Is it normal to forget most previously learned material?

[jk]

It seems my thread has been hijacked as I am no longer the OP, I guess...

Oops..sorry. Jumped in the middle

 

[jk]

Honestly, what difference does it make?

If the kid is smart enough to memorize tests then he will be smart enough to learn from "On the Job Training"

He may not realize it; but he is studying; he just has a slight advantage because he knows exactly what the test is going to be on. He is not completely taking old tests and getting A's. He has to be putting in some work.

Half the engineer's we hire have to get specialized/trained for months in a general area anyways before they become productive. I never see any of them whip out old math theorems to learn something on the job; lol. You really think electrical engineer's are breaking out a pencil/pad instead of a fluke meter?

We use programs to number crunch. I don't even want to start listing electrical software programs that completely do everything for you.

Anyone remember HTML? Guess what we use now?

Drafting with a board and T-square...Pro/E and Catia all day baby! and I can manipulate it however I want. You want a 3/4 hole there? no problem..done in 3 seconds..you want me to make you a assembly drawing with a exploded view at a certain orientation showing transparent backup geometry? Drafting T-square..a week project...I can do it in 10 minutes in Pro/E...

Want me to run kinematics? How about I route a cable through resistors using logical references on a imported wirelist using E3??

You go ahead and paper and pencil it; I will be out in the field prototyping my designs while you double check your equations! :)

By the way to the kid who says he can pass from using old tests...that won't fly in the later classes; so you better start learning what a 8 hour study session is.

You know someone had to create those nifty tools you use, right? And that someone had to have a deeper understanding of the principles than you seem to think is necessary. Thing is, if want the really interesting jobs, you'll have to get more than a surface understanding. But if you are content to have the kind of job where all you do is follow directions laid out for you, well.. three is a need for that as well.

They are not very interesting jobs and tend to be the ones to get cut first in a downturn

 

[mesa]

It seems my thread has been hijacked as I am no longer the OP, I guess...

My apologies, somehow I misdirected myself in thinking that Woopydalan was the OP, I went to edit my post but that option is not available?