By Lincoln Wang
August 2018
Contents
Intro................................1
Prepare...........................2
Courses...........................2
Study...............................5
Beyond............................7
Failure.............................9
Friends..........................11
NTUEE
Survival Guide
Congratulations, you have been accepted to NTU Electrical Engineering,
one of the most prestigious departments in Taiwan! However, the next
four years of your life will not be easy. Electrical Engineering is one of the
hardest engineering majors in addition to being at the best university in
Taiwan: the expectations are high, and the curriculum is rigorous. You
have been warned.
I was once you, excited for college and the opportunities that it would
bring. I was smart and excelled in high school, as were many of my peers
at NTUEE. I did not expect college to be the worst years of my life.
Nevertheless, I ended up spending 6 years to graduate from college, with
a gap year in between for military service, the longest anyone has ever
spent at NTUEE. I failed 51 credit units, the equivalent of 17 classes, and I
have many regrets for the time I wasted. If only someone who had been
through it all could give me advice, I probably would have graduated
sooner, or had a better strategy for navigating difficult classes. So here I
am as that person, and I want to help you succeed for the next four(+)
years.
2

Winter is coming. Prepare yourselves.

Electrical Engineering is not easy. I once attended a networking event and
I met an engineer from India that had become a product manager at a
Taiwanese tech company. When he heard that I studied Electrical
Engineering in university, he looked at me with sympathy and patted me
on the back. “That must have been tough man.”

NTU is not an easy school to be in either. One time in Calculus class, a

student asked why our curriculum was so advanced and difficult. The
professor responded and said, “If you want an easy class, you can transfer
to the school across the street,” referring to a tier 2 school. As the best
school in Taiwan, it is also attended by the smartest people in Taiwan.
Therefore, due to the fact that exams in engineering are graded on a
statistical distribution, if your score is too far from the average, you can
still fail in spite of a curve. It’s not always about how well you do, but how
well you do relative to your incredibly smart peers.

All this is not to discourage you, but to give you a sense of how hard you
have to work. It is also to prevent you from falling into what I call the
Overseas-Student-Syndrome. This is a phenomenon where Overseas (僑
生) or International Students constantly hear about other similar students
failing their classes and delaying graduation, and consequently buying in
to the mindset that they are the same through a self-fulfilling prophecy,
resulting in them also failing classes and delaying graduation. Do not fall
into this mental trap.

It’s all about strategy.

Now let’s talk about course selection. As a NTUEE student, you must a
complete a series of courses across four years. On the department
website, there is a chart of the recommended classes you should take in
each of the four years. However, most of the classes can be taken
anytime and do not have systematic prerequisites.
3

This is what the current course plan looks like:

Year Core Core Elective

Calculus I
Physics I
Chem
Freshmen I OR
Bio
Programming
Logic Design
Calculus II
Physics II
Freshmen II Physics Lab
Circuit Analysis
Circuit Lab
Electronics I
Electronics Lab I
Sophomore I Electromagnetics I
Linear Algebra
Differential Eq
Electronics II
Electronics Lab II
Sophomore II Electromagnetics II
Probability
Signals and System
Algorithms Complex Numbers OR Discrete Math
Lectures Topics Sciences Electronics and Applications Computer Engineering
Modern Physics Electronics Design Data Structures
Junior I Optoelectronics Bio-Med Engineering Communication Theory
Solid State Electronics Integrated Circuit Design Control Systems
Microwaves Power Engineering Computer Architecture
Computer Design Automation
Electronics Design Lab Automated Control Lab
Digital Circuits Lab Embedded Systems Lab
EM Waves Lab Semiconductors
Beyond
Communications Lab Computer Networking Lab
Bio-Med Lab Optoelectronics Lab
Research

As you can see, Junior and Senior year have fewer core courses relative to
Freshmen and Sophomore year. If we add up the number of courses in
each semester, it would look something like this:

