jmog;507911 wrote:When I was in college...

Science/Engineering/Math courses-100% final exams, some take home, some during finals week, some during last week of classes, but always had final exams.
GECs-Maybe 60-70% had final exams, rest were papers/projects.

That sounds eerily like my experience, I was an engineering/math double major (and math was in the A&S college), I only took six traditional non-technical classes, two in psychology, two in communications, one in poly-sci and one in economics. All had finals.

I managed to graduate without taking a single history, sociology, foreign language or English course.

Worked out well. Me flunk English. That's unpossible.

jmog;507917 wrote:I don't know Z4P, while I have definitely learned more while on the job than I did in college, there are plenty of things I've done on the job and learned on the job that I would not have had the tools/knowledge to understand if not for the stuff I learned in college.

Coming as an engineer...

I don't know... None of the programming was learned in school. None of the estimating labor and material costs was learned in school. None of the systems designing was learned in school. The theory gave you a familiarity with the work, but everything was learned on your own on the job.

Tiernan;507749 wrote:Another fine example of the "dumbing down" of America. Back in the day...Finals were a fact of life. You fretted for weeks over the looming Hell that was yet to come. It made you tougher. Kids today are cream puffs.

I think you having access to the internet dumbs us all down worse :rolleyes:

Tiernan;507749 wrote:Another fine example of the "dumbing down" of America. Back in the day...Finals were a fact of life. You fretted for weeks over the looming Hell that was yet to come. It made you tougher. Kids today are cream puffs.

Finals don't make you tougher.

Manhattan Buckeye;507919 wrote:That sounds eerily like my experience, I was an engineering/math double major (and math was in the A&S college), I only took six traditional non-technical classes, two in psychology, two in communications, one in poly-sci and one in economics. All had finals.

I managed to graduate without taking a single history, sociology, foreign language or English course.

Worked out well. Me flunk English. That's unpossible.

I also did a double major in math and engineering with the math department being in A&S as well.

However, i still had to take all the humanities, english, etc classes.

ZWICK 4 PREZ;507943 wrote:I don't know... None of the programming was learned in school. None of the estimating labor and material costs was learned in school. None of the systems designing was learned in school. The theory gave you a familiarity with the work, but everything was learned on your own on the job.

I agree that estimating, maybe programming, etc is job learned. However, as a EE you should have had SOME programming in college that you used as a base to learn the new programming languages for the PCL/HMI cabinets, etc. You had to learn SOME control theory to use as a base to setup said PLC/HMI control systems. You had to have some sort of system design course to use as a background to learn how to design systems where you work now.

I know the EEs at UofA take programming, I know they take control theory, I know they take some design courses, etc. I was there .

I fully agree that most of the actual programming languages/system designs/etc learned in college is different than whatever company you go work for, but you have to agree that the background gained in college on those types of things helped you learn the new systems. In other words, you couldn't do your current job right when you were out of high school. Even if you were smart enough to learn on your own, it would have taken years to learn instead of days/weeks.

jmog;508213 wrote:I agree that estimating, maybe programming, etc is job learned. However, as a EE you should have had SOME programming in college that you used as a base to learn the new programming languages for the PCL/HMI cabinets, etc. You had to learn SOME control theory to use as a base to setup said PLC/HMI control systems. You had to have some sort of system design course to use as a background to learn how to design systems where you work now.

I know the EEs at UofA take programming, I know they take control theory, I know they take some design courses, etc. I was there .

I fully agree that most of the actual programming languages/system designs/etc learned in college is different than whatever company you go work for, but you have to agree that the background gained in college on those types of things helped you learn the new systems. In other words, you couldn't do your current job right when you were out of high school. Even if you were smart enough to learn on your own, it would have taken years to learn instead of days/weeks.

I suppose ur right. I still don't remember shit about the majority of my classes.

Another reason not to attend an Ivy league school, what a joke.

I had a final in every class except most of my math classes because I had an A reguardless if I took the exam or not.

sleeper;508262 wrote:Another reason not to attend an Ivy league school, what a joke.

Except for the much higher salary you'll likely earn right?

Overall I'd say alot of classes had final exams that was just test covering the last third or quarter of the semesters material. Sometimes you need to know the stuff before it, other times you dont. Also....educations a joke so its no wonder the hardest test which shows a students capabilities in the subject matter are going away....Teachers make me puke

I Wear Pants;508162 wrote:Finals don't make you tougher.

Anything that challenges you has the potential of making you mentally or physically tougher. Bleeding Hearts such as yourself are the folks who brought us "Pass / Fail" and "Trophies For Everybody".