Obviously mechanical geared but:
Machine Design by Norton

Is such a fantastic reference book.

If you're in formula SAE or other such projects
Racecar is a fun book that entertainingly in a short read goes over a lot of the experiences every SAE team deals with from engineering to people.

As others said, Machinery Handbook is a must.

A lot of it depends on what you're interested in. Especially as a mechanical you can go from working on steam turbines in subs to packaging in microelectronics to machine design for some every day product to designing some as seen on tv simple part that just needs to be developed and designed for manufacturability and plastic injection molding to super precise machines that are accurate to microns in positional tolerance to doing energy analysis on a house or a brewery to process engineering with that brewery to advanced control systems and systems engineering.

You'll need to learn a little of everything for your degree but depending on where your career takes you and what interests you, study up.

I was doing machine design and DFM work (and logistics that go with tooling and running a small run product.) In a week I'll be doing r&d work with microprocessors dealing with the structural integrity of chips and thermal issues. I searched around and found some interesting books on advanced thermal design for that purpose. I love machine tools as a hobby and have started getting my own. I love reading about how precision machining developed from less precise machines, how things are made, and building your own tools instead of buying them. There are tons of various books in this area and I also sought out older texts. I got some awesome used books from 1910-1950s that are treasures in my rapidly growing library.

I haven't read some of the books here that others mentioned but look good. In particular some of the management related books. My friend swears by How to make friends and influence people as a great way to understand and manage people better. 99% of the time as an engineer your hurdles will be less technical and more people oriented. You've gotta deal with the marketing people, your bosses, your subordinates, the people who control how much money your project gets, your fellow team mates, the manufacturers, the vendors, machinists, the publc etc. It's a team sport and learning to deal with people well, especially in stressful times with deadlines and deadbeats who aren't pulling their weight is an important skill you may or may not pick up in school.

I apologize in advance for any run on sentences but it was easier to just go for it.

Edit:
Also, sometimes non-computer related degrees get shafted on proper programming education. Learn programming. It helps you think about a problem more logically both for computer programs and regular design. Programming is identifying your problem and desired outcomes and doing so in a step by step manner. Programming can also be really helpful. For example, with Python you can do a ton of math and graphing and all of the stuff you'd do in Matlab practically for free. Scientific computing is a great benefit for any engineer. There are tons of different languages to choose from plus things like Matlab and Mathematica etc.

What everyone said is correct: math, math, math, and enjoy your last summer ;) You may also want to learn how to code in C++ or Fortran (yes, yes, it's ancient, but pretty much all NASA codes are written in C++ or Fortran) or even Matlab, if you have access to it.

Also, if you want to read some inspirational type books: Kelly Johnson's Memoir, the man basically invented Skunk Works. I also loved Flying the SR71, which is all about the Blackbird. It may sound corny, but Rocket Boys is my go-to book and/or movie when I feel discouraged and like I can't hack it as an engineer. And Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was really interesting to me.

What I found pushed me through the grueling classes, assignments, 50% on a test... was my passion for space exploration and propulsion methods. So I suggest in addition to the math and enjoying the free time you have left that you find what makes you passionate to be an engineer :). Because sometimes, at 2 am in a computer lab, after staring at the same chunk of code for 3 hours and not understanding why it doesn't seem to friggin work out... passion is all you have!

Best of luck to ya!

> My lack of confidence, I think, is centered around the idea that complex math is a prerequisite to engineering. So I have a few questions.

The math in engineering is not hard, comparative to actual math. It's low tier within math departments (100/200 level), and most professors aren't expecting you to create some new theorem. You're there to apply theorems that have already been well established within the discipline.

> How hard is EE?

People say it's the hardest of the engineering disciplines. I've taken a few EE courses, and didn't have much trouble, granted, it's only circuits and the second physics course. Difficulty will probably depend on how much you catch on with the subject.

> What kind math will I need to learn?

Algebra, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, Calculus (Differential, Integral, Multivariable), and Differential Equations. Most universities merge Algebra, Trig, Analytic Geometry into the Calculus courses.

> Will the stuff from high school matter?

Of course. I am of the opinion that everything matters and is useful. All your science, math, english, and even history can come into play depending on your engineering discipline.

> At what point do you start?

Depends. I did Calculus in high school, but retook it since I added my engineering major in my junior year. Met some kids who came in with Calculus I and II credits and started in Multivariable. Some kids who started with Calc II and some who started with algebra or pre-calc. It really depends on you.

> Do professors assume you know close to nothing?

