That was my point, some of it is a bit useless. (you will use complex numbers extensively in electronic engineering I believe).I am also a mech engineering student and see the point in lots of the maths you do in year 12.

The Point to all the Pointless maths is to develope the mind and it's processes more than anything. Every time you learn about a new type of maths you are teaching your brain new problem solving techniques.

surely you could 'teach you brain' using stuff that will also be useful later on down the track?

thats like having a perfectly good car sitting there while learning to drive in a tractor

I'm with Daveman here - the knowledge gained at University is almost irrelevant. It's the ability to learn, to synthesise new ideas and be able to think in different ways that is important.

The biggest greatest skill I took away from Uni was to be able to understand difficult concepts quickly and confidently.

Well that and doing past exams and then pissing all over the exam papers (figuratively) come exam time. The lectures, the pracs....meh - assignments had some value (if you do them yourself).

Anyway that's my 2 engineering cents worth. Like a lot of car nerds I've got one them fancy book learning engineering degrees as well.