What first-years say about RE-ENGINEERED

What is the biggest difference between high school and first-year engineering?

  "It was a lot harder than maybe I expected, but it was really nice how they structured the classes. They gave us all the classes; we didn't have to worry about registering, which was really nice. (Note: First-years register for a block of classes with a pre-determined schedule.) The professors and the grading and everything was quite different but I liked it a lot."

  "I'd say the workload in high school was pretty relaxed compared to university. You know, kids might think high school is hard enough, but it's definitely a different ballgame in first-year. As long as you stay on top of it, it's manageable though. You’ve got to make sure you don't fall behind. That's the biggest thing."

"In high school, there’s a lot easier concepts to grasp. I would say (first-year engineering) was more difficult. I definitely think it's doable, but just the amount of time you have to put in to complete your assignments and do them well is a lot higher."

RE-ENGINEERED students were grouped in “Study Squads,” giving them a ready-made group of peers to work with. Daily after-school help sessions were also available. We asked students about how well the supports worked and how they stayed on top of their schoolwork.

  "I think the Study Squads were a super great idea. I definitely think a lot of people don't go into first-year university with a whole lot of connections and I think they did a great job putting a lot of kids into a group that they can really connect with and learn with. I'm still pretty good friends with a lot of my Study Squad from last semester, and this semester I made some brand-new friends too that I can talk to as I go through university."

  "Honestly, I know there's lots of supports available at the school, but I just found that making sure you meet people (was helpful) and then you guys just all keep each other in check, like 'Oh yeah, did you finish this?’ or ‘Have you started this yet?’ Being able to talk to other people about it really helps out."

  "I think more of the official things in place were not too helpful, but typically it's more of an individual (preference) thing. You get to learn (from) other people and that's what really matters and that’s how you improve and that’s how you learn. That's what I found."

  "The instructors are very vocal with communication so often they'll email you within the day at most. Every day there's help sessions after classes on the specific subject so you can go to the Engineering Building and get real help from the TAs (teaching assistants) who mark your projects and know actually exactly what they're looking for in the assignments."

What did you think of using competency-based assessment for marking?

  "Once you got used to it, you could take advantage of it and look at what you needed to improve on and focus where you needed to improve and get better grades. It took a little while to get used to, but I think it was helpful."  

  "I'll say it was okay. Sometimes I liked the marking system based on competency so you could get a better mark if you improved over the course of the semester instead of dealing with your low grades at the beginning. But at the same time, sometimes it felt a little hard marking too. Sometimes if you made one mistake, you'd go down to an 85 instead of (getting a) 96 or something. But I think the competency-based marking system was pretty good.

  "The marking was a lot different. You can get a grade on a certain type of assessment, and if you do better on that later, then it actually improves it. The first month of school was getting used to that new way of assessing, but I actually really enjoyed the competency-based assessment so kudos to the school for that."  

Learn more about competency-based assessment in this article about RE-ENGINEERED.

Instead of writing finals at the end of each semester, RE-ENGINEERED students spent this time in “Discipline Experience” classes. In December, they signed up for a variety of experiences; in April, their experience was focused on the discipline they’ve chosen to focus on for their degree. We talked to students in Engineering Physics about not writing finals and their discipline experience in model rocketry.   

  “Well, no finals was good. I mean, I like assignments way more than tests and I think most people do. Most classes have like two big tests worth 15, 20 percent each. So relative to other courses in university, it was all assignments. That was enjoyable.”

  “It definitely reduces the stress. You had the opportunity to learn more about the individual disciplines and what they might be. Maybe it's not super targeted, but definitely it’s a good idea.”

  "The discipline experience is really awesome because every design principle we're learning actually is directly applied to what we're doing in class and we know we're going to have to use these principles as we go on the next three years (in engineering physics). It really brings everything together."

  "The discipline experience exposes you to design projects. (It's) categorizing the problems themselves so that it makes it easier to look for a solution. For example, the project that my group did was to stabilize the launchpad itself, and we started off by pointing out all the problems in the launchpad and then looking for solutions one by one, and then bringing all of them together to optimize the final solution that would help us build a launch pad on our own. So this exposes us to how design problems are going to look in the engineering field in the future when you are professional engineers."

What would you tell incoming students about RE-ENGINEERED?

  "I think this RE-ENGINEERED program is a great way to tackle engineering differently. I think it did a great job preparing us for what's to come. And, you know, I have a lot more experience and skills than I would in a regular year."

  "The first year was awesome. It was really busy, lots of work, but overall it was really awesome. It's great to have such a wide variety of classes and different experiences throughout the year."

  "It's much more compact. It sometimes gets a bit difficult since we are taking more courses at a time, but then again, time management is key to everything. The professors have done their part in managing the courses within the three-month time span so it's up to the students."