… and I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. I have enjoyed A215 but it was hard going at times and I struggled to find motivation on occasions. I don’t know how many of my tutor group have made it to the end but there only seemed to be a handful of us over the last few weeks so I would estimate that maybe half of the original group fell by the wayside. Sadly, I believe, the OU receives no funding for students who don’t complete a course so it’s worth submitting a single page with name and Personal identifier, even if all hope is lost for the course.
On a happier note, I managed to keep up a consistent performance over the five TMAs, with all my scores falling in the 72 – 75% range and the final TMA crowning it with 79%. It would have been nice to think I was aiming for a distinction but I’m happy to settle for a Grade 2 pass which will result if my ECA score is 70% or more. Hopefully I can manage that … although ECAs normally score lower marks than TMAs so it is cutting it awfully fine.
I found it very hard submitting the ECA without receiving my marked TMA05 back – somehow I felt I might be missing some vitally important piece of feedback from my tutor. But there are only three – yes, THREE – weeks between submission of TMA05 on Friday May 16th and the ECA deadline on Friday 6th June. Of course, students are expected to have a considerably body of work to choose from by the time we reach the ECA. Polishing the selected pieces and writing the commentary are the main tasks. But it still seems to leap out at you with a loud ‘Boo!’.
Unfortunately, my tutor had a major computer malfunction and critical family commitments coincide with TMA05 so it was late being returned. Then I also had to go away for five days so the ECA had to be consigned to the post a full week ahead of schedule … before I had my result for TMA05. That was hard. I deliberately put it right out of my mind while I was away and collected it when I returned. That was why my highest TMA score for this course was such a sweet sight.
What next? Well, I’m going to take the summer off (I missed registering for the June start courses anyway) and start again in October or November. I’m considering short course because we have a busy six months at the beginning of next year and it would be foolish to sign up for a 60 point course. Maybe Shakespeare: an introduction or possibly Introducing Environment or Archaeology: the science of investigation or perhaps Understanding the weather There are so many short courses to choose from Open University Short courses
But I think I’ll put this blog to bed for the time being … turns off the light and tiptoes out.
