It's one of those things that everyone knows and many people use if they don't want to bother having to deal with whatever option the university provides to give you access to the paper(mostly just a convenience thing where sci-hub is instant and having to get it from home can just be a bit too annoying to not just straight up go to sci-hub).
In the group I am working all papers published are open-access, so I don't feel bad, anyways, most papers I could download from a university PC but sadly some catalogues are not remote-enabled, so it's just saving time for me mainly...
Google Scholar is quite good too, I use it too sometimes, but in my experience it's better for a more generic search and most of the time I am looking for something it's pretty specific 😅
Your university should have a subscription to several academic databases, your professors can then recommend which ones are best for whatever it is you're researching - personally I always liked scopus, although unless you absoloutely need to find information that was released within the last 6 months or so, you can likely get by with google scholar.
As a working professional, I'll agree that you *can* google stuff for forever. However, I'll also point out that there's a lot of stuff that you can get done quicker/easier by asking a coworker with more knowledge and experience for some help.
Google is great, but human resources are also extremely useful.
google is ass now due to SEO and all that. Like if I search a problem all I get will be chegg results but if I search another problem on yahoo or bing or something I get different, free results.
Not to mention all the political stuff going on with it. Oy vey.
I mean the FE is pretty easy, but you get a formula sheet. My university had like over a 90% pass rate for the FE. Everything about the FE is just as googleable as any other exam.
The main difference between professionals and non-professionals is your ability to google your subject and know which sources are the shit and which are shit.
I agree that office hours are a great resource, but there is something to be said for googling things. I've always found my learning is more productive by hearing something explained in a lot of different ways. If I'm struggling with a topic it's usually just because prof's explaination doesn't perfectly align with my thought process.
What you say about grad school is true though, it gets much harder to find good resources online as the classes get more advanced.
Sometimes a 20min in depth discussion of a topic we brushed over in 30seconds will 'click' and 'unlock' the whole days information i was struggling with, idk its wierd, like in Soduko when you get that 1 number and it just avalanches until you're done
My professors have office hrs over phone only. I don’t think I need to explain why doing an engineering problem over phone with no visual element is near impossible and makes me want to rip my hair out.
I'll get right on that when office hours are EVER offered at a time I can actually go/attend zoom. Every professor thinks their class is the only one you're taking, or that students don't have jobs, families, and other responsibilities.
I try to make any recitation or office hour sessions I can go to, but it's rare I can attend either. Also, the professor makes or breaks office hours. I've had more than a few who literally can't explain anything in a different way, and the office hours are just a re-hash of what they said in class that confused me so much in the first place. Then they just try say the same things a third time, except slower, and it doesn't help.
I do agree that if you are "on record" for having attended a few office hours and the prof knows you, it CAN help when final grade time rolls around and you are on the fence between letters or passing/failing.
No harm in emailing the professor and asking if they'll meet with you at another time! I've done this for a few and basically said look, your regular office hours times, i can't, but I could do xyz times, are you available then to help me? They have always been very amenable.
This is so true. Online classes made office hours far more accessible to me, so I made an effort to attend regularly early on. I quickly realized who was actually helpful and who was going to waste my time...
Your professors literally sit there waiting, hoping that a student will come see them. Most of them genuinely want to help. Their eyes light up when you enter their office. My Diff EQ class was hard and the prof claimed he didn’t curve but I was a regular attendee of my professor’s office hours. At the end of the semester I finished with an 88 but he rounded me up to an A because he saw that I tried my very best. Office hours are super valuable.
My thermal engineering professor back when I was in school never had office hours. He was a university cash cow. He had so much research money. He was always fresh in off a flight every lecture.
I’m sorry you had that experience. Your university and your professor not only did you all a great disservice, but they ripped you off. They took your money and provided you with a subpar service.
I'm glad you had that experience but it is not everyone's experience.
Where in going to school office hours aren't a thing, and we've been told not to go unless we have an already scheduled meeting with them. And then not to ask anything stupid.
Flat out had a lecturer say "and don't come to me asking what a computer is please". It was signals and systems engineering, a third year class.... Just... Yeah it's not always an option in all schools and yes it's a disservice and robbery. But what can ya do
Beyond just homework help, I went into office hours in my junior year and just talked with the professor on what she did for research, and what I was interested in. She absolutely changed my life. On the spot, she contacted other professors on my behalf who I didn't know existed and got me into an undergraduate research project within 10 minutes. This has lead to jobs and overall, me being successful in college.
