i'm thinking about transferring to the Brooklands course now, sounds more like my cup of tea, although the kingston one is still very good, i HATE maths

Yoof is bang on with what he is saying.

Although read his post properly. He didn't say sack off theory and build a racer.

He said build a race car AS WELL as completing a degree

i'm thinking about transferring to the Brooklands course now, sounds more like my cup of tea, although the kingston one is still very good, i HATE maths

The Brooklands course still has a Maths content, and you must complete both Year 1 (compulsary) and Year 2 (optional) Maths to advance onto the Brookes course- these first two years are roughly the same as A2 Level maths (and a little bit more) there is no pure maths content in the final year of Brookes for the BSc course, if you choose the BEng though (a 2 year top-up) you're dumped straight into the Maths with Rob Beale along with the MEng students... have fun!

It's always appealing to go for the course which allows you the most practical time- but come Job Interview if you can't back your practice up with theory, then you're a technician, not an engineer, and hence would be better getting a job as a technician instead of scraping a degree in the years you spend at Uni. I've no desire to be a small cog in a large F1 team- I'd much rather be developing something interesting and have my finger in alot of pies- hence it wasn't essential for me to have a BEng or even an MEng, F1 seems crap anyway- I spoke to a guy a few years back who had spent several weeks lightening a single bolt by some stupidly small amount whilst retaining it's original properties- YAWN!!!

@ yoof

at some point I'm gna go off and hopefully do a motorsport engineering degree at one of the above mentioned uni's and was wondring whether having a couple of years experience working at a sportscar builders is likely to help with gettting in?

also after a visit to oxford brookes I've seen what a mammoth amount if work there is to do and was wondring whether there was still lots of going out and getting wankered? cos it really did look a feckload of work!

cheers mate. :-D

If you don't like maths then you have to think if engineering's really for you!

Both my parents are Electrical and Electronic Engineers and have spent half their lives doing maths (my mum designed networks for Vodafone for 16 years). Even if the course doesn't do maths, any subsequent engineering job you wish to take will involve maths. I'm currently in lower sixth and looking at Universities, every one i've talked to have said they are ideally looking for Maths and/or Physics at A2, and having a good understanding of at least M1/2 maths makes the Physics of engineering much easier to understannd. I enjoy the maths side of engineering as much as the practial side.

If you just like fiddling with cars why not do Auto mechanics or something?

yeh i want practical time, i dont want to be a desk jockey when i leave uni, so chose the motorsport to be able to understand all the theory and get a good basis. I hate maths but it's a tool, just practice until i'm good with it.

good advice tho yoofenstein

If you don't like maths then you have to think if engineering's really for you!

Both my parents are Electrical and Electronic Engineers and have spent half their lives doing maths (my mum designed networks for Vodafone for 16 years). Even if the course doesn't do maths, any subsequent engineering job you wish to take will involve maths. I'm currently in lower sixth and looking at Universities, every one i've talked to have said they are ideally looking for Maths and/or Physics at A2, and having a good understanding of at least M1/2 maths makes the Physics of engineering much easier to understannd. I enjoy the maths side of engineering as much as the practial side.

There's some truth in what you're saying - maths is especially important if you want to go to university to study one of the more 'pure engineering' disciplines (i.e. mech, elec, civil). However, depending on your ultimate choice of career/job you might find that you don't actually use that much...

I use maths every day, but I can't recall the last time I needed anything much more advanced than A-level maths - it's often stuff that wouldn't even tax a GCSE student. If I'd been applying my electronic engineering degree to become an electronic hardware designer then I'd certainly need to brush up on my maths a bit - however I'm working as a system integration engineer in the automotive industry, so automotive knowledge and experience is much more important in this instance.

I agree with Andy regarding the maths you learn will most probably will not be used when you are working.

I did an BEng Automotive Engineering Degree and got a 2.1 and i would say that the maths content was very high, there were subjects like Maths, Vehicle Structures, Finite Elements etc which use very indepth maths to solve problems.

