Still here!

Yes, I am still here! This is my first post this year - and its already past the middle of July. My break from studying has been going really well, so much so that I can't figure out how I managed to fit any studying in previously. It seems that life, rather like my waistline, has a habit of filling all available space.

I received a phone call from the OU last week - wanting to know whether I had received their prospectus and whether I had considered studying with them. Ahem, I thought, and then explained that well actually I have been studying with you for the past few years and that I had taken time out because of a serious illness in the family. "Oh" said the lady and then checked on her computer - "perhaps you would like to know what your OU id number is?". I explained that I didn't need to know it and that it is carved out, mirror like, on the inside of my skull.

I am thinking about a return to studying though. Perhaps a gentle 10 pointer just to get me in the mood. But then where am I going to find the time from? All that thinking and writing - I'm quite out of the habit. Remembering too - that's the hard bit.

Its been a great time for reading though!

OU - Dip Comp!

Hmm, well its not quite the BSc(Hons) that I’m going after but getting the Diploma is a welcome step. And I do seem to have gone the long way around to get it – out of the seven courses that I have completed, only three of them have counted towards this qualification. Actually, if it hadn’t been for the fact that M206 ceases to be countable towards the Diploma from 31st December this year, then I may well have taken even longer to achieve it!

It was only when reviewing all my courses at the beginning of this year that I realised that the clock was ticking – and M206 would have been an expensive 60pts to lose.

Anyway, that’s the Certificate and the Diploma out of the way – now all I need is another 130 pts to reach my goal.

 

Incidentally, I bumped into one of my friends in Canterbury Cathedral the other evening (hows that for a location for the kids school carol service!) and he mentioned that he achieved his Degree last year and was now studying for his Masters. I asked how he managed a full time job and to get all that studying done – he replied that he only needs three hours sleep each night! I’m sure that it was him that I heard snoring during “Hark the Herald Angels”! (Only kidding Nick). To be honest I don’t know how he does it – perhaps in his spare hours he plays the part of Clark Kent.

And my other chum, Ian, is awaiting the result of his M450 project, I am way behind!

So, as the end of the year fast approaches and I contemplate cracking open another bottle of port (okay, that must be why the studying takes so damn long), ambling over the fields to Bishopsbourne (excellent village pub there), and generally feeling that I must take the next set of New Year resolutions more seriously than hitherto, I am thinking about wishing everyone a Happy Christmas.

OU - Distinctly Good

Well, not been thinking much about studying and the OU for the past few weeks - to much else to do. But today is Results Day So I'll cut straight to the chase:

Two exams...Two Distinctions. Well I'll be damned!

I'm running around hollering right now (you'll just have to take my word for that - its not a pleasant sight I can tell you).

Actually, as nearly always, there's a curious side to this: on one of the courses only 4% of students who sat that exam got a Distinction, on the other course it was 27% - that is a marked and surprising difference. I wonder what the explanation is.

OU – Send me your TMA’s !!

Ok, this isn’t really a request for anyone to send me their TMA’s – and if anyone did then they would be deleted.

But over the weekend I received an email from an OU student telling me that they had recently failed a course and that they were going to sit it again – and that they had seen that I had also done the same course so could I send them all my TMA’s because it would help them! Huh?

The answer was an emphatic NO. Two reasons – the first because these TMA’s were all hand-written and not in electronic form, so I couldn’t send them anyway. The second reason being that I don’t show my TMA’s to anyone. And that is a hard and fast rule.

I tried to be helpful and suggest that they should speak to their tutor if they are having problems – and if that didn’t help then talk to their OU Regional Office. Asking other students for their TMA’s isn’t really the right way to go about it.

OU – There’s always someone worse of than you!

Having now got over my petty gripes about exam questions being wrong, I came across the following statement in one of the OU FirstClass conferences yesterday:

Jenny Bull, the Head of Exams and Assessment, writes:

U216 Examination on 10 October 2008
Following the examination on Friday it has been reported that some students who attended the September Day School were provided with a revision question paper which turned out to be the actual examination question paper set for the examination.

All of a sudden I’m not feeling so hard done by. But I feel really sorry for those students who have studied U216 so hard during the year. This is a 60pt 2nd Level course on the Environment – I really hope that they don’t end up voiding the exam and having to do a resit. I can’t help wondering how on earth that situation arose. Questions will be asked.

OU - T224

Just a follow-up to my assertion that there was an error in the exam paper. It turns out that many other students thought the same thing - and it was reassuring to see a post from the Chair of the T224 Exam Board confirming that there was indeed an error - and that the marking scheme will be amended accordingly so that no students are disadvantaged by it. The problem with errors in exams is not just restricted to the fact that the question is wrong - but its the amount of time spent during the exam trying to answer a question that is either obviously wrong (in which case you answer what you can and make a comment to the side), or just much more complex than it was intended to be (because of incorrect maths). This particular error fell into the first category.

But a while later there was another post from the Chair of the T224 Exam Board saying that in fact there was an error in another question too (which quite a few of us had thought was probably an error). The trouble with this one was that the maths made for a more complex question - so finding the answer took a lot longer. Again, the marking scheme is being amended.

But it does beg the question - "How do these errors get through?". And I guess the obvious answer is insufficient testing! I know that if I write some software, I will test it. But a much better approach is get someone else to test it. The reason is that if you test your own code you are likely to make the same error in testing that you did in writing. Get someone else to do it and the chances are that they will find the error. I wonder if it is the same with exam writing. The Course Team write the exam, but someone else should then test the exam by actually doing it (and I'm not talking about proof-reading, I mean actually sitting the exam and then having it marked).

And as with all these things, its the border line results that will be affected most - and I'm sure the OU will take that into account.

Well, how about that

Just visited my OU homepage - and there on the left is a link to a 'Personal Blog' what wonderful timing!

OU – Thats all folks!

Well, two days and two exams…and now a chance to unwind.

Kicked off with the MT262 exam yesterday afternoon and quite enjoyed it – made a flying start and was about 45 minutes ahead of my schedule by the end of Part 1…and just as well because I found my memory and thought processes failing midway through Part 2. In the end I finished with just 5 minutes to spare. I know that I made a few mistakes, fluffed a bit here and there, but that’s okay and pretty much what I expect.

Today it was a chance to have a bash at T224. Another 3 hour exam – and it kicked off with something that I should know – should have known for years in fact – hadn’t revised it and it completely threw me – not bad for question one. Anyway I gave it my best shot and progressed – feeling rather unsure of myself after that shocking start. But it got better. Question involved  completing a flow-chart, so no problems there…except I am convinced that there was an error in the question (not the first OU exam I have done that had an error). Anyway, a quick check on FirstClass a while ago showed that several other students had made the same observation.

I recall one question that I thought was quite interesting (about BlueTooth – Hopping Channels, Frequencies, Hop rate and the like) and I wrote what I thought was a good half page on the details – and then discovered that it was only worth 2-points – so probably all they wanted was a brief one-liner. Oh well, that’s life.

So, to the future. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am putting my OU studies on hold for at least a year, but do intend to return and complete my degree (still need another 100 points or so). This means that my entries in this blog are almost done for now – although I will update the details when the results come through before Christmas.

And here is a chance for me to reflect on this blogging stuff. My main thought is how much I have enjoyed rambling on. But what I have really enjoyed is the contacts that I have made with other students – this has been really valuable – as well as providing me with a number of other blogs to read regularly (thanks guys!) – I’ll keep reading so please keep posting.