Depends on the professor. My statics professor was very hand holdy. A Physics professor was very hands off. My Calc III professor would teach you a concept and expect you to be able to apply it to contexts you were never taught. There is not a blanket statement to really apply to this question.

> Will I have to teach myself in order to catch up?

You should be teaching yourself because you want to improve, not to reach some arbitrary point.

If you want to be an engineer and you find deficiencies in your skills, then you need to take some time and think about what you want. I am, unfortunately, in the camp of, you should pursue what you're passionate in, as you are more likely to do that work without being told, hence, getting better. It took me several years to actually figure out that I wanted to be an engineer, and despite not having a math course in three years, I went in quite over prepared because I was already doing the work for fun.

There's no rush to make a decision, but in the event you do decide to work on being an engineer, here's some useful references.

Just-in-Time: http://www.amazon.com/Just--Algebra-Trigonometry-Transcendentals-Calculus/dp/0321671031

Great book to brush up and refine your algebra and trig skills

Schaum's Outlines: http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-Calculus-6th-Problems/dp/0071795537/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1465145307&sr=1-1&keywords=schaum+outline+calculus

I am in love with this series. I buy a book for every class I take (and they have one for every engineering/math/physics course). It's a great supplemental text, and this particular book covers Calculus I, II, III and a bit of Differential Equations!

Paul's Online Notes: http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/CalcI/CalcI.aspx

Paul has great lecture notes and tons of practice problems. Invaluable resource.

Using Paul's site, you can also scan what kind of math is in engineering. Bit of warning, some of it will look scary at first. When I first started, the symbol for a partial derivative looked really intimidating. When you reach that point, you'll laugh at the fact you found it intimidating in the first place.

Best of luck OP!

Engineering paper is like graph paper, but the graph is only printed on the back of the paper (and it's printed very dark on the back). This means that you can see the graph from the front of the paper, but it's very faint and isn't distracting like graph paper normally is when you write on it. The top of it is also usually divided into 3 sections for your header, which is nice for including the date, the subject, and the page number for notes. The downsides are that it can be a bit more expensive (depending on what brand you get) and it really can only be used on one side for the most part (because the graph is printed very dark on the back).

I personally prefer the Roaring Springs pads in "buff" color (not a gross green-yellow, but a more aesthetically pleasing brown-yellow) because it's some nice quality paper with good weight to it and the pads are solid. You can buy it on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Roaring-Spring-Engineering-Enclosed-95182/dp/B001TJ5JZM), but I instead bought a full case of 24 pads for ~$120 ($5 per pad) in the middle of my freshmen year when I found the kind of paper I liked best. I've gone through about 2-3 pads a semester up to this point, which isn't terrible in terms of cost (pirate/don't buy one textbook and you come out a long ways ahead) and I get to write on nice paper.

There are also some classes that mandate you to use engineering paper, not so much in EE, but I've seen some mech e classes where the professor requires all assignments to be handed in on it. I'm guessing it mostly is for assignments with drawings and such included, since the graph background on the paper would make the drawings neater to look at. It's also pretty great for math notes/assignments, since it makes graphs easy without the super thick lines of most graph papers.

I personally did not care for the Philpot book. I found the Hibbeler Mechanics of Materials book to be far superior. However, I had to purchase the online version of the textbook for my class and I found the animations for that text to be very helpful.

When it comes to the Machine Design course I really liked Machine Elements in Mechanical Design by Mott, and Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design. Machine Design by Norton was my required text for my Machine Design course and the rest of the class, including myself, found that text to be very difficult to follow. It felt like, at least in the fourth edition, the author released a new edition without thoroughly checking his examples. Therefor, about 9 weeks into the course the professor decided to switch textbooks and assigned yet another text for the class. Having fallen for that trap already, I did a quick amazon search and bought the highest rated machinery design textbook; which was the textbook by Mott.

Also, keep in mind that you don't have to spend $100 for a textbook that is not required for the class. Do as I did and purchase either an international edition or better yet and old edition for which you can easily obtain a solutions manual.

It should go without saying that there are many avenues for purchasing textbooks online. I used to frequent Abebooks, but Amazon has since bought it and I have found that their prices have began to increase. Your best bet is to use a site like Bigwords because a site like that searches many textbook websites for all of the textbooks you want, then picks the best price including things like shipping and coupon offers.

Best of luck.

I can't help with MATLAB much, but with Java I'd recommend a couple things.