I'd strongly advise anyone that if they don't like maths or they really really struggle with it to think hard before doing an engineering degree as the final grade will depend alot on the maths which is involved throughout the course.

Like Andy i don't use alot maths for my job (Engine Development Engineer at Bentley), the maths i do use at work is pretty basic. Problem is that nowadays engineering companies like to see 'Engineering Degree' on CV's and to get that you'll need to do the maths.

@ yoof

at some point I'm gna go off and hopefully do a motorsport engineering degree at one of the above mentioned uni's and was wondring whether having a couple of years experience working at a sportscar builders is likely to help with gettting in?

also after a visit to oxford brookes I've seen what a mammoth amount if work there is to do and was wondring whether there was still lots of going out and getting wankered? cos it really did look a feckload of work!

cheers mate. :-D

I only did the final year of the Brookes course, there is alot of work, and most of it seems to come in a few big bulks- which is annoying, but there's still enough time to go out and have fun, just have to work hard too, I found the lack of feedback annoying but you soon learn how lecturers think etc.

You can go into Uni as a mature student (I think 25+) but you'd have to ask them about the entry requirements for this.

Cheers

Pete

I agree with Andy regarding the maths you learn will most probably will not be used when you are working.

I did an BEng Automotive Engineering Degree and got a 2.1 and i would say that the maths content was very high, there were subjects like Maths, Vehicle Structures, Finite Elements etc which use very indepth maths to solve problems.

I'd strongly advise anyone that if they don't like maths or they really really struggle with it to think hard before doing an engineering degree as the final grade will depend alot on the maths which is involved throughout the course.

Like Andy i don't use alot maths for my job (Engine Development Engineer at Bentley), the maths i do use at work is pretty basic. Problem is that nowadays engineering companies like to see 'Engineering Degree' on CV's and to get that you'll need to do the maths.

Very true...

Even though you may not be using maths as much as your degree had.. its known the for BEng (And indeed all technical subjects) youve had to do it.. And as maths is commonly regarded as one of the hardest things to study that counts in your favour when going for a job...

Basically If you want an easy ride.. dont choose engineering lol

@ yoof

at some point I'm gna go off and hopefully do a motorsport engineering degree at one of the above mentioned uni's and was wondring whether having a couple of years experience working at a sportscar builders is likely to help with gettting in?

also after a visit to oxford brookes I've seen what a mammoth amount if work there is to do and was wondring whether there was still lots of going out and getting wankered? cos it really did look a feckload of work!

cheers mate. :-D

I only did the final year of the Brookes course, there is alot of work, and most of it seems to come in a few big bulks- which is annoying, but there's still enough time to go out and have fun, just have to work hard too, I found the lack of feedback annoying but you soon learn how lecturers think etc.

You can go into Uni as a mature student (I think 25+) but you'd have to ask them about the entry requirements for this.

Cheers

Pete

nice one mate

cheers very much for that. :-D

I'm studying Btec & NVQ in Motorsport at National College for Motorsport based at Silverstone and TBH.....

It's shite!!! Only done it since September and according to the tutors, we have done data logging? :S Race teams ask us to do and we turn round and say "How the fuck do I do that?" then we get moaned at......can never win :(

I have been told thought that Oxford and Cherwell are 1 of the best places to go in the UK so it's worth a look

Well pull your finger out and go learn how to do data logging yourself?

swansea met uni,.. have one of the best motorsport engineering and design courses in uk,.. one of few universitys that offer it?!

Tav

Kinda different from looking at a book and actually doing it when the college won't let us use logging equipment without them

Tav

Kinda different from looking at a book and actually doing it when the college won't let us use logging equipment without them

Professional data logging kit easily runs into tens of thousands of pounds, so I can appreciate it's not something you can buy to mess about with yourself - nor would the college want you to borrow it.

However, getting some unpaid work placements would be a very good way of gaining the experience you need.