Aha - now that might be telling! Actually I don't think we will know until about the middle of the course. The music I have listened to so far - for identifying techno-musical features - has been wonderful. I put my head-phones on (plugged into my laptop) and just enjoy - then I forget what it was I was supposed to be listening out for Thanks for posting!




Can't wait to meet you and everyone in our group - looking forward to it a lot I think I've worked out how to get there now in 45 minutes! I'll be leaving here about 9.30.

Just another thought - do you think I should turn up at the tutorial wearing a black and yellow striped jumper for ID?

How did you get on today, DC and BB? How long do these tutorials last?

Usually about two hours. I was a bit disappointed this morning though as there were only 8 of us when i was expecting a large group according to our OU forums. It was nice to see DC but didn't get much chance to chat as I was a bit late then had to go early. I think on-line tutorials are more effective now but it is good to meet other students. I don't know about the next one in March as it took me ages to get there this morning. I had a lesson at 8.45 and i was out of the door by 9.30 only to get diverted down strange country lanes because of a RTA. On the way back I got stuck in traffic and arrived home with only 20 mins to spare, no lunch and the equivalent of 4 more lessons to give! I think I will just work quietly at home.

I am now completely

How are you DC? How long was your journey?

Hi Busybee! Nice to see you yesterday, and sorry for not being able to chat. It took me almost an hour to get there, and a bit longer to get home as there were hold ups on the M25

The lady I was talking to will be going to tutorials in Chelmsford, Essex, which is just across the river from me. I think I will try and get there for the future ones.

And I'm sorry to say, I just wanted to yesterday as I didn't find the tutor very inspiring.

Still, I think on the whole I'm going to enjoy this course (maths permitting!!) and there will be plenty of support in the forum, so maybe I'll catch up with you in First Class sometime!

too! I left feeling very calm though At least I had a better idea of what was wanted for TMA01. I've also made a decision based on yesterday's experience - I'm going to apply again to be an OU tutor!! Will finish this year first and then try and get some experience teaching groups of adults - I have passed 7302 which should be enough along with the MA.

Nice to meet you too and look forward to 'seeing' you on First Class

I attended my first tutorial for AA302 'From Compostion to Performance' on Saturday and the tutor was super. A helpful and informative session.

I did that course the year before last. It's very good. I hope you enjoy it.

*Good luck for your plan to become an OU tutor, BusyBee! Let us know how you get on *

Thanks. Hope you enjoys yours too.

DC, do you know what the bits and pieces are for yet?

*Aspirations quickly diminishing*!! Struggling with the Maths on TA212!!

Thanks anyway DaisyChain - I will send off an app form and see what happens. They keep it for a year so plenty of time to finish TA212 and find out what the bits and pieces are for

*Retires with slight headache coming on*

No..won't know until Block 3 apparently! Why they sent them out so early is anyones guess. And as we said at the tutorial, it would have been better to recieve the books first. I got my course materials two days before the course start date

Maths...bluhhhhh! I'm using delay tactics at the moment. If I don't look at it, it doesn't exist! It's my plan for Sunday to knuckle down with them....Hope your headache soon goes

I have to say the tutor is very very helpful via email (or phone if we want to). Good luck with it all Head better this morning thank you. Beautiful day here!

*BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE*

A251 (World Archaeology) results just out...

Grade 2 pass!

I don't aspire to anything higher than that, what with working full-time and the OU just being a relaxing hobby for me...so I'm very happy

Well done! :-)

What did you think of the course? How did you find the pacing of it?

T.

I enjoyed it. It's a BIG period of history squished in to a very little course - so there were times when I felt I was just getting in to something when it was time to race off and look at something completely different. On the other hand, that meant you didn't have to stay with things that weren't interesting for very long. While it is a very quick overview, it did get me reading about things I'd never have volunteered to - I've never been that interested in South America, yet my final TMA and the ECA I wrote extensively about the Aztecs. I learned about things like the origins of agriculture in China, something I would never otherwise have known about. So it's great if you fancy an overview of 12,000 years or so, in 18 weeks!
The pacing wasn't a problem. Having said that, it's an age since I did a 60pt course (2003, I think!) so it was a bit of a reminder for me for what I face next year, i.e. one TMA a month! As usual, it was just my Sunday afternoons that were really dedicated to it.
There's a lot of internet use in the course. The final ECA I have a mark breakdown on, and of the 8 sections I got 4 Excellents, 3 Goods, and 1 Bare Fail. That was on the Internet Use section. I think for this final ECA I probably relied too much on the course material and not enough on the internet resources. Having said that, every other course I've done has been at great pains to point out that you don't need to go outside the course materials, so suddenly having it that you must was a bit different for a lot of us.

Ah well, roll on February (A219 - introduction to the classical world)

Well done to you Maizie!

Thanks to noodle and busybee for saving my sanity yesterday!!

**May still substitute this TMA though**

How's everyone else getting on?