For books, The Java Programming Language, from the creators of Java is an excellent resource. Another book that is not specifically Java related that I recommend is The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, as it is a great book on programming practices and good things to know. I've read or looked at a bunch of the books by the Pragmatic guys and they are all really good if you ever get into other languages as well.

In general though for all programming, the most practical way to learn is to start with simple problems that interest you, or maybe ones from sites like Project Euler and just learn by doing. There are lots of great tutorials online, and if you ever get stuck, Google and Stack Overflow are your friends.

This is what I carry on my person at school:

---

North Face ACCESS Pack Backpack, No zippers to get your more frequently used items, and plenty of protection for a laptop.

Dell XPS 13 9350-10673SLV Signature Edition Laptop, Is laptop, does what it says on the tin. 13 inch is the perfect size imo, as long as you have something bigger available in your room or a computer lab.

Dell Power Companion External Battery, For those long days on campus where you need a bit more power. Reasonably light with lots of power.

Pilot G2 Pen, The best pen in the world I think. Fantastic at writing a clean, smooth line, and cheap enough that I don't care if I lose it.

Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil
, I think one of the best pencils in the world. However I save this for scantron tests and other places where I can't use a pen, as I honestly prefer the Pilot G2.

Writing Tablet
, It's paper, what more do you want. I experimented around with proper bound notebooks and such but I find this is much more convenient because I usually need to pass in what I write, or it's just scratch I can throw out.

Fuse Chicken TITAN LOOP Key Chain Cable, Charge your phone on the go! Always have to have a lightning cable available.

Casio FX-115ES Scientific Calculator, A nice capable (but not graphing) calculator. I've never had a class where my graphing calculators could be used, and I rarely use this now as well. Still good to have in the backpack though.

iClicker, Gotta get those sweet lecture quiz points.

Mini Wireless Mouse, Just a bluetooth mouse to use with the laptop if I'm doing more intense work. Rarely used, but good to have.

+Phone +Wallet

I learned C through a class, not a website, so unfortunately I don't know of any specific good ones from experience (at UVic, our first programming class is in C. I already knew how to code in other languages, although for about 90% of people there it was their first coding experience). Some quick Googling shows a lot of sites are unfortunately not great for bare beginners (even though some of them try to be).

This one seems okay: http://aelinik.free.fr/c/

There's also this one, but it seems to jump in a little too quickly, so it's maybe a little better-suited to people who already know another language (unless you're good at learning that way): http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/c-tutorial.html

But actually, the best tutorial I know of is in a book rather than online: The C Programming Language (Dennis Ritchie, one of the authors, is actually the guy who created C in the first place). Even if you do want to do an online tutorial it could still be a useful resource to have. Yes it's a little expensive (unless you're fine with a pdf copy you "found" somewhere, wink wink nudge nudge), but if you become a serious C programmer then you might want to have a copy anyway - a lot of C programmers will have this book next to them as they code because it's a great reference resource.

/r/mechanicalpencils

People will recommend the Rotring, of course, but I find the Pentel Graphgear 1000 to be a nicer pencil for a fraction of the cost of the 600, and it has a retractable tip. Pretty much anything by Pentel is good. The Rotrings to be fair are good pencils - the rapid pro has the retractable tip and is really portable, but again, that Rotring price tag.... You could buy a full trio of 0.5/0.7/0.9 in Pentel graphgear for that money.

Other contenders are the Kuru Toga - I really like the "metal" (actually half metal) Kuru Toga Roulette (https://www.amazon.com.au/Mechanical-Pencil-Kurutoga-Roulette-Metaric/dp/B004OHNTVC), but I consider the lead rotation to be a gimmick. They're worth buying despite that, though. The Staedtler 925 is also a decent pencil.

The FE is actually pretty easy with like a 75% pass rate. I took the test two years after graduation with about two weeks of studying and passed (mechanical engineer with a strong gpa).

You HAVE to get the official reference manual. You get this in the actual test and the more you are familiar with it the easier it is to find the relevant equations. That's like half the test--plugging numbers into the relevant equation. I used this review book and felt it did a good job.

Good luck and don't sweat it. Study through the main sections and make sure you understand basic math and physics.

A calculator: TI36X Pro, Casio fx-115ES PLUS, or HP 35s (these are the 3 best calculators allowed on the FE and PE)

If you get a graphing calculator, either get the TI-84 Plus C (which can be used any time graphing calculators are allowed), or get an HP Prime or TI Nspire CS CAS (which are WAY more powerful and useful).

