My Process to Become a World-Class Engineering Student

Introduction
In Studying Engineering: A Road Map to a Rewarding Career, Raymond Landis presents the idea that
poorly prepared students have succeeded in college, while highly qualified students have failed. Why is
this? I took that question to heart, and what I have learned has helped guide me in making decisions
that will help me succeed. I considered myself a highly-qualified student coming into college, yet I
still found myself struggling. In the process of writing this report throughout the quarter, I have realized
that I have poor study habits and time management skills. However, I also realized that that is not
permanent in any way, and can be improved just like any other skills. In this report I will explore what
it takes to be successful as a Mechanical Engineering student at Cal Poly, what my shortfalls and
weaknesses are, and what I will do in order to become a highly successful student.
1. Goal Setting
1.1 My Goals
Setting goals is vital to success in college, as they give you something to work towards, and something
to track your progress against. I would say my number one overall goal is simply to graduate.
Graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering is incredibly important to me. I decided many
years before even applying to college that I wanted to study mechanical engineering, and when I did
apply to college, I only applied into Mechanical Engineering programs because I knew I would not be
happy studying anything else. As a result of that, I am incredibly motivated to complete my degree. I
know that if I failed out or something of that sort, I would regret it for the rest of my life and I would
never be able to forgive myself. This gives me the determination needed to succeed in mechanical
engineering. There will be challenges along the way. Already I have challenged myself by taking 19
units this quarter, which turned out to be very hard just as I expected, but I know that I will still be able
to do it. There is nothing I could do to make it more important to me. That is the direction I have
decided I want to take my life in, and I don't think I would be satisfied if I did not fulfill that goal. This
doesn't really worry me, because I know that I have the capability to reach that goal. I'm sure I will
encounter difficulties along the way, but I know that I do have the ability to succeed and graduate with
a degree in mechanical in mechanical engineering. There is not much that could stop me from reaching
that goal.
1.2. Strengthening and clarifying my commitment to my goals
The reason I am so committed to graduating with an engineering degree is how rewarding my career
will be. The number one "reward" for me studying mechanical engineering is that I will enjoy whatever
job I get. While it is not guaranteed by any means, it is likely since I specifically chose mechanical
engineering because it is what I like to do. I like designing and building things, I like understanding
how things work, and I even enjoy the challenge of the complex math and science that engineers often
have to work with. For me personally, I decided to study mechanical engineering with the intention of
working in the car industry one day. Since cars are an interest and hobby of mine, if I do end up getting
a job in the automotive industry, it would almost literally mean I get to do my hobby for a living. If
that's the case, I would really enjoy my job, seemingly unlike the rest of America. Besides the fact that
I will hopefully be working with cars, there is also the aspect that much of engineers' work is highly
engaging and intellectually stimulating. I think this is absolutely essential for one to enjoy their job. I
get bored easily, and I don't think I would be able to have a career that did not keep me interested,
because I would just get bored and hate the job as a result. That is a problem that a lot of people in this
country seem to have: boring and repetitive jobs. If I had to guess, I would say that is a major source of

the huge number of Americans that are dissatisfied with their job. That is not something I would be
willing to face. Although it is very true that engineers tend to have very high salaries, getting happiness
and satisfaction from my job is of more value to me than money in the long run.
The second reward is that as an engineer, I will be able to learn more about how things work. That has
been a interest of mine for as long as I can remember (which my family apparently realized, due to the
number of "How things work/are made" books I have received as gifts over the years). As a teenager, I
was a big fan of taking broken things apart and at least attempting to fix them before throwing them
away. Around the time I got my driver's license, my interest shifted from things like small electronics to
cars. It seems to me that so many people take them for granted as just simple transportation from point
A to point B, without every stopping to think about what a major feat of engineering modern cars are.
I've since learned a lot about how cars work, and while I probably do know more than the average
person, I recognize that there is so much more for me still to understand. This is what guided me in my
decision to study mechanical engineering; essentially so I can continue to learn about and work with
cars.
