from this year with a lower mark than a lot of studious people, I find that I’m happy that I still got to have information I studied and started learning in just a few weeks! It takes years for one to hone their craft, after all; it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get it at once.
So if you do find yourself doubting a lot of things coming into this specialization, be proud of the fact that you made it! It’s okay to fail at something really hard because not everyone can do it!
Closing Thoughts and Plans!
A lot of the other peers have already started on Internship Hunting. I talked to friends about it and they have lamented about the rejections (though it is noted that it is completely normal to get at least 5 rejections before a potential comes along). I’m already intimidated by everyone taking some of the popular companies and getting some emails back.
I find myself a little bit off that I never had that same drive to try myself for any company at this point in time; I just want to take time for myself in doing self research and make some little projects with whatever I knew now. You don’t have to do the same but everyone has a different take on it and you are entitled to having your own!
If you are going to go hunting next year, I recommend reading the other blogs on this topic! I have already seen some fantastic ones from other specializations with giving advice on them as well, so a small list:
- CHEMMAT Blog: Somehow I’ll Make an Engineer out of You!
- MECHENG Blog: Sem2 and Internships
- ENGSCI Blog: Plans
For now, I’m concentrated on just doing what I started enjoying and wanting to pursue a little bit; for myself and the friends who have complimented I could make a living out of it: Making condensed notes on my courses! It may not be completely cohesive but it’s been enjoyable and I have so many books I now have the opportunity to fill in the next two weeks!
Take a good break, everyone! A relaxing one especially!
– Lanna Lagasca