Engineering is hard, if you are not that smart and cannot optimize problem solving. If you can't see the shortcuts (e.g. zero force members in Statics problems), it takes longer. I struggled.

This is how engineering education was explained to me:

1st year: Well-defined problems, well-defined answers

2nd year: Less-defined problems (labs)

3rd year: Harder problems where part of it is defining what the problem is, more labs

4th year: A vague problem like design a plant to process X and produce Y

I believe the purpose of engineering education is to teach you effective problem solving. Yes,