Universal Technical Institute

Maintenance/Repairs
41

Maybe this should be a situation where one shoe doesn’t fit every foot so to speak. Personally, I’m a very avid reader and hate studying for tests. Either I can figure it out or I can’t.
I’ve also never failed any tests except for one and that was my Aircraft Powerplant exam. All 3 parts of the written were flunked and flunked miserably.

Some months of hands-on practical work and the next go-around at the FAA center had me passing all 3 parts with a roughly 90 percentile score on each one. I didn’t crack a book at all between the original sinking and the redeux.
Maybe it was jitters the first time. Who knows.

42

“I really resent the implication that I shouldn’t be taking the tests, because I might not be ready”

If you need to spend a significant amount of time and money on pre-tests and study guides to pass the test, then why would you take it? In a situation like that you’re studying not to better yourself or gain a greater understanding, you’re just studying to pass a test. Passing a test doesn’t make someone a better mechanic. Being a better mechanic makes someone pass the test. The point of the test is not to pass it, it’s to tell you what you know. Take the test. If you pass, you pass. If you fail, you know what your weaknesses are and you can address them.

Whenever I need to renew my state emissions certification I go back over the handbook and study up a bit on some salient points. But if I can’t pass the test without 2 months advance warning, study guides, and tutorials, I really shouldn’t be certified, should I?

“But studying is bad . . . because the grade won’t reflect your true knowledge and/or ability”

Yes, that’s right, if the studying is solely for the test. If you cram your head full of procedures and definitions for a few days to pass a test and then never revisit that knowledge, your test results don’t mean a thing because you’re not serious about the material. But if you regularly learn more and become more knowledgeable (which I know you do), then you can rightly be called an expert in your field, no matter what it is.

43

I am and have always been an obsessive-compulsive reader. But I need to understand why things happen, I can’t learn by “rote”. I always did terrible in English because to me the rules are all just made up. I had a hard time with history because I couldn’t remember the names and dates. They were all just details. Physics came relatively easy because it all just made sense.

If I can understand something, I’ll retain it forever. If I have to remember it, I’m good for less than a day.

44

You can explain all you want

You are entitled to your opinion

I’m not going to win you over

You’re not going to win me over

I’m sticking to my guns, because that’s what you do when you feel correct

I will say it again, a little differently this time . . . If somebody studies for an exam, I will think no less of them, versus showing up at the exam cold turkey

If anything, I admire that they set aside the time to study.

45
I always did terrible in English because to me the rules are all just made up. I had a hard time with history because I couldn't remember the names and dates. They were all just details. Physics came relatively easy because it all just made sense.

That explains half the kids at MIT. I’ve found that most technical people have a hard time with English and history. I also found that people who are good at memorizing are LOUSY at Math. They tend to memorize all the math formulas. I had a hard time memorizing all the formulas…instead I found it easier to memorize how to derive the formulas. So I’d remember ONE formula…and then derive the other formulas from the one I memorized. Lot less clutter. Also helps you see problems differently.

46

Db, you’re not getting it. I don’t believe I studying only to pass exams. I believe in studying to understand the material. Our difference here is purely semantics. Our difference is purely in how we’re using the word “study”.

I’ll defer from explaining any further. If you can’t understand from what I’ve written so far, you never will.

47

Mike, that has been my experience too. It’s been my experience most technical people are good and delving into things and truly understanding them, but not so good at memorizing details.

48
Mike, that has been my experience too. It's been my experience most technical people are good and delving into things and truly understanding them, but not so good at memorizing details.

There are exceptions to that…My daughter is. She maxed the Math and English of the SATs. Her memory is astounding…and she’s extremely good at analytical thought.

I see 4 groups of human intelligence.