Pencils: Pentel Graphgear 1000, Pentel Kerry, or Rotring Rapid Pro (include an eraser such as the Sakura Foam Eraser). The rapid pro pen is also pretty popular. 0.5mm led is more popular than 0.7mm.

Engineering paper.... especially with some pressboard report covers. They make nice notebooks (albeit expensive), and pair really really well with looseleaf textbooks.

A whiteboard and markers.

a copy of K&R2.

Pricey: a nice soldering station, a multimeter, or a used oscilloscope (such as a Rigol DS1052e).

^^^\The ^^^HP ^^^is ^^^more ^^^expensive ^^^because ^^^it's ^^^targeted ^^^at ^^^professionals, ^^^rather ^^^than ^^^students.

Recent ChE graduate here. I made it out alive so you can too. Here's my list:

1. Read this book by Cal Newport. I can't highly recommend his work enough. In the interest of full transparency I finished my degree before I was introduced to Cal, so I only got to take advantage of his methodology during my last semester. However, it worked fantastically and I can only imagine how much better my other 7 semesters would have been if I found it sooner.
   
2. Use chrome extensions like Chrome Nanny and Stayfocusd to help yourself keep on task. If you don't use chrome, get on it.
   
3. Talk to upperclassmen. This may seem kind of odd, but they learn so much over the years being there that they can prove to be one of your best resources. Do you think most of the answers on /r/engineeringstudents come from freshmen? Go and talk to them. They can give you hyperspecific examples of how to excel because they've done the exact same classes you have.
   
4. Go to office hours. I've had plenty of professor's that outright admitted to me that they are biased towards students that actually attend their office hours and are that much more willing to help you out. Instead of being like the other students who are bitching and moaning saying "that's not fair, they shouldn't play favorites blah blah blah!!" do the smart thing and take advantage of it. Think about it, he/she is setting aside time SPECIFICALLY for you. Take advantage of it. Work on the assignment before you go and have specific questions. This could be the most important part of office hours. Don't just show up expecting it to be handed to you. At least make an attempt and they will shower you with help.
   
5. This may be the most important one so listen up. DO! THE! WORK!! Don't get caught up in that "just one more" mentality. There will never be one single lifehacker article, lifestyle design blog, or reddit post that will change your life (this one included). There are no shortcuts to the things that matter most in life. If you really want it, then go out and get it. No "Top Ten Tips For Beating Procrastination" blog post will magically turn you into a straight A student. If it was that easy everyone would do it. Engineering is difficult. That's why we do it. Plain and simple. At the end of the day every little "tip" and "trick" is just that... a trick. If you don't really want it, it's not for you. It's probably not what you want to hear and I might get downvoted for it, but it's what you need to hear. Spring semester junior year I got an average of 4.77 hours of sleep a night (including weekends and spring break). I've spent 10 hours in a room staring at a problem, only to walk away with three lines done and having to come back the next day for more. There is no substitue for just plain hard work and determination and you've got to be willing to do it.
   
   
   tl;dr: Seriously? You want a two sentence summary? GTFO! If you are so lazy you can't be bothered to read something this short, drop out now. There are no shortcuts for the things that matter in life.

Great post. After a subpar performance in my first term of engineering, I knew something had to change so I picked up this book the other day to hopefully give me some insight on improving my second term. Some of the OPs points that came up were definitely in the book. The book simply helped some light bulbs switch on in my head and hopefully it can do the same for you.

Anyway if you have some free time, the book is relatively short and I suggest you check it out if you need help with being organized and studying.

The book is called

How To Become a Straight-A Student

The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0767922719/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/186-5706736-8151527

I always recommend these books to first year
students:

• How to become a straight-A student
  
  
• How to win at college
  
  The author also has a good blog. Best of luck, things are going to get harder.

Paper doesn't matter much to me I just like off-white paper. However, I do like to have a nicer pencil. The one I currently like is this one most people might see it as pricey for a pencil though. Like all supplies it is a preference. Try things out find what you like but, do not think too hard about it. You'll have a much better time thinking about other things like reading a chapter from your textbooks so lecture isn't your first exposure. Coming from someone who use to obsess over things like this vs my actual course work.

Materials science and engineering student here. If it's an intro to materials science type course, mwalsh2010 has covered most of it. Additionally, expect to index planes and directions in crystal structures, solid solubility, mechanical properties testing methods, phase percentage and lever rule calculations (under phase diagrams), phase transformation reactions (eutectic, eutectoid, paratectic, etc.), and various processing methods. You'll probably mainly study metals and ceramics since they're generally not as complex as polymeric and electronic materials.