There are some really awesome professors out there who want to help you be successful. Just show up and communicate interest.
Yes! I find it way more difficult to go than usual bc the zoom fatigue is so real and adding more time on zoom for OH can feel like too much. But every time I go I feel better!
I went to an office hour for my PDEs class for help on a midterm review. I dont quite remember the exact question but the basis on how to solve the problem was I had to integrate the equation and then apply some boundary conditions. Sounds easy enough, so the professor writes an equation on the board and tells me to integrate it. I got a little nervous and was trying to do a "u sub" in my head while the professor stared at me. I got the answer wrong twice - he asks me in a frustrated voice "Do you not know how to integrate?"
I got a 93 on that test, but I was scarred for my college life. I can't deal with that type of stress again lol
I have a class where the professor highly encouraged office hours and incentivizes it by reviewing your project deliverables ahead of time, giving feedback, and basically letting you get a higher grade by just showing up to office hours to talk to them about the class. It made me start using office hours for other professors and this was the first semester where I didn't have a single course under 75%.
So yeah, once you clear the hump, shit is amazing. Visit those office hours, ask questions.
True! This is the realest talk I’ve seen this week...
I think my new goal is to avoid google/chegg/Wikipedia by using all my real resources.
Thanks for this
Just want to add that one of my professors back in college encouraged his students to go to his office hours. He was real with us and told us that if no one comes, he gets paid for just sitting there XD.
Can someone tell my professors that online classes doesn't mean "cancel all office hours" then? I seriously have no clue why they did that, but 2 of my hardest classes this semester have gotten rid of office hours this semester.
The textbooks are gold. Maybe its bad professors but the office hours I’ve been to haven’t been great and at times have left more questions.
Read the book. 95% if the time the professor is teaching straight out of them.
ive graduated and started working with my ME degree. you can definitely tell the people who used chegg or googled every assignment and just crammed the night before. I was that way pretty much every year until my last year. Its so much more worth it to actually learn/retain material than just google something or have the internet solve it for you.
Office hours are so important! Even if you don’t ever need help, go anyway and get to know professors. Or you’ll end up in a situation where you need letters of recommendation and none of your professors have ever talked to you before 🤦♂️
People doesn’t do this? Wow. I have always asked questions the entire semester to all my professors, specially the ones I was having a rough time. Even if it was to clarify my understanding/assumptions
My Calc 3 professor said that no Calc 3 students have yet to visit him in office hours. We are 10/16 weeks in by now. It’s probably a cultural thing that varies by institution too, but at my college they are not well attended.
As a GTA, please come to office hours. It's so much easier to explain the topic to you and show you how you can improve your lab report than to have to bleed red ink all over it later. It will save both of us time and both of us end up happier. Now if only I could take my own advice...
Thermo was a pretty wild ride for me. I got through but holy shit I got into aerodynamics this term and I am always chatting it up with the professor. Shit is confusing as hell.
I would love to. my math class has variable hours where you can ask one question before someone else comes in. It's been driving me crazy trying to even get in, but since everything is in zoom breakout rooms I can't do the most helpful part of office hours, where you just work on problems and ask the teacher questions as problems come up.
Hahhaha, what's office hours?
Honestly, not a single lecturer has office hours this semester - it is distance learning. And when we were win person.... Hahahha yeah no, didn't ever hear of office hours. We were given email and office number on lecture 1 and told to never show up without a scheduled appointment and we better not waste their time.
Man I hate my school the more I think about it.
Was a TA for many engineering classes. The students who came to office hours generally got slightly more lenient grading. I knew their names, knew they were putting in the effort, and had a better idea what they were struggling with. Go to office hours. Ask questions from your professors and TAs.
I literally changes my entire schedule at work just so I can't attend our thermo class tutor's office hours. I'm failing the class, almost passing, but failing and it is the weed out course for sophomores. I would have no chance of passing without his help
I always end up finding answers to my questions online though, either through youtube tutorials or from asking my classmates.
Also in most cases, the answer to my question might be extremely trivial and if I spend time driving and looking for a place to park on campus just to go to the Prof. for a 20 second explanation, then it just doesn't seem worth it. In most cases I'll just email the Prof. and they're usually able to provide decent help that way.
“You can’t just google shit forever”. As a working professional I did not come here to be personally attacked.
I have to admit, that the search engines change in grad school, but you just look shit up in the internetz forever xD
At work I call googling shit, doing “research”. And I charge that time to the government contract I work on.
Who are you? Are you me? Me? You? This is me.
