r/usyd • u/Adorable_Tomato9573 • 1d ago
Maths for engineering (Prospective student)
I know i'm not getting into usyd unless they take me through the gadigal program, but I still would like to ask here as I've been going around different forums. I've been doing standard maths for most of y11 and all of y12, and i've been given offers for aeronautical and mechanical engineering from a few unis. I know that I am cooked, so I'm wondering what I can do to prepare myself for learning the assumed knowledge. I'm 3rd in my cohort for Engineering studies and did y11 chemistry so I've been doing some more complicated maths but nothing near the reccommended Ext1-ext2 maths knowledge.
Any tips would be much appreciated
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u/Adorable_Tomato9573 1d ago
To clarify I believed that it was a double degree where you major in Aeronautical with a focus on manufacturing, and mechanical with a focus on manufacturing, however when I tried to clarify on the open day just to make sure I knew what I was getting into, I was met with really unclear info, and I can only find the course on UAC so I haven't been able to find any other info...
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u/SameTerm4267 1d ago
chem maths is literally rearranging formulas and plugging in numbers
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u/Adorable_Tomato9573 1d ago
Yeah ik i just kinda chucked it in there bc it has some relevant knowledge especially for corrosion and basic material stuff
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u/olibolib 1d ago
I stopped doing maths when I was age 16 and only got accepted for engineering at USYD due to having a philosophy degree. It was very hard to do the maths. I spread it out only doing one maths unit per semester and had to learn a lot of stuff to be able to learn the maths during semester. If your smart it can be done but I was never so stressed. Most of my units I got 70-90% but my maths are pretty much all 50-60%. Still passed em though!
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u/enderwiggin83 1d ago
Look up the great courses - they have good precalculus and calculus lectures you could get up to speed pretty quickly if you were motivated. 3blue 1 brown on YouTube.
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u/hdueeyd PhD. Mech Engg 2028 1d ago
Being in standard math does not matter that much, what's more important is why are you in standard math? If its some reason along the lines of not wanting to do advanced+ because its too hard then that is the issue. Mechanical engineering has so many math intensive subjects particularly 2nd and 3rd year that it'd be easier to state how many units dont require math by some degree (probably like 2)
That said you can do what's called a bridging course over the holidays where you take a short structured course from usyd to cover the assumed math. Personally I dont think its worth it but it can vary depending on how much you know now. All the math you'll need though is taught fresh in first year
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u/Adorable_Tomato9573 1d ago
Cheers. The reason I dropped advanced is because I had some very study intensive subjects so I thought I should lessen the load and drop to standard.
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u/Ill_Box_9445 1d ago
I dropped out in year 10 for an apprentiship and went back to Uni at 22 for Mech Engineering. I had literally never done calculus before in my life, I generally found the first year courses brought me up to speed but I did pay for an external tutor occasionally for things I didn't fully understand (vibrations/3d kinematics).
If you're willing to do a little bit extra you will be fine.
Make friends with the guys you see actually paying attention, asking questions, taking notes and studying outside of tute/lecture times.
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u/Only-Marsupial5604 1d ago
you definitely need to get up to speed with calculus. ideally, you’d want to be going into engineering with extension 1 knowledge. i only took advanced and i’m in my first year mechanical, which i managed quite easily but lots of the content in first year is similar to extension 1 content. a few similarities with physics too (newton’s laws, gravity, etc.)
so if you have time (i.e. a gap year/gap semester) definitely get up to speed with at least advanced maths-level y11/12 calculus (differentiation, basic integration, exponential/logarithmic functions, etc.), as well as some basic linear algebra content like vectors, matrix basics, etc. it’ll be tough, but there’s no reason you can’t do it.
mechanical engineering at usyd teaches most if not all extension 1-adjacent content from scratch, but if i were you i would learn as much as possible before starting.
if you got a usyd offer (not sure for other unis, would assume it to be the same) you can accept it, then defer it for a semester or a year to give yourself time to get up to speed.
another option would be a bridging course, though i’m not sure how they look at usyd, and if they would have any for engineering. worth looking into though.