This was the text book used in an intro course I took. I'm sure there's a torrent of it out there and should serve as a pretty solid resource.

Basic mechanical properties of materials.

If you would like more resources, feel free to PM me.

My favorite two books for Calc 1,2, and 3 hands down:

How to Ace Calculus

How to Ace the Rest of Calculus

They're short, to the point, and pretty funny honestly.

I'm studying general engineering in the UK so I can guess that the pure maths topics you're likely to learn in the first year is: calculus 1-2, complex numbers, fourier series, solving ordinary differential equations (1st and 2nd order), vectors, matrices and also anything you covered at A-level. If you did things like M1-3, FP1-3 or C1-4 at A-level, making sure you're confident with those topics is probably more useful at this stage.

I only have one textbook, and that's Kreyszigs (it's ~1300 pages and covers A-level to Phd level engineering maths), although I wouldn't really recommend spending a lot on a textbook as it can be a bit daunting and there are plenty of resources online as long as you know which topics you want to be learning.

FE Review Manual: Rapid Preparation for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam is what you'll want. It's pretty extensive and should allow anyone to pass.

Being out of school for three years means you should definitely give it a thorough read. For someone fresh out of school, it's not necessary. You'll pick it back up quick for sure though.

>I have some questions about courses andsubjects for computer engineering ( Software Engineering)

CE and SWE are....a little different so I'll just talk to both a little bit.

CE is closer to Electrical Engineering specializing in Computers so you'd take more hardware oriented courses. Most CE curriculums [I've seen] take you through Circuit Theory, Electronics, Digital Systems, Signal Processing, Computer Organization (aka CPU design), Computer Networks, Embedded Systems, etc.

SWE is closer to applied computer science and is more about building applications and the software development process. So you'd start going through a lot of the early Comp Sci courses (Intro to Programming, Language Processors, Data Structures and Algorithms, Operating Systems, etc.) then you'd start leaning towards topics more closely related to building an actual piece of software like Software Project Management or Quality Assurance.

>Are they any books that you recommend to a complete noob ? Internet links ?

Who reads books?

• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master (how to approach software development and become a better software developer)
  
• Mythical Man Month (an analysis of software project management)
  
• HackerRank // Code Academy (up some basic programming skills)
  
  Other Tips:
  
  

  Teach. Yourself. Git.
  

  
  Video Tutorials:
  
  

• Command-Line Fundamentals (30:32)
  
• Learn Git in 20 Minutes (17:52)
  
• Advanced Git Tutorial (59:06)
  
  Articles & Websites:
  
  
• Interactive Git Tutorial
  
• Git Command Documentation
  
  • Getting Started Git Basics (pictures, explanation of what git is, etc)
    
• Git - The Simple Guide (with pictures)
  
• Git for Beginners (with pictures)

If you mean this one, then YES, it is an EXCELLENT book. Highly recommended.

I looked at the free pages on Amazon and it does seem a bit wordier than the physics books I remember. It could just be the chapter. Maybe it reads like a book; maybe it's incredibly boring :/

If money isn't an issue (or if you're resourceful and internet savvy ;) you can try the book by Serway & Jewett. It's fairly common.

http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Scientists-Engineers-Raymond-Serway/dp/1133947271

As for DE, this book really resonated with me for whatever reason. Your results may vary.

http://www.amazon.com/Course-Differential-Equations-Modeling-Applications/dp/1111827052/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372632638&sr=1-2&keywords=differential+equations+gill

If your issue is with the technical nature of textbooks in general, then you'll either have to deal with it or look for some books that simplify/summarize the material in some way. The only example I can come up with is:

http://www.amazon.com/Div-Grad-Curl-All-That/dp/0393925161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372632816&sr=1-1&keywords=div+grad+curl

Although Div, Grad, Curl, and all That is intended for students in an Electromagnetics course (not Physics 2), it might be helpful. It's an informal overview of Calculus 3 integrals and techniques. The book uses electromagnetism in its examples. I don't think it covers electric circuits, which are a mess of their own. However, there are tons of resources on the internet for circuits. I hope all this was helpful :)

I took the FE Electrical and Computer exam on Sat, Feb 27 and just found out today that I passed so I might be able to help you with studying for it

I started studying around the beginning of February.

