Posted by Braden
Last semester I took Book of Mormon, chemistry, biology, physics, health, and history. Even though I'd never taken those classes in college, they were all review for me. I've been studying the Book of Mormon for as long as I can remember; I took chemistry in 10th grade; biology in 9th; physics in 11th and 12th; health in 7th and 9th; and history in every grade in high school and in middle school. Even when my college classes taught "new" material, it was usually merely an extension of material I'd already had.
This semester, that is not the case. I'm taking Math 343 (linear algebra) and ME 172 (engineering graphics), and they aren't just building on old information. These classes are legitimately new, and it's throwing me a little bit.
I spent six hours in the computer lab yesterday doing my first homework assignment for 172. I had to produce two of the simplest machine parts in the world on the computer, but I had to do each in computer-aided-design (CAD) programs that I had never used before! And worse—there wasn't a single TA in the lab the entire time I was there! I brute-forced my way through making the parts, using make-shift techniques and digging through my instruction manual to find whatever I could to make my parts look like the diagrams I had. It was not very enjoyable. I'm sure the class will get easier once I know how to use the programs, but at the moment it feels an awful lot like tossing a kid who can't swim into the ocean and saying "learn how to swim, or else."
Linear algebra is similar, but not quite as bad. I think I learned about matrices once in algebra II my sophomore year of high school. I knew what a matrix was and, very briefly, what one could do with matrices if he or she felt up to it. The second homework assignment for the class had already surpassed what I'd learned how to do in high school, and I found myself needing to pave new paths in my mind to understand this near-completely new material. Likewise, I imagine thinking in terms of reduced row-echelon augmented matrices will come more easily soon enough, but that doesn't make these first few weeks any less confusing or stressful!
Monday, January 11, 2010
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1 comment:
Ah, beloved CAD! I was a Facilities Management major and we took a class learning/using CAD. I use it now in my job doing the basics, which is great because I have forgotten almost everything. There is a computer lab in the SNLB where I am sure you could find a little help with CAD from either FM or Construction Management majors. You might also be able to find a book on CAD in the CM section. Good luck!
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