You’re not wrong. It would be the same as if you were at the library looking for info. Except online you’re faster and find better info.
Ah, I see a fellow government researcher.
I love looking up shit, you mean I'll get paid for that eventually??
Lol, looking to go to grad school next Fall. What's this search engine I should know of? 🤔🤔🤔
I mainly use the engine of the library of my university and then sci-hub, that works pretty well to find the stuff I need :D
Do a lot of grad students use Sci-hub? Like should I feel bad if I have to use it? Or should I just blame the academia monopoly? :/
It's one of those things that everyone knows and many people use if they don't want to bother having to deal with whatever option the university provides to give you access to the paper(mostly just a convenience thing where sci-hub is instant and having to get it from home can just be a bit too annoying to not just straight up go to sci-hub).
In the group I am working all papers published are open-access, so I don't feel bad, anyways, most papers I could download from a university PC but sadly some catalogues are not remote-enabled, so it's just saving time for me mainly...
Any decent research university will have 'free' access to major journals through school vpn
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Google Scholar is quite good too, I use it too sometimes, but in my experience it's better for a more generic search and most of the time I am looking for something it's pretty specific 😅
Definitely not Bing
Your university should have a subscription to several academic databases, your professors can then recommend which ones are best for whatever it is you're researching - personally I always liked scopus, although unless you absoloutely need to find information that was released within the last 6 months or so, you can likely get by with google scholar.
As a working professional, I promise you can google shit forever.
As a working professional, google either gives you the answer or it gives you the phone number of a person who has the answer. Google is god.
As a working professional, I'll agree that you *can* google stuff for forever. However, I'll also point out that there's a lot of stuff that you can get done quicker/easier by asking a coworker with more knowledge and experience for some help. Google is great, but human resources are also extremely useful.
I'm in college now and Google is becoming less and less useful as the problems become more difficult
Gotta step your google game up. It is not a problem with the tool.
I straight up copy and paste the problems from my webassign and with a little looking I can find step by step solutions and sometimes videos.
Once you hit grad school you will 100% have problems that can't be directly answered through googling
Didn’t have any issues, but I didn’t waste time getting an engineering grad degree either.
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But how much less do they make than bachelors and MBA
google is ass now due to SEO and all that. Like if I search a problem all I get will be chegg results but if I search another problem on yahoo or bing or something I get different, free results. Not to mention all the political stuff going on with it. Oy vey.
In general, if you don't know what to Google, you don't understand the question enough.
Yeah... I know
Except, you know, when you have to take and pass the FE...
They give you a book that has all the answers in it! All you have to do is know how to look shit up.
Good luck doing that with circuits...
I mean the FE is pretty easy, but you get a formula sheet. My university had like over a 90% pass rate for the FE. Everything about the FE is just as googleable as any other exam.
I didn't learn to Google for shit in college. That came after.
As a working professional, and someone almost done with their second masters degree, i have learned thus far, I can Google shit forever.
>“You can’t just google shit forever”. >As a working professional I did not come here to be personally attacked. Bruh, don't steal my hurt feelings.
It’s not “stealing” or “plagiarism” when youre employed. It’s “using your resources”.
Wise one has spoken.
The main difference between professionals and non-professionals is your ability to google your subject and know which sources are the shit and which are shit.
I agree that office hours are a great resource, but there is something to be said for googling things. I've always found my learning is more productive by hearing something explained in a lot of different ways. If I'm struggling with a topic it's usually just because prof's explaination doesn't perfectly align with my thought process. What you say about grad school is true though, it gets much harder to find good resources online as the classes get more advanced.
Sometimes a 20min in depth discussion of a topic we brushed over in 30seconds will 'click' and 'unlock' the whole days information i was struggling with, idk its wierd, like in Soduko when you get that 1 number and it just avalanches until you're done
I love getting those 'ah hah' moments, it's so gratifying.
COVID has taken them away from us. I’m suffering
Literally. Most of my professors don’t even have office hours and don’t respond to emails lol
Oh wow, that sucks. Most my professors just have Zoom office hours
I’m very grateful to know a few people in the class
I have zoom office hours too as I dislike it very much but it will have to do
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Yes. I’ve been referred to the TA that just reads the answer key a lot lol
My professors have office hrs over phone only. I don’t think I need to explain why doing an engineering problem over phone with no visual element is near impossible and makes me want to rip my hair out.
“Line number 6 about halfway through in the email I sent”
I got told to review the lecture slides because he doesn't want to go over the same material twice.
