53 replies to this topic

[The_Mistro]

I'm about to start my final year in Motorsport Manufacturing Engineering at Swansea Metropolitan University!
its not exactly what i was expecting, as it doesnt really concentrate on manufacturing in a traditional sense, but more from a management and automated way, such as CAD CAM and not in the workshop on lathes and millers, which is what i was hoping for, we only had this for a few weeks at the start of the course!

but i do love the course, and i wouldnt want to do anything else!

Id love to do Motorsport Engineering but I didnt do maths at A level (I got a high B at GCSE but I knew I wouldnt be able to do the A level maths) so engineering was pretty much out!

However, I aimed for the next best thing, Design and Technology, which I am starting in 2 weeks at Hull, so Im happy

you know you can do foundation years, for people who didnt get the grades they wanted or to help build on the skills you feel you arent very strong at before you go straight into an engineering course? the foundation year concentrates on maths and physics for engineering courses, and trust me, the lecturers are so much better than the teachers at school, the guy who did our maths for my BEng course is the best teacher i have ever had, he explains how and why what happens to the numbers happens, not just expects you to accept it and use it, which is what i found hard to do at A level and GCSE

which is another point, if you want to go into a certain area, e.g engineering, if you do an engineering foundation, you can go onto a number of types of engineering, motorsport, automotive, motorcycle, manufacturing, civil, so it gives you a year in the environment to decide what course you want to do!

[MiniElliott]

I'm about to start my final year in Motorsport Manufacturing Engineering at Swansea Metropolitan University!
its not exactly what i was expecting, as it doesnt really concentrate on manufacturing in a traditional sense, but more from a management and automated way, such as CAD CAM and not in the workshop on lathes and millers, which is what i was hoping for, we only had this for a few weeks at the start of the course!

but i do love the course, and i wouldnt want to do anything else!

Id love to do Motorsport Engineering but I didnt do maths at A level (I got a high B at GCSE but I knew I wouldnt be able to do the A level maths) so engineering was pretty much out!

However, I aimed for the next best thing, Design and Technology, which I am starting in 2 weeks at Hull, so Im happy

you know you can do foundation years, for people who didnt get the grades they wanted or to help build on the skills you feel you arent very strong at before you go straight into an engineering course? the foundation year concentrates on maths and physics for engineering courses, and trust me, the lecturers are so much better than the teachers at school, the guy who did our maths for my BEng course is the best teacher i have ever had, he explains how and why what happens to the numbers happens, not just expects you to accept it and use it, which is what i found hard to do at A level and GCSE

which is another point, if you want to go into a certain area, e.g engineering, if you do an engineering foundation, you can go onto a number of types of engineering, motorsport, automotive, motorcycle, manufacturing, civil, so it gives you a year in the environment to decide what course you want to do!

Hi, Which Uni did you do your foundation course at ?
Im going to start a engineering foundation course at Hull in september and then hopefully do Mechanical engineering. I wish I did maths at A-level instead of I.T

[M J W J]

You will really struggle at doing Mechanical engineering at university if you haven't done a level maths. I did further maths as well and still found it difficult. My house mate Dom didn't do a level maths and he really struggles. The jump between school and university is huge. Its big enough between college and university. I realise that you are doing a foundation course but it still won't be easy.

Coventry University have said from September they won't take anybody on to do an engineering degree who hasn't done A level maths. Btec and night school course can't be substituted either. Its just to big of a jump and they don't want to have to keep putting people through foundation courses to get them up to scratch when they should have done it at a level.

Also don't get the misconception that mechanical engineering is about cars. It isn't. To basically sum it up it is about energy transfer, material science, mathematic mechanics and some design.

Thermodynamics and fluid mechanics are the worse things you will have to study.

If you want to follow a career in cars then I would suggest that you do an Automotive/Motorsport engineering degree. I am doing an Automotive engineering Msc after my mechanical engineering BEng. I wish I had done automotive engineering straight away.

Sorry to be all doom and gloom. I just wish people had told me some of this before I started university.