Glad to help DC It might be worth sending it in anyway. My answer was based on trial and error and some guess work. Just looking at the content of the next chapter - circuits and impedence or something. I've concluded that if you happen to be a musician and a qualified electrician then TA212 would be plain sailing! The next block on musical instruments should be more interesting.

Well done Maizie too - I saw your post but I haven't been on here as much these days

Yes, I may do...trouble is I'm falling behind with the course work because of all the time I've spent trying to sort this wretched thing out!!

*Can feel some three o'clock in the morning bed times coming on!**

You're welcome!


I'm sure many people working as musicians all over the world wouldn't have the faintest about the requirements of TA212.

Might be an idea to get the local window glaziers to stand by

*Low flying computer heading their way*

Yes, that is another option!

Has anyone here used OpenLearn?

Only I registered once, ages ago, and then when I went back to it, I didn't exist anymore. And now the same thing has happened again! (OK, obviously I actually exist, I mean I don't exist as an OpenLearn user!)

I am guessing they automatically unregister people if they don't use the stuff for months, it makes sense...just no good for me who only remembers it is there every few months

I heard today that I am eligble to accept my BA Open Degree which I shall do. I will have to wait until the 6th August to see whether I can add (Hons) to it. Apparently you can accept both, but only attend one ceremony.

5 years since I started, so for anyone struggling, it is possible, and you'll get there in the end.

David

Congratulations David. You can enjoy the achievement now I know what you mean having been with the OU for so many years. I have been trying to do a course for fun but I am ready to stop now and I am looking forward to my life being an 'OU free zone'

Lots of piano practice instead

OK, I have a bizarre one, I probably just need to ramble to myself

Back when I started with the OU (2000), the only option was paper TMAs. I would receive the Big Brown Envelope back, and I would open it up and take a peek at the all important number. Then a few days later, when I had come to terms with the number, I would read the comments on the PT3 and essay (it doesn't matter how good or bad the number is, I still have to get used to it before I read the feedback).

The course I did in 2003, I actually never did read the feedback, well, not until it came to tidying up my shelf after the end of the course, when I realised I had all 7 TMAs sitting there in the brown envelopes still
Then I switched over to doing science stuff for a few years, which was just different - mostly simply right or wrong answers, much easier to deal with the score and feedback thing.
2007/8 I came back to essays, eTMAs this time, and I went back to the original way of finding out the score (which you see when you download), then reading the comments a couple of days later once I'd got used to whatever the score was.
This year, though, I'm finding it hard again to read the comments. TMA01 I managed to do that on, after a week or so. TMA02, I know my score, but I still haven't opened up the marked essay or the PT3, which I've had for a month now, I think. And I'm having to start TMA03 (it's not due until mid-May...right when I'm on holiday, so I've had to get ahead in order to submit it early!)

Just rambling, really, and now I've rambled I can see just how silly it is. I know the comments are just that - a commentary on my essay. They're not some sort of judgement on me as a person...OK, resolution made, publicly, I will go home tonight and read my TMA02 comments. You can all tell me off if I don't come on here and say I've read them

I blame this all on one of my uni tutors back in 1996 who scarred me for life!

I rarely read the PT3 and don't subscribe to all this reflective learning twaddle, but I am engineering student and facts is facts how I feel about how I got there is not relevant to the subject.

I always feel very excited about reading the comments! Like you, when I started, everything was on paper. I find though that in general, the quality of responses vary a lot between tutors. The tutor I had for E301 was excellent; she always listed at the end of the comments about two or three very specific points about how to up the marks for the next TMA. I found it really helpful, and by the last TMA, I got 90 which is the highest mark ever!

On my current course, E891 I have found the comments very comprehensive both on the PT3 and on the assignment itself. My marks have steadily increased and the tutor is very encouraging.

David

See, all that, for nothing. I just read my PT3 and my comments on my essay...and the world hasn't ended. In fact my tutor said lots of nice things (and as he's likely to be my tutor next year too, that's a very good thing!)

Its strange, considering how little fun my current degree is at the moment, but I do find myself considering doing an Open Uni module or two next year, when I'm on placement. Either in general science stuff or in modern languages - particularly if I can't find some other way to motivate me to keep my Spanish and German going.

I think I must be mad, considering how much I'm looking forward to a year off from studying! Or maybe its that after 17 years of full time education I can't cope with the thought of not learning or studying something! Its like I can't really reconcile myself to having to go out and *shockhorror* actually work (as opposed to the part time casual stuff I've always done before).



Maize, I don't think you're attitude to feedback is that odd. I haven't yet opened the attachment containing the feedback from my last speaking assessment... because I think my presentation was lousy! Similarly, in my department, we can always get our module marks a week earlier than we can get them online, if we go and see our tutors and ask. I never go, I much prefer to sit quietly at home and go through them. We don't get any feedback on exams though, so at least that hurdle is overcome. That said, its quite frustrating to look at a mark and wonder why you got it!

