Resources in Chemical Engineering (Part I)

I am a fourth-year student majoring in chemical engineering student and my final semester is nearing soon. I started my academic journey in UCSI University in 2017 as a student under the Foundations in Science program before progressing to degree. I am blessed to have reached where I am today and I would not be here if I had not secured UCSI’s generous scholarship back then. Before I graduates, I would like to leave a couple of excellent tips for my juniors so that they will be able to study effectively, perform well in their examinations, and appreciate the chemical engineering major as much as I do.

This is a multi-part article detailing my study habits throughout the four years of my degree life. Though I will be talking about various study tips in general, I will be emphasizing on one important habit that has earned me outstanding results in my examinations. And that habit is reading. In this article (and the next), I will be discussing about the books I have used to study in my freshman and sophomore years of degree life. I will provide you a list of books which have not only helped me understand what was taught in class much better but also gave me the next-level knowledge required to distinguish myself from my peers and ace my examinations.

My freshman and sophomore years were without a doubt the best years of my university life. There was just so much going on and I discovered myself coming out of my shell and just literally going from strength to strength. I was participating in numerous extracurricular activities while taking six to seven subjects each semester without a worry. I was genuinely happy back then. That is not to say that I did not face any challenges in my academic life (there is more to university life than academia but we will not get into my events that crowded my social calendar in this article just yet). That is to say I was able to take in the workload as positive stress (motivation) instead of viewing it as an obstacle that made people feel powerless. Through the help of my lecturers (well our lecturers) and my best friends, I was able to surpass the challenges present in the nightmarish subjects such as Mass Transfer, Material and Energy Balances, Thermodynamics, and so on… And some of my best friends, in addition, the greatest people I often write about in my former articles, are of the type who spoke less but had so much to share. And you guessed it! Books!

Let us start off with Year One. Organic chemistry. A subject which I went from scoring full marks in the midterm to a borderline pass in my second test. This subject is incredibly wide and requires you to do a lot of self-study through practice questions. And these questions are found in “Organic Chemistry by John McMurry” a book which I borrowed for the entire semester from the library. Tip 1: Save money on books by using your library resources or e-books). The questions in the book are key to acing your midterm, test, and even the final exam as you will encounter very similar questions in all your assessments. Tip 2: Practice a couple of years’ worth of past year papers for this subject. You will appreciate your effort when you open your question booklet on exam day. The next subject is everyone’s favorite (or least my favorite): Calculus. I will admit that I did not perform well in calculus. I was always so confident that I will score high marks in all of my assessments, but I never did due to my careless mistakes and sometimes my lack of understanding on the given problem. That’s why it is advised that you grab a copy of “Thomas’ Calculus” from the library! This book is a must-have for this subject. The material in the lecture notes came from this book and how could they not be? This book offers simple and straightforward solutions to complex problems. I love their examples and practice questions – which I often use to tutor Calculus later on in September-October 2018 semester under the PAL program.

Tip 3: Chemical engineering is not about chemistry. Okay, this is more of a warning than a tip but it applies to me (and even some of our lecturers) who entered the field because I had an aptitude in chemistry. Though chemistry is involved, physics is largely at the heart of this field. That is why Engineering Physics was difficult for me. To be blunt, I do not like physics as I was never good at it in high school. However, as if it were a twist of fate, I learned to enjoy the subject and perhaps even excelled in it towards the ends of the semester thanks to “Schaum’s Outlines: College Physics”, Statics by R.C. Hibbeler, and Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics by Serway-Jewett”. After all, I did tutor this subject immediately in the next semester. I would advise you to take Engineering Physics seriously as it is a prerequisite for Fluid Mechanics in Year Two. My first semester in chemical engineering was quite a blur as I did not know why I was studying what I had chosen, but everything changed during Fluid Mechanics because I felt like I was solving real-life problems by applying my engineering knowledge. And I had “Fluid Mechanics Fundamentals and Applications by Yunus A. Cengel and John M. Cimbala” as my study companion. Just between you and me, Fluid Mechanics is my favorite subject in my undergraduate studies and the subject which I tutored twice in January-April 2019 and January-April 2020 semesters.

Next up, we have Material Engineering which is indeed just an introduction to the vast field of material science. Understanding this subject was a fete. I am not fond of theory as it dominates the first half of the syllabus and I absolutely hate memorizing as a way of studying. It took me a lot of quality time with “Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction by William D. Callister, Jr. and David G. Rethwisch” to fully comprehend the iron-iron carbide phase diagram (one of the few nightmares in this course). I even recall falling out with my best friend while studying on the night of the exam as I kept referring to the contents in the textbook over the lecture notes. Tip 4: Put in the hard work before so you reap the rewards at the end. Do not take something lightly while thinking. “Hey, this is just a Year One subject. I will surely pass and I won’t have to deal with this again.” It does not work this way. If you had taken this subject lightly, you will not be prepared for our Surface Chemistry and Corrosion Engineering courses in the third and fourth years, respectively.

Mathematics I was the subject which marked my dramatic improvement in math. Having earned an A- in Calculus, I was determined to achieve an A in Math I. The content in Math I is essentially multivariable calculus and its applications in engineering. Though I did not use a reference book for this subject, I am confident that “James Stewart Calculus” is sufficient for your studying needs. In fact, I was able to score an A in Math I by practicing every past year paper I could get a hold of and verifying the solutions with my lecturer. One important thing to note about mathematics courses is the tutorial classes. Tip 5: Please select a tutorial class and do not be like some of your seniors who thought attending tutorial classes was a waste of time. Math I tutorial question set is indeed challenging and my tutor encouraged student participation in class by having each of us solve the questions on the board. I found that activity quite enjoyable as I do not mind going in front of the class and sharing my answers on the board. I am training to be a lecturer one day after all.

Last but not least, one of the most enjoyable subjects in Year One was Physical Chemistry – mainly because of the lecturer who was teaching the subject. She had energy rivaling that of a yoga instructor and had an impeccable fashion sense. I carried the thick book “Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by Nivaldo J. Tro” to all my classes and solved the examples in the book as my lecturer explained. You do not have to go over the entire book. I made a checklist by writing out the pages which discussed the content we were going through in class. I have to admit that I never actually set time to study this subject as I did all my studying in class. Tip 6: Always take notes in class. It does not have to be neat or aesthetic. Because you have time to embellish it however you like when you WRITE IT DOWN AGAIN during your own review session or self-study.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.