Although it is more of a bonus for me, engineers are well paid and have good financial security.
However, this is wasn't really the reason I chose mechanical engineering. I would probably still choose
it even if that wasn't the case. Still, it helps me to be even more sure of my choice, and is undoubtedly a
great benefit of getting a job in an engineering field.
1.3. My "Road Map"The plan to guide me over the next years to graduation
The main tool I use in order to plan my next 4 years at Cal Poly is Poly Planner. When used along with
the curriculum flowchart for Mechanical Engineering, I am able to plan out every single class I want to
take every quarter from now until graduation.
1.4. Understanding the essence of engineering
Personally, I consider engineering to be the act of using math, science, and related skills in order to
solve real-world problems in the most effective and efficient way possible. However, there is no one
right answer to the question, What is Engineering? Some might simply define it as solving problems.
Others emphasize the aspect of designing things such as buildings, machines, or electronic devices.
Whatever your definition, engineering is still vital to our world today. Almost everything-- planes, cars,
bridges, appliances, electronics, you name it-- had the input of engineers in the design and
manufacturing process.
2. Community building
2.1. Building relationships, and making effective use of my peers
One behavior I want to change is studying alone. I have made a habit of it because I naturally prefer to
study alone, but there is very strong evidence to show that students learn much better when studying in
groups. I have already begun to change this by studying calculus with my roommate. In the future, I
will see if I can try and join some study groups. I recognize that my peers are an excellent resource,
especially those within my major. Surprisingly, I actually do not know all that many Mechanical
Engineering majors, so I will definitely try to meet and befriend more, as they will be invaluable to my
success in studying engineering.
2.2. My participation in co-curricular activities
Currently, I am part of FSAE, Cal Poly's racing club. The focus of this club is simply to design and

build a race car to compete in a national competition. This club is extremely important to me because I
plan to have a career in the car industry, ideally in racing. Experience on an SAE team is a huge thing
employers look for on resumes in this field. In addition to looking good on resumes, I also find this
club to be very interesting and lots of fun. I've also gotten a lot of experience working in a machine
shop (The Hangar). In the future, I may look into also joining ASME, as it is a great resource for
mechanical engineers.
3. Academic development
3.1. My plan on using university resources and academic advising
So far, I have used the Engineering advising center and the Mustang Success Center for help with
planning my classes. However, something I have neglected to do is contact my faculty adviser. I have
no doubt that faculty advisers are an extremely helpful resource, and I will probably see mine later this
year for help with planning my sophomore year. Another on campus resource that I have yet to utilize
is tutoring and study sessions. I definitely entered winter quarter with the attitude that I wouldn't need
these resources, however, as I have found myself struggling in math, I wish that I had looked into them
earlier.
3.2. How I plan to make the teaching/learning process work for me
As part of the ME 163 curriculum, I took an online test to help determine my preferred learning and
teaching styles. The test only seemed to confirm what I have realized about my learning style so far in
college. The first, and most polarized category for me was active vs. reflective learning. On a scale of
1-11 towards either side, I scored a 9 on the reflective portion. This means that I best understand things
by thinking through them, and not necessarily by doing them. Although I know that working through
problems will help me to memorize the process used to solve them, I do not feel like I can actually
understand something unless I take the time to think through each step and know why I am doing each
one. The survey page suggested that writing summaries of readings and class notes in order to reinforce
my understanding rather than just reading will help me to be successful in college with this learning
style. The next category was for sensing vs. intuitive learning. I was rated at 3 on the sensing side,
which is the closest to the middle of any other category for me. This means I slightly lean towards
preferring facts, data, and real world relevance. However, I do also enjoy thinking about things from a
more conceptual standpoint, which is why I was rated close to the middle. As far as visual vs. learning
is concerned, I'm definitely more of a visual learner. I had already realized this for myself, and scoring
a 7 on the visual side confirmed this. I have a lot of difficulty in classes where the learning format is the
teacher standing in front of the class and lecturing. Even when I take notes, I find it much more
difficult to draw meaningful understandings compared to lessons which are more graphically focused.