1. Like marvellousmedicine said, you most definitely want to look at the reference book they supply you. You will have it on the test and it's good to know where everything is in it. The reference manual is almost 300 pages long so it's good to know which keywords to type to get to the section you want to be in. The test is computer based now so the screen will be split between the reference manual and the actual test. (you can ctrl+f the book)
   
2. I went through Lindeburg's FE Review Manual and the Other Disciplines Review Manual. My roommate rented the first book and it was a lot cheaper a month ago. My school's library had the Other Disciplines Review book that I could check out (for free). So your school might even have the first one as well. The reason I looked at the Other Disciplines Review book was because it had some other electrical sections that the first didn't have. There are also a lot of sample questions in the Lindeburg books. I would go through the sections and try to do the sample questions only using the FE Reference Manual as that will all you get to use on the test. The Lindeburg books are outdated. They were made before they changed the format in 2014 but the content and questions are still good.
   
   In the back of the FE Reference Manual they have all the topics that will be covered by the test as well as how many questions for each topic. The questions are terribly difficult and I didn't think they were trying to trip you up. I am more interested in power so the computer, communications, signals topics gave me the most trouble. If you have any more questions feel free to ask me.
   
   edit: here's what on the Electrical Exam and the Other Disciplines book is not worth whatever price is listed below. The electrical sections I looked at spanned maybe 30-40 pages. I would only look at it if you can get it from the library.

I agree about Felder and Rousseau for Mass and material balances. It is probably the only textbook that I actually reference (mostly for the charts in the back and the unit conversions on the front cover).

I also like Callister for general materials science information.

Perry's is a wonderful reference.

Here's a comment I made on someone else's post a week or two ago.

I took the Electrical/Computer FE in early Feb. I believe the key to studying for the new CBT FE is to use the FE exam specifications for your discipline as a study guide. The focus of the CBT FE is significantly different than the old paper-based FE. In the old version, the morning session was a very broad assessment of the fundamentals of engineering and the afternoon session was dedicated to your discipline. The CBT FE is tailored to your discipline, both the morning and afternoon sections, and goes deeper into your discipline topics than the previous exam. I used the FE Review Manual, which is based on the old exam, for the majority of my studying. The old exam was more breadth than depth, so that book doesn't cover everything that you may encounter. I pulled out my old textbooks to fill in any gaps. Because the CBT FE is still pretty new, I doubt there are any updated review books out there yet.

NCEES has a series of youtube videos that describe the experience, which is very close to what I saw on exam day. Expect to leave the test feeling like you failed, it's meant to be difficult.

The 'reusable writing pad' is a little annoying because the pen writes much thicker than a pencil. But other than that, I don't think you'll notice much difference between taking the CBT and any other paper-based exam.

The reference material is a searchable PDF that displays on half the screen. Download the reference manual from NCEES ahead of time and get familiar with what is and isn't included.

You'll do the first 55 questions then review and submit them. After you submit them, you won't be able to revisit them again. Then you have the option to take a 25-min lunch break before starting the next 55 questions. I ended with about 20 minutes remaining.

My basic strategy: Easy questions first, then the ones inside my concentration area, then the ones outside. You'll usually know in the first 30 seconds or so whether you know enough to answer the question (being familiar with what's in the reference manual helps with this).

There is an option to flag questions for review. But when you get to the end of the section it'll also tell you which questions have not been answered. So don't use it whenever you skip a question. Use it to tell yourself that you're not confident in the answer you've selected so you can return to it if you have time.

Hope that helps.

Same here I'm staring my 3rd year in ME. I've got a TI NSPIRE CX CAS (my school allows it during exams). It does 2D and 3D graphs, it s rechargeable, in color, programmable and does pretty much everything. There s a nice solve function to automaticaly solve equations (even with multiple variables). It also comes with a desktop sofware.

For anyone getting into programming, I strongly recommend The Pragmatic Programmer

This is a little more specific, but if anyone is working with .Net, I'm currently reading CLR Via C# and I think it's amazing.

FE Review Manual
http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336/ref=sr_ob_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1368737700&sr=8-4

I used this book extensively to prepare for the exam. I think I did about 4 full practice exams before I did the actual test. I ended up passing the first time I took it. I highly recommend this book because it also is an excellent reference for all things engineering later on in your life.

If you want an absolute beast of a calculator, I recommend the TI-nspire CX Cas.

It can do anything and everything. It has gotten me through many classes. It can do Complex/Imaginary matrix operations, can graph 3D functions, can solve ODE's, and you can program it to accomplish various tasks.