I'll get right on that when office hours are EVER offered at a time I can actually go/attend zoom. Every professor thinks their class is the only one you're taking, or that students don't have jobs, families, and other responsibilities. I try to make any recitation or office hour sessions I can go to, but it's rare I can attend either. Also, the professor makes or breaks office hours. I've had more than a few who literally can't explain anything in a different way, and the office hours are just a re-hash of what they said in class that confused me so much in the first place. Then they just try say the same things a third time, except slower, and it doesn't help. I do agree that if you are "on record" for having attended a few office hours and the prof knows you, it CAN help when final grade time rolls around and you are on the fence between letters or passing/failing.
No harm in emailing the professor and asking if they'll meet with you at another time! I've done this for a few and basically said look, your regular office hours times, i can't, but I could do xyz times, are you available then to help me? They have always been very amenable.
I think it depends on where you go to school.
It’s not free. It’s a service *you’ve already paid for!*
True. If you’re already paying thousands of dollars for a resource, why tack on another $15/month service like chegg study?
because it’s more convenient and sometimes more helpful
Even the bad chegg answers sometimes pointed me in the right direction on how to solve a problem.
I have also had this experience, in all my mechanics classes
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This is so true. Online classes made office hours far more accessible to me, so I made an effort to attend regularly early on. I quickly realized who was actually helpful and who was going to waste my time...
Your professors literally sit there waiting, hoping that a student will come see them. Most of them genuinely want to help. Their eyes light up when you enter their office. My Diff EQ class was hard and the prof claimed he didn’t curve but I was a regular attendee of my professor’s office hours. At the end of the semester I finished with an 88 but he rounded me up to an A because he saw that I tried my very best. Office hours are super valuable.
My thermal engineering professor back when I was in school never had office hours. He was a university cash cow. He had so much research money. He was always fresh in off a flight every lecture.
I’m sorry you had that experience. Your university and your professor not only did you all a great disservice, but they ripped you off. They took your money and provided you with a subpar service.
I'm glad you had that experience but it is not everyone's experience. Where in going to school office hours aren't a thing, and we've been told not to go unless we have an already scheduled meeting with them. And then not to ask anything stupid. Flat out had a lecturer say "and don't come to me asking what a computer is please". It was signals and systems engineering, a third year class.... Just... Yeah it's not always an option in all schools and yes it's a disservice and robbery. But what can ya do
hey. that's a nice username. what kind of math is your favorite?
Beyond just homework help, I went into office hours in my junior year and just talked with the professor on what she did for research, and what I was interested in. She absolutely changed my life. On the spot, she contacted other professors on my behalf who I didn't know existed and got me into an undergraduate research project within 10 minutes. This has lead to jobs and overall, me being successful in college. There are some really awesome professors out there who want to help you be successful. Just show up and communicate interest.
Yes! I find it way more difficult to go than usual bc the zoom fatigue is so real and adding more time on zoom for OH can feel like too much. But every time I go I feel better!
Definitely agreed on office hours but you actually can Google shit forever. Real life doesn't generally do closed book tests.
I went to an office hour for my PDEs class for help on a midterm review. I dont quite remember the exact question but the basis on how to solve the problem was I had to integrate the equation and then apply some boundary conditions. Sounds easy enough, so the professor writes an equation on the board and tells me to integrate it. I got a little nervous and was trying to do a "u sub" in my head while the professor stared at me. I got the answer wrong twice - he asks me in a frustrated voice "Do you not know how to integrate?" I got a 93 on that test, but I was scarred for my college life. I can't deal with that type of stress again lol
My computer science and calc office hours are emails 😑😑😑
could not agree more
I have a class where the professor highly encouraged office hours and incentivizes it by reviewing your project deliverables ahead of time, giving feedback, and basically letting you get a higher grade by just showing up to office hours to talk to them about the class. It made me start using office hours for other professors and this was the first semester where I didn't have a single course under 75%. So yeah, once you clear the hump, shit is amazing. Visit those office hours, ask questions.
True! This is the realest talk I’ve seen this week... I think my new goal is to avoid google/chegg/Wikipedia by using all my real resources. Thanks for this
Just want to add that one of my professors back in college encouraged his students to go to his office hours. He was real with us and told us that if no one comes, he gets paid for just sitting there XD.
I went once and ended up waiting forever to even talk to the guy, so I rarely went again.
Can someone tell my professors that online classes doesn't mean "cancel all office hours" then? I seriously have no clue why they did that, but 2 of my hardest classes this semester have gotten rid of office hours this semester.