Freshmen I Freshmen II Sophomore I Sophomore II

5 6 5 5
Junior I Junior II Senior I Senior II
3 3 1 1

This clearly illustrates that courses are not evenly distributed throughout
the 8 semesters. I personally would recommend a course plan that looks
more like this:

Freshmen I Freshmen II Sophomore I Sophomore II

4 5 4 4
Junior I Junior II Senior I Senior II
3 3 3 3
4

Translating this into actual courses would look like this:

Year Core Core Elective

Calculus I
Physics I
Chem
Freshmen I OR
Bio

Logic Design
Calculus II
Physics II
Freshmen II Physics Lab
Circuit Analysis
Circuit Lab
Electronics I Complex Numbers OR Discrete Math
Electronics Lab I
Sophomore I Programming

Electronics II
Electronics Lab II
Sophomore II Signals and System
Probability

Electromagnetics I

Algorithms
Junior I Differential Eq

Electromagnetics II
Core Elective 1
Core Elective 2
Junior II

Lectures Topics Sciences Electronics and Applications Computer Engineering

Linear Algebra Modern Physics Electronics Design Data Structures
Optoelectronics Bio-Med Engineering Communication Theory
Senior I
Solid State Electronics Integrated Circuit Design Control Systems
Microwaves Power Engineering Computer Architecture
Computer Design Automation
Electronics Design Lab Automated Control Lab
Digital Circuits Lab Embedded Systems Lab
EM Waves Lab Semiconductors
Senior II
Communications Lab Computer Networking Lab
Bio-Med Lab Optoelectronics Lab
Research

*Note that the two core electives in Junior II will come out of Senior I
selection, which leaves Senior I with only 3 courses.

Spreading out classes would result in a more relaxed schedule across 8

semesters, as opposed to cramming too many core classes in the first two
years. This gives you an opportunity to manage your time more
consistently across 4 years, balancing school work with a social life. This is
by no means an end-all-be-all course plan, and can definitely be adjusted
based your own preferences and interests. Feel free to change the
courses around, or just follow the original plan if you’re up for the
challenge. The general idea is to help you understand that the unevenly
distributed course load can be spread out.
5

Hit the Books.

There’s no better way to succeed at NTUEE than to get down to brass
tacks and just study hard. Many of us had the same mindset, however
there were several obstacles that often got in our way:

1. We saw many of our local Taiwanese peers procrastinate studying

until the last week before exams, therefore, we thought we would
be able to do the same a perform equally well. What we didn’t
know was that our peers were some of the best test takers and
crammers in Taiwan, because that’s how they got into NTUEE in
the first place. Thinking we could achieve the same grade as them
was only wishful thinking.
2. Most class lectures were delivered in Chinese, so during the few
first weeks it was difficult to understand and pay attention in class.
We would ultimately fall behind course progress and have to make
it up by self-studying.
3. Whenever we encountered a problem we could not solve or
understand, we thought we had very limited resources to get our
questions answered. Unanswered questions would lead to gaps in
knowledge, which would ultimately reflect in our test scores, that
did not look good. However, there were actually many resources
we were unaware of.

Many of these obstacles could have been easily overcome if I had known
what I know now. I’d like to share some of the lessons learned and
resources available to you here:
6