Good luck with the course.

[mini mayhem]

im doing motorsport engineering, its a course i hope to love, just not in my current uni

[carts60]

In June I graduated from Loughborough Uni with a 2.1 in Geography and Economics. Now working full time in the city (london that is)

[The_Mistro]

I'm about to start my final year in Motorsport Manufacturing Engineering at Swansea Metropolitan University!
its not exactly what i was expecting, as it doesnt really concentrate on manufacturing in a traditional sense, but more from a management and automated way, such as CAD CAM and not in the workshop on lathes and millers, which is what i was hoping for, we only had this for a few weeks at the start of the course!

but i do love the course, and i wouldnt want to do anything else!

Id love to do Motorsport Engineering but I didnt do maths at A level (I got a high B at GCSE but I knew I wouldnt be able to do the A level maths) so engineering was pretty much out!

However, I aimed for the next best thing, Design and Technology, which I am starting in 2 weeks at Hull, so Im happy

you know you can do foundation years, for people who didnt get the grades they wanted or to help build on the skills you feel you arent very strong at before you go straight into an engineering course? the foundation year concentrates on maths and physics for engineering courses, and trust me, the lecturers are so much better than the teachers at school, the guy who did our maths for my BEng course is the best teacher i have ever had, he explains how and why what happens to the numbers happens, not just expects you to accept it and use it, which is what i found hard to do at A level and GCSE

which is another point, if you want to go into a certain area, e.g engineering, if you do an engineering foundation, you can go onto a number of types of engineering, motorsport, automotive, motorcycle, manufacturing, civil, so it gives you a year in the environment to decide what course you want to do!

Hi, Which Uni did you do your foundation course at ?
Im going to start a engineering foundation course at Hull in september and then hopefully do Mechanical engineering. I wish I did maths at A-level instead of I.T

i didnt do a foundation course, i went straight into a BEng, my uni does do them though, swansea metropolitan university, and the foundation courses are aimed at people who didnt do A-level maths, its basically to bring you up to speed with the maths you need! uni lecturers are so much better than maths teachers at school, its so wierd to explain, but everything they say makes perfect sense! i suppose thats why they are teaching at uni, lecturing on highly specialised subjects rather than the basics at a high school!

[a lonely peanut]

Hopefully starting a Marine biology course at Plymouth at the end of this year :)

[Black.Ghost]

I started a degree, at Loughborough Uni but for the wrong reasons. Everyone was doing it at school, it seemed like the thing to do. I was one of those drinking too much etc and I left. My interests now are very different to ten years ago. Maths was the subject I was good at, and I got an A* Gcse and A at A level. I was lazy and didn't work too hard. At school it was fine but at Uni it's a different story. Make sure if you go, it's for the right reasons. Especially now as it costs even more.

I don't really regret leaving because ultimately education became boring to me. I learnt a lot from my mistakes, and I'm not lazy now like I used to be.

Make sure you can get as much career advice as possible before making a decision. Get to every open day you can and talk to as many people on the courses you are considering as possible. They will be the most honest with you. I only went to one open day, and that was a school organised trip. The only careers advice I had was fill in your UCAS form.

Now I'm giving serious consideration to trying to develop my snowboarding and become an instructor! I get bored if I do one thing too long.

[AdamBilsy]

Hopefully starting a Marine biology course at Plymouth at the end of this year :)

I'm doing Product Design at Plymouth so you might see me driving around.

[julieruby]

i do textile crafts. hence why my mini gets decorated more than fixed

[M J W J]

I seem to be enjoying university more second time round. I did my BEng to get the qualifications needed. I started my Msc for the same reason (to eventually get my charted status) but now find I want to be at university more because I want to learn, rather than just get my qualification.

I seem to be doing a lot better this time as well. I can't stress enough, make sure it is the course you want to do. Turn up to all the open days for the universities you are applying to not just one. Check out the cities where they are before even applying. I often found I liked a city or a university but not both. Only Coventry and Nottingham did I like both when I applied.