  1. Can retain facts, dates…etc - but have a more difficult time with analytical thought.

  2. Good at analytic thought, but not great at retaining facts, dates…etc. (I easily fall into this).

  3. Good at analytical thought and can retain facts, dates…etc. These people are near or at genius level.

  4. Poor at analytic thought and can’t retain facts, dates…etc. Below average IQ.

49

I’m number 4.
Okay, maybe I’m “marginal” at analytical thought… I can’t remember.
Sincere respect to your daughter.

50

After many years as a self employed mechanic I took and passed all the ASE automotive exams in 2 nights with no preparation. The tests were difficult enough to make me believe that they would indicate either a good working knowledge of the various systems in an automobile or a thorough training in the test itself.

If I look around a shop and find that they keep the place in order and regularly swept, mechanics who are clean with well equipped tool boxes and all the needed equipment is well located and in operating condition and there were ASE certifications for all the work that was done there I would tend to think it was a professional operation worth considering when work was needed.

As for UTI, though. I am not familiar with that school but I am somewhat familiar with 2 community college automotive programs in Mississippi and feel certain that for those who are mechanically inclined and honestly hoping to make a career in automobile repair such schools offer about the best opportunity available.

51

Nothing against Educators, but don’t they usually only work about 10 months out of the year? And have holidays off? An auto mechanic has to buy all their own tools, do lots of work for a reduced rate, some work is done for for free and no one cries for them.

I have in laws that are teachers and they both knock down 6 figures plus benefits, and they are always crying. If its so bad the teachers would leave. Around here a teacher just starting out makes about 34k a year, pretty good for a part time job with benefits.

Do teachers bust their knuckles? Do teachers get called out of a nice warm bed at 3am when its -20 because some drunk hit a pole? Do teachers have to invest 10-30k in tools? Do teachers rush into burning buildings? Do teachers have to climb an icy pole at 1am and work 40 foot in the air off hooks for hours?

get my drift?

We could cry for people in many career fields, but all you ever hear about is the poor teachers and how mistreated they are, please. Most of us are mistreated in our professions, no one cries for us.

52

I turned down an offer to work for a community college automotive repair program, @Rick. There were 6 instructors who were extremely well qualified, experienced mechanics who like me, realized that they were facing the physical decline from years of rolling under a car with a TH-350 on their stomach in the morning and swinging the cylinder head onto a 6 cylinder in the afternoon. We all wanted to teach the young mechanics to do a good job while taking care of themselves.

As for time off, I have argued for a 12 month school calender for many years and our kids would benefit greatly if they attended year round.

Most automotive instructors I know are semi retired mechanics, some still own their shops that are rented out to young gear heads they trained.

53

@rodknox

I agree, I was referring to elementary and high school teachers.

54

From what I saw for 17 years at the college (I didn’t teach, I was the Director of the Corporate Training Center), the biggest problems with teaching are that there’s lots and lots and lots of politics and the teachers have to start over again and reinvent the wheel all over again over and over and over again every semester or every year (depending on their field) with a whole new group of students. Same work, same problems, same deal every semester, sort of like reliving your life over and over again in a never ending story, like a film stuck in an endless loop. Even though I could have gotten summers off if I had taught (I worked all year around), I could not have taught.

I know teachers who love what they do and work very, very hard at it. I know others who do it just for its benefits (yup, summers off, tenure, being in charge of the class when they’re in session, and they can BS their lives away), and I know others that spend their entire careers “blowing hot air”. The latter never ever make any attempt to keep up with their field and never learned another thing once they got their grad degree. They’re mostly liberal arts profs.

I know teachers with PhDs and MDs that never stop doing research, never stop studying, never stop learning, never stop growing. Typically they’re in the fields of physics and medicine. A few are renowned in their fields and affiliated with (in two cases) Los Alamos and (in one case) CERN. For these people, teaching allows them to keep growing in a way that a regular 9-5 office job would not.

There are an endless range of reasons why teachers teach. Personally, I could never stand being in that endless loop, and I was too invested in my family to be focused on constantly advancing myself.

