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.
5 comments:
yes, distributing TMAs or even exchanging marked TMAs with follow students on the same course/session after TMAs are returned could leave you on very dodgy ground with the OU as you can not control what the recipient does with them.
Request might however highlight a need for the OU to produce speciman TMA answers as well as speciman exam answers so that students know what the expectations/standards are ?
Hi Mary,
That's a good point you make about specimen TMA's for new students. I certainly remember being pointed in the right direction by my first tutor so that I got the hang of it.
But I think in this instance I was just surprised to get an email, out of the blue, asking for copies of my TMA's. Its a funny world.
I did maths and computing subjects at level 1/2 and found that most TMAs required objective answers. I have mostly scored 90%+ on TMAs, because I spent a lot of time getting them right, so my tutors didn't usually offer much advice.
This year, I did my first level 3 course where the 1st TMA required some code but also a lot of subjective waffle. I know that this is not my strong area so I was terrified when submitting my 1st TMA. I almost decided to not submit it because I was so embarrassed by what I had produced, but in the end submitted it anyway. As it turned out, I still got 90+ but in my mind my expected result was 50-60%.
Maybe the computing/maths dept.s don't expect us to be great writers but it would have been reassuring if I could have seen examples of what other people's level 3 comp/maths TMAs looked like.
I have noticed that the TMA questions change from year to year on the same course, which is a good thing and keeps the questions current and avoids the possibility of some students selling the answer on!
I read that if one gives their TMAs to another student - BOTH parties are in breach of university regulations - resulting in serious disciplinary procedures (eg. 'being sent down')
(OU Code of Practice for Student Discipline SD 2.1)
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