A FRESHER’S GUIDE TO ENGINEERING

Welcome
Congratulations on gaining a place to study Engineering at Oxford. You are lucky enough to have gained a place at
the closest college to the department and with some of the best tutors in the university.

Engineering in first year is split into 5 modules, 4 of which you will be examined on in Prelims at the end of your first
year.

 P1 – Mathematics
 P2 – Electronics and Information Engineering
 P3 – Structures, Mechanics and Materials
 P4 – Thermo-Fluids and Electro-Magnetism
 P5 – Engineering Lab Work

P1 is pretty much a continuation of the maths work you will have done at A Level, whereas the majority of other
material will mainly be new to you, although bits will be familiar from your Physics and Mechanics modules. The last
module (P5) consists of lab work and will be continually assessed throughout the year. You will generally be
expected to do some sort of prep work before each lab. Your lab marks will then be totalled up, and that will form
your mark for the P5 module in Prelims.

Your week will generally consist of 8-10 lectures a week, with a 5 hour lab. You will normally have 2 or 3 tutorial
sheets a week which you will hand in the night before your tutorial. You will then go through the sheet with your
tutor. Tutorials are often done in twos or threes and will normally last an hour. However, this depends on the tutor’s
preference, and they may alter this depending on scheduling constraints or on the complexity of the topic.

General Advice
Books
If, like us, you are advised to buy books such as Kreyzsig and Stephenson, be aware that there are sufficient copies in
the college library that you can book out for the year. No single book is essential for the course, although lecturers
will recommend text books for their lecture course throughout the year. Again, copies are usually available in the
library.

Preparations before you arrive

You will already have been, or soon be, sent revision questions to complete before you arrive. These will then be the
basis of your first tutorials. It’s recommended that you do your best in them, and use these to refresh your maths
and applied physics before you arrive. Don’t be concerned if you find parts difficult.

Summary
We hope that this has covered some of the questions which you may have, before you come up. If you have any
other queries about the course or Oxford life in general, please feel free to email either of us on the addresses
below.
Chris Lim – christopher.lim@st-annes.ox.ac.uk
Sarah Bailey – sarah.bailey@st-annes.ox.ac.uk