Yeah, they get summers off if they choose. And teaching can be an easy ride through life, typically for those that chose the easy fields of study in college (is there a trend there?). But IMHO good dedicated teachers deserve every penny they get. I couldn’t do it. Although it would have been nice to have summers off.

Teaching can be a good racket, a lot of work, or an opportunity to grow endlessly like no other job. It’s all up to the individual.

55
Although it would have been nice to have summers off.

A lot of teachers I know don’t have summers off. They either teach summer school or pick up a summer job…especially here in NH where Teachers salaries is low - yet cost of living is high. In our small town in NH…starting out as a teacher - you either have a spouse who has a good job…or you live at home with your parents. It’s almost impossible to get an apartment or house on what we pay our teachers. We have way too many retirees to vote in pay raises. If you don’t count the summers…a starting teacher in many NH towns make slightly more then minimum wage.

56

All true, Mike. All true.
The comment that was made by a previous poster that the teachers they knew made six figure incomes did not reflect the reality here in NH. I made more than the base for even full profs with PhDs, and I wasn’t getting rich. Although I have to admit that my divorce decree was a major factor in that. But that’s another story not for this forum. And the pay scale here in NH for primary and secondary school teachers would be pretty tough to live on.

57

@WheresRick: “Nothing against Educators, but don’t they usually only work about 10 months out of the year? And have holidays off…? I have in laws that are teachers and they both knock down 6 figures plus benefits, and they are always crying.”

I’m guessing your in-laws work in higher education? If that’s the case, you might consider that educating students is probably a small part of their jobs. Tenure-track faculty also have to serve on committees and have other responsibilities to participate in college and university governance. They also do extensive research and writing/revising as part of their responsibilities. Some even have listed in their job descriptions and annual evaluations that they are responsible for community involvement. In addition, most faculty who go on sabbatical do so to conduct extensive research in their disciplines. To add insult to injury, most tenure-track faculty start at salaries near $50,000/year, and that can be after earning a Ph.D. and working a low wage postdoctoral research position for a year or more.

It’s easy to underestimate the workload of higher education faculty. Most of them work hard to be experts in their respective disciplines.

58

Mike, you left out this qualifier: " if they choose". Many do, most don’t.

59

@Whitey‌
No we are talking elementary school teacher in one of the richest school districts in one of our neighboring states. They always cry about how bad they have it and then I found out how much they made and I was shocked.

If its so bad then they should find a different job, I bet if they flipped burgers for a day they would go running back to the classroom.

I know some teachers really try and have it bad, but I get tired of hearing about the poor teachers. Many of us have it “bad”. No one cries for us. No one cries for the poor garbage collectors, no one cries for fast food workers, no one cries for waste water plant employees. No one cries for the gas station employee working nights dealing with weirdos, robbers and drunks.

Lets cry for the uneducated, unappreciated and essential employees of the world.

I have so much respect for fast food workers and restaurant workers that take their jobs seriously and preform well at work, I couldn’t do that job for a full day and I bet many other people on these boards could not as either.

60

Except in the inner cities, most of them don’t have it bad. But they also don’t have it any better than other working folk. Different, certainly, but not better.

I have the utmost respect for workers in the restaurant industry. They’re some of the most abused and often underpaid workers anywhere. But remember that teachers have spent the time, money, and work to accomplish graduate degrees, and those employed I restaurants have not. In many cases that may be lack of willingness to do what it takes, in some cases it’s lack of opportunity, in others they’d rather just be restaurant workers than go to college. Sadly, and this is to me a true tragedy, in many cases they graduated from high school without ever having gotten the guidance or help to know to go to college, and in many cases were “written off” by high school counselors as not being “college material” and aimed toward a programs that didn’t give them the knowledge to get to college… graduated from high school without the ability to do basic math, without reading comprehension, without even the ability to write articulately. Whatever the reason, I would argue that teachers have achieved the education to become teachers. They’re simply benefitting from what they’ve accomplished.