Purdue Mechanical Engineering · West Lafayette · Fall 2026
Every class is locked from your registrar export. Deep-focus study sits in the evenings where you concentrate best, CoRec holds 8–11 AM, and the dashed OPEN lanes are reserved for BYX pledge and Purdue Electric Racing once those times land. Tuesday is left free of heavy study on purpose — it's already your longest day.
Click a block to edit · drag it to move (across day columns too) · drag its bottom edge to resize · hover and hit × to delete. Times snap to 5 minutes while dragging. Edits sync to Supabase (and cache in this browser), and the schedule returns to its default state every Sunday at 1 AM.
A ~20-min pre-lecture video on Brightspace you must watch before the next PHYS 172 lecture. It's not optional busywork — it sets up the clicker questions in class, and clicker points are a graded participation category. Monday's covers Tuesday's lecture; Wednesday's covers Thursday's (plus a peek at the lab).
PCA = Pre-Class Activity for ENGR 132: short videos plus a quiz, due before each Wed/Fri studio. Miss it and you literally can't participate in that day's studio work. Do it the night before so a bad morning never costs you the class.
PHYS 172 gives you two WileyPLUS homework sets a week — one due Wed 11:59 PM, one due Fri 11:59 PM. You get 10 attempts per question. Miss the deadline and you can still submit for up to 72 hrs, but capped at 75% of the points. These blocks land the same day each set is due.
Your recitation worksheet (worked in section R157, Tue 4:30) uploads to Brightspace as one PDF, due Saturday 11:59 AM — the only morning deadline you have. Everything else is 11:59 PM, so this is the easiest one to blow. Do it right after Saturday CoRec and save the submission receipt. Late = −10 pts (0–6 hrs), −20 (6–12 hrs), zero after 12 hrs.
Different assignment from the recitation, same day: your PHYS 172 lab writeup (from L148, Thu 7:30 AM), due Saturday 11:59 PM. One PDF to Brightspace, save the receipt. You started it fresh Thursday morning right after lab — this block is just to finish and submit.
Prep week = pre-read the coming week's material for all four courses so lectures land as review, not first exposure. Plan week = map every deadline (the two PHYS HWs, MA quiz, ENGR PCAs, rec/lab uploads) onto your calendar so nothing sneaks up. Sunday is your control tower.
Your hardest problem-set work, placed in the evenings where you concentrate best. Matched to what's due: MA 261 homework Monday night before the Tuesday quiz, PHYS problems midweek, MA 261's hardest topics Thursday.
Lift + conditioning, 8–11 AM Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat. Protected — it anchors your mornings and keeps the rest of the day honest.
Lower-energy tasks: email, lab writeups, and ENGR 132 PCAs (pre-class videos + quizzes) the night before each Wed/Fri class, since you can't participate without them.
CAD, patent, and outreach work on weekends. This is the variable that gives during exam clusters — throttle it down, pick it back up over breaks.
Sunday 9 AM–12 PM. Fixed.
One hour each, every day, slotted into the natural gaps between classes and study. Non-negotiable — eating on schedule is what keeps the evening study blocks productive instead of running on fumes.
Dashed lanes held for BYX pledge and Purdue Electric Racing. Drop those in once you have times — watch the Sept 28–Oct 5 window first.
The red-ringed block is your MA 261 recitation quiz (Tuesdays), covering last week's homework. Keep weekly pace and it's free points.
Four exams in eight days, landing right in peak pledge season. ENGR 132's first exam is in class Wednesday at 1:30 — the other three are 8 PM. This is the hardest stretch of your semester. Bank study hours the weekends of Sept 19–20 and Sept 26–27 in advance.
Mon Sep 28 · PHYS 172 M1Wed Sep 30 · ENGR 132 EX1Thu Oct 1 · ECON 251 M1Mon Oct 5 · MA 261 M1
ECON M2, then Nov 18 carries two — ENGR 132's last exam in class at 1:30 and MA 261 M2 at 8 PM the same day — then PHYS M3 right after Thanksgiving break kills your momentum. Protect Nov 14–15 and the Nov 28–29 weekend.
Thu Nov 12 · ECON 251 M2Wed Nov 18 · ENGR 132 EX3Wed Nov 18 · MA 261 M2Mon Nov 30 · PHYS 172 M3
Wednesday Oct 28 carries two: ENGR 132's second exam in class at 1:30, then PHYS 172 M2 at 8 PM the same evening.
Wed Oct 28 · ENGR 132 EX2Wed Oct 28 · PHYS 172 M2
Finals week (Dec 14–19) holds the MA 261, PHYS, and ECON finals — dates TBD. The last new MA 261 material lands Dec 4, so the final crunch is real.
Recitation → ECON → PHYS lecture → PHYS rec, stacked 10:30–5:20 with one lunch gap. It's also your MA 261 quiz day (covers last week's homework). No deep-focus study is scheduled Tuesday — you'll be fried. Finish MA 261 homework Monday night so the quiz is free points.
Quizzes + homework are 30% of MA 261 and your ranking lever inside your recitation. The 3 lowest HW and 2 lowest quiz drops are a buffer for real emergencies — don't spend them on pledge conflicts in September. Keep weekly pace and they stay automatic.
During both exam clusters, QACB is the variable that gives. The Maurer clinic and Doherty work have natural pause points; the weekly grind of four ME cores does not. Pick QACB back up over winter break.
The hatched blocks (evenings + Sunday) are where pledge events and PER build hours go once you have them. When you drop them in, watch the Sept 28–Oct 5 window first — if events cluster there, front-load studying the weekends before.
No curve, straight percentage, and C- or better required to pass (it gates your ME path). Three non-exempt absences are free; after that it's −20 per absence, −10 per tardy. Exceed 6 and you fail regardless of grade. A tardy = arriving 10+ min late OR leaving 10+ min early. Team assignments (29%) take zero late submissions.
ENGR 132 ends 3:20, MA 261 starts 3:30 across campus. Leaving 132 early to make the walk = a logged early-dismissal tardy. Leave at 3:20 sharp and move fast — never duck out at 3:10. Also: PCAs (videos + quizzes) are due before each Wed/Fri class, so prep them the night before or you can't participate.
MA 261 and PHYS both run Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions. Your BYX brothers who've cleared these courses are an asset — get their exam read early. Math Resource Room for MA 261, PHYS help room for 172.
Sleep is blocked to ~7 hrs and it's not optional — it's what makes the study blocks work. Friday night and most of Saturday are deliberately light. Burnout in week 6 costs more than any single session gains.