Just recently bought the new nspire cas. Still getting used to it but man is it sweet. Much more modern and easier to use than my 89 that went missing one day

Casio FX 115ES Plus. I've been using it for a while its saves me a lot of time when doing multiple cross products and solving simultaneous equations (because you know, aintnobodygottimefothat!). It also has more features that you would find helpful. Another contender is the TI-36X Pro (recommended here quite often although I've never used it).

The Yellow Book

Also, second to Mountebank. From what I've heard it helps a ton to be familiar with the reference book and to be familiar with whatever calculator you plan to use. It will save you a buttload of time knowing where to find what you're looking for as opposed to flipping through a million pages trying to find a single equation.

There's a book called Div, Grad, Curl and All That, here is an Amazon link. It's an informal approach to vector mathematics for scientists and engineers and it's pretty readable. If you're struggling with the math, this is for you :) All their examples are EM too.

It's also a good idea to get a study group together. The blind leading the blind actually do get somewhere. :)

From Amazon.com:

Product Description
Advanced, four-line scientific calculator, with higher-level math and science functionality, that is ideal for computer science and engineering courses in which graphing technology may not be permitted.


I used this on all the way through my bachelor and continue to use it during my master and at work:
https://www.amazon.com/Casio-fx-115ES-Engineering-Scientific-Calculator/dp/B007W7SGLO/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1486830009&sr=1-1&keywords=Casio+fx-991

YES!!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TJ5JZM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Some good writing implements will be useful, you'll be doing a lot of writing in the next four year.

some of my favorites are:

Kuru-Toga Roulette

Pentel GraphGear 1000

or, If you want to kill 5 birds with one stone, the Uni-Jestream 4&1 is a solid choice.

This is the yellow engineering pad. Slightly more expensive. 100% worth the extra price.

The buff paper is nice and thick it doesn't feel like I'm writing on tissue paper and it's very mistake friendly since erasing doesn't tear a hole straight through it.

If you haven't read it already...

http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

It depicts Kelly Johnson from Ben Rich's point of view. A great read.

http://www.amazon.com/Roaring-Spring-Engineering-Inches-95182/dp/B001TJ5JZM/ref=sr_1_1?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1417909218&sr=1-1&keywords=engineering+paper+buff

Get him this engineering paper instead. It's a nice crisp paper, and it's a 'buff' color that makes it really easy to find your assignments in a stack of green tissue paper. There's only one student in my classes who has it and I envy him every time I'm trying to find my graded work in a stack of paper.

Parts will come back a LOT so you want to be familiar with that if at all possible. I think that is the technique I use most and unlike Trig Sub you cannot just use a table.

When I was struggling in the calc series I found the How To Ace Calculus books to be very helpful. They are good at translating the math into verbal explanations of concepts so I could connect the computations to a bigger picture. You might see if your library has them, if not, they are very cheap on Amazon. The 2nd one has about 25 pages on Series and then the rest is stuff that you see through Calc 2 and Calc 3.

What part of series is messing you up? Just a general foggy confusion or is there something more specific?

Here is a decent tutorial for c++ and others programming languages: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/cplusplus/index.htm

This is the book that i learned c with. I think theres a free pdf online if you google for it: http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/0131103628

If you can, pick up a copy/PDF of Introduction to Materials http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0470419970/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?qid=1404346873&sr=1-6&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70 Extremely useful book for all things material science.

I used Lindeburg's book.

In retrospect, it wasn't terribly useful except for an ego boost in some topics and really identifying what I was weak in. That being said, if you're doing reasonably well in school you should be fine for the FE. What I would do is review for your discipline specific exam. I didn't cover much for mine in school (Mechanical; didn't learn much, if any, HVAC stuff at school).

Div, Grad, Curl, and All That is a good way to shore up your knowledge of vector calc.

Go with the brand you're most used to. Since it sounds like you use a casio, you'll want this guy.

• Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Forms: A Unified Approach
  
  
• Div, Grad, Curl, and All That: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus
  
  
• Multivariable Mathematics: Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, and Manifolds
  
  
• Advanced Calculus of Several Variables (Dover Books on Mathematics)
  
  
• Calculus of Several Variables (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

Uni Mechanical Pencil, Kuru Toga Roulette Model 0.5mm, Gun Metallic (M510171P.43) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OHNTVC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_CYUgAb0F28VAW


FYI it's under $8 on amazon. I'm not sure if you think the quality is different but I really liked the one I had. I lost it, so now this bad boy is on my Christmas list.

torrent this: http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376785342&sr=8-1&keywords=fe+review

and just make sure you are familiar with formula book

No I don't think so. You will want a scientific calculator that preferably has complex numbers and calculus functions integrated into it. Something like this is ideal. https://www.amazon.com/Casio-fx-115ES-Engineering-Scientific-Calculator/dp/B007W7SGLO?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_3

I used this book: http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336

I focused on stuff in that book that looked less familiar to me, but ultimately went through every chapter the Mechanical discipline would cover. I worked out practice problems and studied the theory behind everything.