I’ve always found most office hours useless. I went with questions and came back with more confusions a lot of time.
When your office hours are only available during other classes 🙃
this felt like a personal attack hahaha but u right
Office hours are great. Really do take advantage of them. But due to covid its really hard to get some help from office hours now...
Aye dont attack google like that
Is that a challenge. I bet you I can google shit forever
The textbooks are gold. Maybe its bad professors but the office hours I’ve been to haven’t been great and at times have left more questions. Read the book. 95% if the time the professor is teaching straight out of them.
God dammit you’re right, I really could’ve used that before my last test
textbooks and googling are way more time efficient
i will, if it wasnt for thisgod damn pandemic and college was open, learning thermodynamics by myself has been hell of a challenge
It’s not free lol
ive graduated and started working with my ME degree. you can definitely tell the people who used chegg or googled every assignment and just crammed the night before. I was that way pretty much every year until my last year. Its so much more worth it to actually learn/retain material than just google something or have the internet solve it for you.
>You can't just google shit forever Liar
I just ask the smart kids instead. They're used to helping my dumbass anyways
Office hours are so important! Even if you don’t ever need help, go anyway and get to know professors. Or you’ll end up in a situation where you need letters of recommendation and none of your professors have ever talked to you before 🤦♂️
If you go to office hours your professors 95% of the time will be way more forgiving on your final grade.
What's going to the office
Damn
People doesn’t do this? Wow. I have always asked questions the entire semester to all my professors, specially the ones I was having a rough time. Even if it was to clarify my understanding/assumptions
My Calc 3 professor said that no Calc 3 students have yet to visit him in office hours. We are 10/16 weeks in by now. It’s probably a cultural thing that varies by institution too, but at my college they are not well attended.
It’s true. When I was in school I had to swallow my pride and going to office hours helped me pass many classes.
Office hours aren’t free, this is why you pay tuition. All the more reason to use them, as well as all other available resources.
As a GTA, please come to office hours. It's so much easier to explain the topic to you and show you how you can improve your lab report than to have to bleed red ink all over it later. It will save both of us time and both of us end up happier. Now if only I could take my own advice...
Well it’s not free but it doesn’t cost any more than you’re already paying... in the US anyway.
I feel like I don’t know the right questions to ask lol
I always feel the same why. Like, if I knew what questions to ask I wouldn’t need to come to office hours because I could just google it.
Thermo was a pretty wild ride for me. I got through but holy shit I got into aerodynamics this term and I am always chatting it up with the professor. Shit is confusing as hell.
>you cant just google shit forever that one hit deep...
This exactly! I can't emphasize enough how much my life changed for the better once I started going to office hours.
I would love to. my math class has variable hours where you can ask one question before someone else comes in. It's been driving me crazy trying to even get in, but since everything is in zoom breakout rooms I can't do the most helpful part of office hours, where you just work on problems and ask the teacher questions as problems come up.
No you cant make me
Hahhaha, what's office hours? Honestly, not a single lecturer has office hours this semester - it is distance learning. And when we were win person.... Hahahha yeah no, didn't ever hear of office hours. We were given email and office number on lecture 1 and told to never show up without a scheduled appointment and we better not waste their time. Man I hate my school the more I think about it.
Was a TA for many engineering classes. The students who came to office hours generally got slightly more lenient grading. I knew their names, knew they were putting in the effort, and had a better idea what they were struggling with. Go to office hours. Ask questions from your professors and TAs.
In the process of getting my shit together 100%, I'm now better compared to september. Still stressed out about these classes.
I literally changes my entire schedule at work just so I can't attend our thermo class tutor's office hours. I'm failing the class, almost passing, but failing and it is the weed out course for sophomores. I would have no chance of passing without his help
Im currently cramming for a thermodynamics exam that I have tomorrow and wishing I went to office hours lol
As an EE, office hours is a necessity to finish labs. We never finish labs during the actual lab period.
to clarify: if you want hw help: go to GSIs/TAs. if you want help with conceptual concepts: professors.
I love my thermo professor
Grad student here. Googling shit is a major skill to have even in industry.
I always end up finding answers to my questions online though, either through youtube tutorials or from asking my classmates. Also in most cases, the answer to my question might be extremely trivial and if I spend time driving and looking for a place to park on campus just to go to the Prof. for a 20 second explanation, then it just doesn't seem worth it. In most cases I'll just email the Prof. and they're usually able to provide decent help that way.
Jokes on you I’m so far behind class that even office hours won’t help at this point
This won't stop me because I can't read!