 Go to class. The least you can do to succeed in a class is to just

attend every class and take notes. Even if you cannot fully
understand the lectures, being present in the classroom will at
least give you an idea of the big concepts to study for. It’s
tempting to skip classes, especially those early in the morning,
however I found myself capturing concepts quicker from class
than self-studying. Furthermore, during professors’ exam reviews,
they will always hint towards important concepts and problem
sets that might appear on the exam.
 If you’re like me, and cannot understand lectures, or do not have
the attention span to listen to three hour lectures, you should
spend time self-studying the material before class. During class
you should then use the time to ask questions to clarify your
questions. If you’re too shy you can also ask questions during
break time or after class.
 Apart from in class resources, every professor will have a
designated office hour for students to ask questions or raise any
other concern that they might have about the class or their
performance. Most students don’t use these office hours wisely,
but there are benefits to using these office hours:
o Firstly, professors will have more time and private space to
explain things to you in detail, contrary to in class
situations.
o Secondly, meeting with the professor one-on-one will help
the professor to know you, in addition to letting her know
that you’re putting in the effort to get your questions
answered. This positive image in their mind could create
more leeway and forgiveness for you when she is deciding
whether to fail you or not.
 Another resource is checking out other textbooks on a particular
subject. Many of the books selected for our classes generally have
some logic and content gaps. Therefore it is extremely helpful to
have another textbook for cross-referencing when studying.
o An example is DK Cheng’s Fundamentals of Engineering
Electromagnetics for Electromagnetics I. Our textbook
leaves out several vector calculus examples that would be
useful for students who need more understanding of
vector calculus and its relevance to Electromagnetics.
o Another example is Engineering Circuit Analysis by Hayt,
Kemmerly, and Durbin for Circuits Analysis. This textbook
offers additional practice problems that are very helpful for
Circuit Analysis, as it is a problem solving and computation
heavy class.
o For the best textbooks, you can either find them listed in
the syllabus or you can inquire your professor which
textbook she prefers beside from the one we use in class.
In terms of actually getting your hands on textbooks, you
can either purchase them at Apex Bookstore near Taipei
7

Main Station, or you can find pdf versions of them online

and read it on your computer or tablet.
 If reading more textbooks or going to office hours isn’t your cup of
tea, you can always resort to finding content on Youtube or free
online lectures on the many MOOC websites. However I still found
that self-studying with multiple textbooks is the most efficient way
to learn a concept, as lecturers online like to take their time
explaining things, which isn’t very time efficient
 If all else fails, the NTUEE faculty has put together study group
sessions for students that are falling behind in curriculum, where
they get TAs to lead students in doing example questions and
answer any questions. Some study groups will also offer free lunch
and have you record attendance, as they will use your attendance
as a qualitative assessment on your efforts in trying to pass that
particular class.

With all these resources at your fingertips, students should almost have
no excuse to fail any class given the correct amount of effort and
dedication. Professors generally are lenient when it comes to failing
students, but if students don’t put the effort into at least showing that
they care about their grades by showing up to class, going to office hours,
or attending study groups, then professors will often fail them without
any hesitation.

Beyond The Hurdle.

Once you have finished the hardest classes of Sophomore year,
congratulations, the hardest part of NTUEE is over. But now a new
challenge lies ahead, where you have to decide which advanced classes
and core electives you should take. Here are several possibilities you
might be facing when you’re at this point:

1. You have done extremely well the past two years and will
continue to pursue Electrical Engineering or related fields as a
career.
2. You barely scraped by and you decided you will never pursue
engineering upon graduating, if that ever happens.
3. You have done reasonably well, but you are still open to different
options and opportunities.
8

If you are in Scenario 1, you are probably a genius and don’t need help in
deciding your ever hopeful and bright future. In all seriousness, you
should begin to figure out which field is something you would be
interested in and begin aligning your course selection to match that field.
For example, if you want to pursue AI and Machine Learning, then you
should take Data Structures, Data Science Lab, Computer Networking Lab
or related classes to maximize your opportunities. You can also commit
your major electives or general electives to taking Computer Science
courses offered in their department to get the best learning experience.
Lastly, take advantage of research project opportunities to work with a
professor and get hands on experience for the field you want to pursue. It
will be a good talking point for job interviews or future career
opportunities.