Overall, I spent about 2 weeks of light studying and 1 week of hard studying. I allotted a good portion of my winter break to studying, and it was worth it because I handily passed the exam. I did not think it was too tough.

they have it on amazon for cheaper. kuru toga roulette: accept no substitutes.

I second this. If it is allowed it is THE best calculator to have.

https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Instruments-Nspire-Graphing-Calculator/dp/B004NBZAYS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1539915403&sr=8-3&keywords=nspire+cx+cas

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Though if you plan on taking the state licensing exams it might ruin you as graphing calcs aren't allowed on those tests.

K&R C on Amazon (or there are PDFs everywhere):

http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/0131103628

This is the one I use: Casio fx-115ES PLUS
$13 and does 99% of what I need it to do. Anything it can't do I just plug into Wolfram Alpha.

Same calc that I have but I paid around $12 at Walmart. Does everything you need to do that doesn't require complex graphing or data analysis (at that point you should be using Matlab anyway).

This.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719

Read this book

I've been trying to justify one of these, myself.

Get the FERM for http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591263336 .

It is slightly out of date given the new CBT format but PPI has a list online of the chapters you need to study for the test. The new Mechanical specific book is $150, covers slightly more material (that doesn't make a difference since the FE is so easy), and does cover the new test.

http://www.amazon.com/Review-Manual-Preparation-Fundamentals-Engineering/dp/1591263336/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1415862515&sr=8-2&keywords=fe+exam+electrical

Download the NCEES Reference Manual from their website.

Buy the FE Review Manual

They also have a discipline specific review manual for chemical.

C# is a way less complex language than C. It's more strait forward to debug. Also it's object oriented. If you think you know C you'll be cranking out C# in a few hours. Also C# also requires you to be less anal about memory.

https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Brian-W-Kernighan/dp/0131103628
https://www.amazon.com/21st-Century-Tips-New-School/dp/1449327141

No no, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. Do yourself a favor and pick up a Kuru Toga .5mm:

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https://www.amazon.com/Mechanical-Pencil-Roulette-Metallic-M510171P-43/dp/B004OHNTVC/ref=sr_1_4?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1542597860&sr=1-4&keywords=kuru+toga

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Been using mine for 3 years now.

Sounds like the problem was with your learning environment, not you. Getting started with programming is very tough at first; you need all the advantages you can get. But I see a number of things in your post that are serious disadvantages:

• C++: Too much complexity, arcane compiler error messages, requires lots of skill and knowledge to debug, many powerful yet dangerous features you will stumble across before you are ready. NOT a good first language, especially if you don't have a great mentor.
  
• Restricted access to the IDE: hopefully you downloaded a free IDE and practiced a lot at home...
  
• Lackluster book / instructor: this is very important; you need better resources here. I would suggest you dedicate your summer to mastering K&R C. Your mentor would be an online forum of your choosing, such as stackoverflow or r/learnprogramming.
  
  Stick with it! Things get a lot less scary / frustrating once you develop a solid foundation!

Go through every chapter and the complete the problems and practice tests of this book:
FE Review Manual: Rapid Preparation for the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam, 3rd Ed

After a month of doing that, I actually finished an hour early on the first half of the exam. I miscalculated the time.

How is this the top comment? He offers poor advice on grades and no advice on OP's question.

A 65 and 73 are likely equivalent to a C and C+ in your average curved course. Last time I checked, top companies have strict cut offs of at least a 3.0, and for good reason.

> I don't understand what the problem is.

It's twofold. The problem is he doesn't understand the material enough to apply his knowledge effectively. The problem is also he has shitty grades, which equals less job prospects.

>Nobody grades you in the real world, bud.

Yes, because instead of grades you get a finished product. And a 65 on a work project is the equivalent of screwing up a stress/strain analysis. And when you fuck up people die.

OP-you're likely not studying efficiently and/or effectively. Look at Cal Newport's blog and books. He has some great advice on how to study well. You may also want to look into some relaxation exercises as you seem to get very anxious. At the very least you should be doing practice problems until it's practically second nature.