My heart leapt into my mouth when I saw the post by a fellow student in the OUSA A215 conference this morning – they weren’t due until Wed 6th August so it was a bit of a shock to get them two days ahead of schedule.
I could feel my heart beating faster as I quickly logged into StudentHome and saw the link saying my result was available …one click, and there it was – GRADE 2 PASS!!!!! 
I have to confess that I bunched my fists tightly, waved them in the air and chanted (quietly because I’m in the Office next to the Gallery) Yes! Yes! Yes! It was such a relief to know that I’d managed to achieve my goal.
However, I was quite surprised to discover that, although I’d scored 75% for the OCAS component of the course (that’s the Overall continuous assessment score), I’d only scored 66% for the OES (that’s the Overall examinable score). I’d worked it out that I needed 70% and above for a Grade 2 Pass. I know that the OU sometimes adjusts the cut-off level for grades to take into account the overall student results, but it was still a (very pleasant and unexpected) surprise.
Clicking a little further into the results, I found that 1583 students had submitted the final End of Course Assessment (the OU called it the Project) and finished the course. Of those, 181 scored the 85 – 100% distinction grade A, 635 scored the 70 – 84% grade B, 547 scored the 55-69% grade C, 198 scored the 40 – 54% grade D, and 16 scored the 30 – 39% grade E. Below that, four students scored F (15 – 29%) and two students scored G (0 – 14%)
Reactions to the marks are slowly coming into the conference now and most people seem happy but there are heartbreaking stories of students who were just points off a distinction grade for their five TMA scores but then scored badly in the Project and dropped down to a Grade Three for their final result. I don’t think I’ve ever achieved a higher score in the ECA component than in the TMA continuous assessment score in eight years – I’ve always dropped several percent.
In fact, for B120, the level One Business Studies course, I dropped from 74% in the overall TMA scores to 54% for the End of Course Assessment (which was a stinker, even for a first time presentation) and many MANY students were extremely unhappy. I was just happy that I passed!
So what next? Well, I think I’ve finally settled on S189, Understanding the Weather (10 point level one short science course) for September, followed by SA188, Archaeology: the science of Investigation (10 point level one short science course) for November. That will be two courses towards the six I need for the Certificate in Contemporary Science. Next year I will probably take a breather for the first six months of the year, maybe even nine months, and start again in June or September. I have two VERY important family and business commitments looming for early/mid 2009 and I think I’d be pushing it to tackle anything above Level One.
So that’s finally the end of A215 for me – I’ve got a good result and it’s all been worth it!