In order to help myself learn better, I will seek out charts, diagrams, graphs, and pictures whenever
possible. The final scale I was rated on was sequential vs. global learning. Sequential learners prefer to
understand processes in clear, consecutive steps, while global learners prefer to understand overall
ideas first, and use that understanding to figure out the steps along the way. I feel I am a little bit of
both for this one. I scored a 5 on the sequential side, which is probably fairly accurate. I do definitely
need to be able to see steps in a logical, concise fashion in order to understand them, but I think that
having a greater "global" understanding is still very beneficial. In order to learn better, I will ask
teachers to repeat a sequence of steps or include steps that they may have left out. When studying, it is
helpful for me to write down the exact steps I need to take to solve various kinds of problems.
4. Personal development
4.1. Enhancing my self-awareness and improving my skills to practice academic success strategies

One area I want to improve is my note-taking skills. Good note taking is one of the most important
skills necessary for success in college, yet many students (myself included) still struggle with it. Most
students will take notes in some form, but they might fail to realize that there is a difference between
simply taking notes, and taking effective notes. One of the most important aspects of effective notes is
what you do with them after the class. Princeton University stresses the importance of reviewing your
notes within 24 hours of the class [2]. A mistake I often make is waiting until right before a test to look
back over my notes. Notes are much less effective when I use them in this manner because at that point,
I don't remember the lesson and the context that the notes were in, and they end up being much more
confusing than I thought they would be when I was writing them in class. In the future, I plan to review
notes the same day that I take them. I could use this time to add additional information, rewrite certain
sections of notes to help commit them to memory, or figure out any questions I have. That way, I can
immediately use the next office hours to clear up any confusions, rather than waiting until the night
before an exam.
Another strategy for effective note taking that I plan to implement is a system of abbreviations to make
my writing quicker. A big problem that I have is that since I'm a somewhat slow writer, I'm often
unable to keep up with what the professor is writing on the board, and I focus so much on writing that
don't pay attention to what the professor is saying. I am then left with fairly complete notes, but a poor
understanding of the material because I didn't hear the professor explain it. Chapman University's Hints
for Good Note Taking webpage suggests using a system of punctuation and abbreviations while taking
notes [3]. This speeds up note taking because there are less characters that I will be writing out, but
when I'm reviewing my notes later I should have the same understanding I would if I actually wrote
everything out.
Listening is also a skill that is critical to success in college. From the research I did, the tips for good
listening seemed to be grouped into two categories: physical and mental. An example of a physical
action to help your listening is, Get to class early so that you can choose a seat free of distractions and
close to the lecturer [2]. Many sites also stressed the importance of good body language-- sit up
straight, face the lecturer, etc. On the other hand, there is much more you can do mentally to increase
the effectiveness of your listening. A common mistake students make is only listening for facts and
specific information, such as dates, definitions, or mathematical formulas. However, in many subjects,
it's just as important, if not more important, to try and understand the overall idea or message of the
lesson. Not everything you write down in your notes will be exactly what the professor says-- by
actually thinking about what the professor says, you will be able to take more accurate notes that
convey the central idea of the lesson. In the future I plan to make an effort to evaluate the importance of
everything the professor says. Not everything needs to be written down (leaving out extraneous
information will also help to speed up my note taking). Additionally, by thinking about what the
professor says before I write it down, I will also be able to identify any confusion I have and quickly
come up with questions.
Note taking and listening are both very important to success in college, and as a result of my research I
feel that I will be able to utilize them much more effectively.