If you are in Scenario 2, then you are in my boat. I came into college with
aspirations of becoming an engineer, but NTUEE completely destroyed
that dream, making me realize that I probably shouldn’t be an engineer.
The good news is, you don’t have to, but you have to start thinking about
what your exit options are upon graduating. For major electives, you can
complete all 18 units with easy Business courses that don’t require any
prerequisites. Business courses don’t require a lot of studying but more in
class discussion and group projects. You should also figure out how to
leverage your engineering background and use it to your advantage while
transitioning career paths. Engineers can become Technical Sales at big
companies or pursue Product Management at technology companies or
startups. Both of these positions require engineering knowledge but does
not require you to work as an engineer. Feel free to explore different
options and don’t be afraid to branch out, while completing the credit
requirements of NTUEE.
9

If you are in Scenario 3, my suggestion to you would be a combination of

both 1 and 2. Try to discover the resources offered within our
department, but don’t be afraid to branch out and try new things. Join
new clubs and meet different people to discover what other people are
doing and figure out what part of other people’s interest overlap with
yours.

If none of these scenarios sound like what you’re going through, then you
are on your own. However, do not be discouraged. The road less traveled
is usually an exciting one. Reach out to different peers, professors, faculty
members for guidance. You will definitely find people who have done
something partially similar.

When you Fail.

The worst has happened. Your gut tells you that you might have bombed
your exam, and you feel your stomach churning when you the email says
the final grade has been uploaded. Your hands tremble as you log onto
CEIBA or the grade inquiry system through My NTU. When you click in,
and you see the big red F, staring right back at you. You have failed a
class.

I have been there, a total of 17 times. And I can tell you, it is not the end
of the world. Failing a class is not uncommon, so do not be too
discouraged. However, it is important you understand what failing a class
means and the implications that come with it.
10

 You receive 0 credits for taking that class, meaning you will have
to take it again.
 You receive a 0 GPA for that class, which significantly brings down
your average for that semester.
 If you fail more than half of your credits in a semester, you are in a
danger zone of being expelled from school.

The good news is, NTU does not have any serious penalty or probation
system for failing a class. It’s only when you fail ½ of your classes in one
semester, and fail 2/3 in another, will you be expelled. This is significantly
unlikely to happen in the first two semesters, as you will be taking many
basic classes. However, when you began taking less classes after The
Hurdle, it is not unlikely that this will happen. I personally failed ½ one
semester and came really close to failing 2/3 another semester.

On a more positive note, failing classes is nothing to worry about. If you

are in scenario 2, per the last section, you will most likely never need to
discuss your GPA with any employer ever, as it isn’t a strong selling point
on your resume anyway. If you are in scenario 1 or 3, you still have an
opportunity to apply for graduate school at NTU. A few of my peers who
also failed classes were able to get into the respective NTU graduate
schools they wanted to. If you wish to pursue a job, you can instead focus
on research projects or internships that you worked on during your
college years.

Failing a class is not the end of the world, but it is important that you re-
evaluate your studying methodology and where you can improve upon to
pass the class the next time.
11

Connections, Connections, and Connections.

One of my biggest regrets in college was not making enough friends with
local Taiwanese students. I often isolated myself from them due to
cultural misfit, or wanting friends more similar to me. There are several
reasons why you would want to make friends with local students:

 The most practical reasons is to have friends so you can ask

questions. Many NTUEE students were accepted as either
Olympiad Medalists or the Valedictorians of their high school.
They are extremely smart and will usually have no problem
understanding material.
 As the smartest people in Taiwan, these people will likely become
some of the most successful people in Taiwan, as an engineers,
business executives, or entrepreneurs. Keeping these connections
will definitely be beneficial to you at some point in your career. So
while you are still peers, make sure you build strong lasting
relationships with them.
 Even if they weren’t the smartest people, at least you can build
comradery with your classmates as you overcome the struggle
that is NTUEE. Some of the best friendships are built through
hardship. Seize the opportunity.
 12

NTUEE is not an easy road to take, but since you’re already here, you
Contact Me might as well work as hard as you can to succeed. Knowing the proper
resources to leverage and strategies to navigate is important, but
what’s equally important is the hard work you put in. Work hard and
Lincoln Wang enjoy college. Good Luck!

王禮康
Link3904@gmail.com The views and opinions of this article do not reflect the views
of National Taiwan University nor the Department of
Electrical Engineering.