Thanks tamsin.
I don't know why I get bothered by it, I will definitely try to read my next TMA comments straight away. I don't know what I'm expecting it to say: 'You got 80% but are a pitiful excuse for a student and don't darken my inbox with your essays ever again'

Interestingly, after the Easter break I went to my music lesson very pleased with what I'd been teaching myself over the holiday. And my teacher basically pulled it to pieces. But in such a way that it wasn't until way after the lesson that I realised that was what he had done, that I hadn't felt like all my hard work had been entirely worthless.
And the comments on my TMA02 were similar, plenty of positives in there as well as saying 'good but you could also have done this'. I think the longer I leave it the Bigger Thing it becomes, so next time I'll try to get it over with!

When I was at full-time uni, we didn't have coursework; we did essays for tutorials, but they were never given a mark. The whole degree was on the eams at the end of the final year, no earlier exams, no coursework. But, having said that I should be used to it with the OU now, given that I'm in my 10th year!!

I'm starting to seriously think that a bunch of final exams would be fantastic compared to the large amount of coursework that is group work, that I have to do. Half of the third and fourth years are coursework (between research and design projects), and of that, over half is group work. Then there is lots of other, smaller, group courseworks in the first and second years.

Exams might be stressful, but they result in a lot less sleepless nights and despair when dealing with people who wouldn't know decent work if it jumped up and hit them in the face.

Personally I like the mix of TMAs and exams that the OU currently offer - saying that I am on my final undergraduate project so no exam for finish my degree. The post graduate exams are totally different game!

Oooops, meant to post this first thing yesterday morning but forgot...
As it's October exams fortnight (12th-23rd October) - good luck to anyone with exams this session!



(Thursday for me...A219...I'll be OK if I get anything resembling the 2006 or 2008 past paper; if it's more like the 2007 past paper, then my essay answers may be a tad sparse!)

Yes- good luck to anyone with exams in this fortnight.

(a week today for me- in fact, at this point next Tuesday, it should be just about to start!)

I'll echo the luck

For me it is now only 6 days - Monday 19th Oct at 10.00am - This time next week I will be able to breathe again.

At least I know that I have passed the harmony part, don't know the results yet as it appears to have got tied up in the post, but verbally told all ok.

ET

Good luck anybody who is doing an exam this session.

Maybe in a few years. I was thinkign about doing maths, but am sort of drifting towards computing and mathematical sciences.

Better finish the PhD first

I really want to do the L2 music course which is finishing this year. But I've also got a PhD to finish, and would need to have a job before I could even think of registering as the fee is an awful lot. I've got until the 16th December, and then the registration deadline will be gone for ever...

I've jumped straight in at Level Two with M255 (Object-Oriented Programming with Java), having been assured that my previous computing experience (Oxford MSc in Mathematical Modelling & Numerical Analysis, 7 1/2 years in the Met Office) will equip me for this. I see this partly as a way of keeping my programming skills up to speed while I search for a new job, partly to have something positive to talk about in interviews, and partly a vanity project. I'd previously looked into learning Java back when I finished my MSc in 1999, and I got as far as finding an evening class in Floodlight (I was living with my parents in London then). There was just one course available then, I remember, at some FE college in West Hendon not very well served by public transport, and I couldn't face committing to the full term, especially after the clocks had gone back.

My life's uncertain at the moment, to say the least. I may well have to move to another part of the country during the course (see earlier thread). How I'm going to keep up with my studies if I end up living out of a suitcase Monday-Friday I don't know. But maybe being involved with the OU might enable me to tap into a social/support network in whatever new place I live in. I can only hope.

Oh, and I appear to be the only female student in my tutorial group! Very reminiscent of my second-year philosophy of science class at St Andrews, where the male:female ratio was 14:1.

Sounds ideal (I tutor on one of the follow-on courses).


You can find tutorials wherever you happen to be using the Tutorial Finder - in 2007, I had a student from a couple of hundred miles away, just by virtue of me having room in my tutor group, but there was none left in the groups in his home region. He was still able to go to tutorials near to home --- he just asked me questions and sent me his TMAs to mark.


Sounds about right, not sure if I have one this year, but did year before last.

Yes - good luck everyone taking an OU exam this month. I remember the revision notes stuck on my bathroom wall! I don't know which I prefer, an OU exam or Grade 8 theory - they are both three hours! The biggest headache with the OU was the lack of parking at the exam centres. I sometimes had to arrive two hours early just to be guaranteed a space!

Make sure you all treat yourselves after the exam - you deserve it

Good luck to everyone facing OU exams soon

I submitted my first eTMA last night! Way to go

indeed! - well done!

Good luck to anyone doing A214 tomorrow- good luck ET!!!! How's it going?

One day all TMAs will be submitted this way.

What, do some courses accept owl submissions?

And Snail Mail, dependant on striking postal workers. I sumbitted my final project using "Special Delivery" just to be on the safe side.