Re: engineering studies whos doing engineering studies 2014 HSC!!! lets make a thread
A piece of advice to all kids taking engineering studies, to be honest it was probably my least favourite subject due to the broadness of the syllabus which made it very stressful for me in preparation for the HSC, however I feel like a large amount of my stress came from learning to course myself. Hopefully I can provide you with a few helpful tips that will make learning the huge syllabus and concepts within.
Mechanical Analysis
Firstly, truss analysis, I can’t say it enough, you need to be confident with it or you are looking at a guaranteed 6 to 8 marks lost. Learn how to do both method of section and method of joints. The best way I found to learn this was to attempt the more complex style truss questions that were in the Engineering Science (both 2u and 3u) exams in the 1990s, by mastering these you will find any of the ones in today’s exams easy and routine. Learn how to calculate velocity ratio and Mechanical advantage; you only have to look at the 2013 HSC exam questions involving these to see how many varieties there are of using these calculations.
Materials Analysis
Materials analysis is extremely important and it is important to be able to identify suitable materials for certain applications as almost every year there is a question along the lines of… “State an appropriate material for…” No what the properties for materials commonly used in industry. Such as, concrete, steel, (metals in general), wood, polymers, etc. Find out why certain materials are better than others, including types of strengths, flexibility, cost, weight and many more properties. Manufacturing processes are also a very important part of the course as well as you will surely be asked why manufacturing process X, Y and Z were used or which process would be more appropriate. So know what processes cause what property changes and why these changes occur in terms of crystalline structure. For example forging gives great directional strength as its outer grain boundaries have been deformed in directions parallel with the surface. Heat treatment is once again one of the important parts of the course. Know the main ones; tempering, annealing, hardening and quenching. Learn what temperatures the material is relative to the recrystallization point, learn what rate the material is cooled at and which metals are suited for each treatment. Know the ingredients of concrete and reinforced concretes. Know the difference types of glass that are used and what make them different and how they are prepared.
Of course there are many other things that are important that lie within each module such as electronic circuits (which is also covered in prelim Physics), parts of aircraft, and which flaps cause what mauver and so on. It is really important to read widely in this subject, get books from your library watch interesting docos on youtube and whatever else you can find. A good well rounded general knowledge will be more beneficial than you can imagine. If the only textbook or source you currently use is Copeland’s Definite guide, please don’t just rely on that as it only touches the surface on the syllabus and won’t prepare you in writing HSC exam responses.
The historical parts of the exam will also be much easier if you can use your general knowledge to answer the questions, as most of the historical questions will not be covered in class, as it can be anything. I feel like the course doesn’t teach you what will be in the exam but more and way of critical thinking which allows you to figure out what the answer could or should be.
When it comes to report writing for assessment tasks throughout the year, if you are not fully confident with the structure and way of writing it I strongly recommend asking your teachers to email Wollongong University and try and get in touch with Dr Bob Wheway. He has an excellent booklet explaining the structure of report writing and what is meant to be included in each section as well as providing excellent examples.
Now I am sure a lot of the people on this website already know everything I have just written as they have great teachers or tutors in the subject, but I just thought I would put this up for any of those kids, who may be the only person at their school studying this topic or be in a very small group, who may be struggling to get help, so simply because someone’s teacher might be poor quality. But for whatever reason, I hope it has helped, I know this subject can suck at times. Best wishes to all studying this course in 2014.