Talk to people who have done the course you are wanting to do. They will tell you what it is really like including all the bits that the lectures on the open days and prospectuses will leave out. Talk to students at the universities you are looking at (not just the reps who will show you round- to be honest they are a really poor representation of a university in my opinion). If anybody is considering going to the university of Coventry to do Engineering I will happily show you around and show you what really happens. Come to a lecture. That will show you what a University is really like.

Don't just think that a university that is higher up in the tables is better for you than one lower down. Find one that suits you. I prefer Coventry University compared to the University of Nottingham. A friend of mine dropped out of Oxford because she didn't like it. She now goes to Manchester which is technically a worse university but she prefers it and is doing a lot better. Finally don't let your college/school push you into university. I have spoken to a few younger people (work colleagues kids, family friends kids, etc) who are all being pushed into university. Some of them clearly don't want to do it but feel as people will look down on them if they don't go. These people are much better learning by other means such as on the job training.

These are all things I wish I was told before applying for my MEng which I didn't do well in the second year so it became a BEng. I don't ever regret doing my undergraduate at Nottingham in mechanical engineering, but I am starting to wonder if I would have done better at my BEng if I had gone somewhere else and done a different course. Maybe I would have done better in my second year and so wouldn't have had to do an Msc. I would have just done a 4 year MEng course.

I also feel as though I went to university when I was too young. I started in 2008 when I was 18. I seem to have got myself into a better frame of mind later in life and have really dragged my average up over the last two years. I went from 53.3% (you need 55% to do an MEng) back in 2010 to a 63.5% in 2011 and somehow I am now currently at 72% ish while doing my masters. Somehow much to the amazement of my parents and old tutors (and myself) I am scrapping a first.

I think the experience of university the first time round prepared me for the second time so I have made a better choice.

Finally don't turn up to your interviews/open days hung over or drunk. I did. Somehow managed to get 5 offers when applying for my undergraduate and choose to go to the University of Nottingham when drunk. Not the worst decision I have made while drunk but not the best.

Apologies that were a bit long

[Alex_B]

Im going to be doing Motorsport Engineering in September at Northbrook college. Seems to be a rather popular choice on here, keep seeing posts about so and so doing motorsport engineering and I am really hoping that it is everything I think it is, i do need to polish up on my maths but I am doing a foundation degree so that will help and i think i will get some math tuition over the summer to give me the best chance! But cant wait looks like a great course with really good job prospects afterwards! (some ex students of northbrook are working in F1, about 20 are with Ricardo Engineering (just over the road) working on the new Mclaren engine and other projects, ect ect)

[minimissionary]

I'm doing Music!
Studying at the mighty establishment that is Salford Uni, I think I'm more likely to get an education in dressing gunshot wounds.

[The_Mistro]

Im going to be doing Motorsport Engineering in September at Northbrook college. Seems to be a rather popular choice on here, keep seeing posts about so and so doing motorsport engineering and I am really hoping that it is everything I think it is, i do need to polish up on my maths but I am doing a foundation degree so that will help and i think i will get some math tuition over the summer to give me the best chance! But cant wait looks like a great course with really good job prospects afterwards! (some ex students of northbrook are working in F1, about 20 are with Ricardo Engineering (just over the road) working on the new Mclaren engine and other projects, ect ect)

dont worry about polishing up on your maths if your doing foundation mate, its pretty much what it is there for, that and physics! if your "behind" when you come to christmas, thats when id consider getting a tutor to be honest with you!

[M J W J]

dont worry about polishing up on your maths if your doing foundation mate, its pretty much what it is there for, that and physics! if your "behind" when you come to christmas, thats when id consider getting a tutor to be honest with you!

I completely disagree. You want to make sure that you can easily work with Cartesian co-ordinates, trigonometry and rearranging basic algebra. All of these were taught a gsce and foundation/a level maths will build on this. At college and university they assume that you know everything from a subject if you got a good grade in it.

Maybe a tutor may be going a bit far but reading through some text books and doing the exercises at the end of each chapter would definitely be a good thing.