4.2. What attitudes and behaviors I need to change/add to be successful
My biggest barrier to choosing productive actions has always been procrastination. It's something I've
struggled with for as long as I can remember, probably since I started receiving homework in
elementary school. Even though I recognize how harmful it is, I find it very difficult to start an
assignment unless I'm running out of time and I HAVE to do it now if I want to actually complete the

assignment before it is due. This usually means the night before an assignment is due, around 8 pm, I
find myself thinking, "Crap, I guess I have to do it now. I wish I started earlier." And still, I have done
this week after week, month after month, year after year without ever learning my lesson. It is not that I
hate doing my homework so much that I just want to put it off for as long as possible. For some reason,
I'm just very quick to come up with excuses not to do it at the moment, knowing that I do still
technically have enough time to complete it later. An effective strategy to overcome this is for me to
remove myself from distractions or make them unavailable to me. I used to do all of my homework in
my room rather than in the library or somewhere else on campus like many other students seem to do.
This was partially because a significant portion of my homework requires a computer, but I don't have
a laptop, only a desktop computer in my room. However, my computer was also the main source of
distraction for me. It is fairly easy for me to justify watching a 5 minute youtube video or 5 minutes of
surfing reddit when I still have many days to complete whatever assignment I might want to work on.
As you can imagine, this often led to me spending hours aimlessly surfing the internet without ever
even starting my assignment. I've started going to the library or the study room at Einstein's in PCV
more often, and I have found that it's easy for me to focus for hours at a time once I remove myself
from the distractions of my room.
Another barrier to productive actions has been socializing. I find it difficult to say no when people
invite me to things, but this has led to situations such as me choosing to go to the Farmer's Market for a
few hours on a Thursday night when I really should have been studying for the midterm that I had the
next morning. Since this quarter has been significantly harder than last, I find myself having to say no
more and more often. I usually feel like I'm missing out at first, but I'm almost always glad I did
afterwards. Like we discussed in the lecture, socializing is a very important aspect of any college
students life. However, I have realized that it's very easy to overdo, and that you should put your work
first and only socialize to the extent that your studies allow.
The first thing that comes to mind as a behavior that I want to change is blaming my failures on
external factors. The most prominent example of this is that when I have a teacher that I don't like and
I'm doing poorly in their class, I tend to blame my performance entirely on the fact that they are a "bad
teacher". While this is probably true to some extent (it is undeniable that some teachers will teach the
material better than others), I have begun to realize that this is a very unhealthy mindset to have. In the
Calculus II course I am currently taking, I'm incredibly unhappy with my professor because I feel like
he does a very poor job of actually teaching us anything. On the first midterm, I got a 70% which is the
lowest I have ever gotten on a math test. My first thought was to blame the teacher, but after I thought
about it for a while, I changed my mindset a little. I scored low on the test because I made mistakes.
Mistakes that I probably wouldn't have made if I studied more (I hardly studied at all, which was not a
good idea). Recently I have been making a conscious effort not to blame my failures on anything other
than me. Sure, there are often other factors that contributed to it, but what's the point of focusing on
that? The only thing I can change is my own behaviors and attitude, so that is what I want to focus on,
and look at what I can do in order to do better next time.
Another behavior that I want to change is leaving studying until the few days leading up until a test.
This behavior is partially due to the fact that in high school, I honestly never really had to study. Maybe
I went to an easy high school, or I had good teachers that taught me everything in class, or maybe I'm
just a good test taker. Whatever the cause, I was able to get good grades without studying. However,
this led to a serious problem when I got to college. It's not that I had bad study habits, I essentially had
no study habits at all because I was never forced to develop those skills. I've definitely gotten better at
studying now that I am in college, but I still tend to leave it until the last minute. Last week when I was
doing research on how to take good notes, I found that a common piece of advice is to review your

notes within 24 hours of taking them, that way the lesson is still fresh in your mind. When you review,
you can add to your notes, highlight important sections, think of questions, or even rewrite them to
solidify your understanding. I want to do this as much as possible, so I will learn the material over the
course of the quarter, rather than frantically reading over my notes the night before a test.
