How to Make It In Engineering at South African Universities
Engineering is one of the most difficult courses that you
can study for at South Africa’s top universities, it has the highest exclusion rate out of all faculties and one of the highest entrance requirements. Getting
accepted into engineering at South Africa’s top institutions is competitive,
not only because the top matriculants in the country are applying for seats in
the first year class but also because the top universities in South Africa also
have to give seats to the top students on the African continent as they also
want to go to the best institutions on the continent. So this makes getting a
seat in the first year class very difficult and many parents cannot believe
their kids did not get a place but the simple truth is the competition is tough and their kids simply did not make the cut. Some guys with top marks end up
being put on the extended programme not because of their marks but because
there was no space for them in the 4 year programme.
To be honest though
getting in is not the hard part staying in and actually graduating is the hard
part, because so many people in matric are not ready for the transition from
high school to matric. In this post we will talk about how to pass courses from
your first year, how to learn the system so that you can stay in and graduate.
Many South Africans are the first generation to attend university so they have
never had anyone to guide them and tell them the truth about what really
happens when you get to university, people just tell you pass matric and get
many distinctions and the rest will fall into place but the hard work only
begins the day you get your matric results.
5 Tips to Pass In Engineering
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Use your
mentor – at South African universities you are usually given a mentor
during orientation week who is studying the same course as you, who is usually
a year or two ahead of you. Ask your mentor for tips and help when you need it,
he/she is your mentor to help you succeed.
-
Make
friends with your classmates – when you get to university you will feel
smart and think you are a G, truth is most people in your class will feel that
way because they are still on a matric results high, that’s until the first
test atleast when most of the class will fail or you will get a low mark not
the 80’s and 90’s you were accustomed to in highschool. You need friends in
your class to work with and discuss problems with, people you can swap ideas
with so that you know when you are not properly grasping the ideas taught in
class, you don’t want to find out that you have no idea what’s happening on the
day of the test or exam.
-
Make
friends with people in senior years – People who have passed first year or
second year know how it is to come from high school and be overwhelmed by
university, they have tips on how to pass test and different courses in your
faculty. Learn from them to save yourself the trouble. Seniors do not usually
mind helping out freshers.
-
Get
access to all the past papers and assignments – again befriending seniors,
classmates and your mentor will give you access to past papers which will make
the course a lot more easier since you will know what to learn and how to solve
certain problems as engineering problems don’t really change the numbers may
change but the types of problems don’t change, if you learn how to solve them
from worked examples you can reverse engineer how to work things out without
reading through hundreds of worthless timewasting pages in a textbook.
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When you
are not understanding ask for help and clarification - asking questions does not make you stupid or
slow, if you do not understand go to your lecturer just after the lecture or
make an appointment after hours so that they can give you clarification.
I hope this will be helpful to you future engineers, this
can be helpful even in other faculties, so please share this post via your
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