4.3. Managing time and tasks
Organizing and prioritizing tasks that need to be done is a great strategy for time management. Our
textbook, "Studying Engineering", recommends creating a table comprised of four quadrants: urgent
and important (quadrant I), important but not urgent (quadrant II), urgent but not important (quadrant
III), and neither urgent nor important (quadrant IV). The idea is that you will only focus your efforts on
quadrants I and II, because they contain the most important things. Quadrants III and IV are not
important, and while the book says that this means they shouldn't be done at all, I think it is fine to do
them as long as all the tasks that are important are done first. Organizing the things you need to do this
way is very helpful because it forces you to really think about your priorities. Sure, hanging out with
your friends might be an urgent matter, but it is much less important than studying for a test or writing
a paper.
Currently I have the most items in quadrant II. According to the textbook, this is where you would
ideally focus most of your effort. Obviously if there are quadrant I items, you should prioritize those.
However, in my experience, almost everything in quadrant I started out in quadrant II. As the
deadline/due date draws nearer, items may switch to quadrant I as they get more and more urgent. The
smartest and most effective approach is to complete things before they become urgent. Many students,
myself included, constantly operate in crisis mode-- that is, they are always finishing things at the last
minute, then move on to the next item due later that day or tomorrow. This leaves little time for
quadrant II, and contributes to a nasty cycle where you don't have time to work on assignments in
advance because you are too busy doing other urgent things, then you find that those assignments have
now become urgent. Next quarter I plan to try and avoid this as much as possible. I will try to work on
all of my important assignments while they are still in quadrant II, and hopefully there will be very
little in quadrant I. If I need to sacrifice things in quadrants III and IV in order to do that, so be it.
Nothing in those categories is more important to me than completing my degree in Mechanical
Engineering.
4.4. My plan to engage in good health/wellness practices and how to manage stress
As far as health and wellness in concerned, I feel like I am doing pretty well. I try to go to the gym two
or three times a week, and I eat as healthy as possible with on-campus food options. I'm very fond of
salads from Red Radish. Although it's not directly related, I feel like staying healthy helps me to be a
better student because I feel like I have a lot more energy than I did before I developed these habits. As
far as stress is concerned, I feel like I have actually been doing worse in the past few weeks because we
are approaching the end of the quarter, and I have more work to do now than any other point in my life.
However, I recognize that a big source of stress is leaving assignments until the last minute, which I
previously addressed as a behavior I want to change. Hopefully with time-management strategies I will
be able to reduce my stress levels. By reducing my stress, not only will I be happier but I will probably
also do better in my classes.
4.5. My personal and professional integrity and ethical behavior
I believe I have a very strong sense of integrity and ethics. I don't believe in plagiarizing or cheating.
Especially as far as core engineering classes are concerned, that information is being taught because I
will need to use it later. If I were to cheat to pass a test without actually learning the material, I would
only be setting myself up for failure in the future. I think this is the attitude that all college students

should have.
Summary
I am by no means a perfect student. I had an easy time in high school, and coming to college was a bit
of a shock to me, as I learned the hard way how bad my study habits actually are. I also realized that I
have serious issues with procrastination. These are things I need to change if I ever hope to become a
World-Class engineering student. The good news is, I am able to change all of this. Having a growth
mindset is extremely important to success in college. There are a number of things I plan to do to
improve my study habits and work ethic: start studying with my peers, study throughout the quarter,
not just before tests, use my professors as a resource, start scheduling my time in order to better
manage it, and use techniques to reduce procrastination, to name a few. If I do these things, I will be
well on my way to achieving my goal of being a successful Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Student.
References
[1] Landis, Raymond B., "Studying Engineering: A Road Map to a Rewarding Career", 4th Edition,
Discovery Press, Los Angeles, California, 2013
[2]http://www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/library/for-students/great-notes/
[3] http://www.chapman.edu/students/academic-resources/tutoring-center/resources-success/studystrategies/note-taking/index.aspx