God it's been a long time

Well it has been an absolute age since I managed to put something on this website - mainly because the e-mail address I used to create this account was one of those that fell victim to the great phishing scam.

Anyway, I can't let that worry me now. I have just received my result for M362 - the latest in what seems like a long line of OU courses. Managed a Distinction - one of 13 people who took the course with an OES of 89% and OCAS of 95%. It's been a tough year, so needless to say I was thrilled with this result. I am looking forwards to M366 - hopefully I can repeat the achievement of M362.

M256 - The Result

Life has been hectic - the business has taken off, I have changed jobs, and I have only just realised that my grade for M256 has been published. I managed an 80% in the exam (Grade II) - which is disappointing in a way. I think, had I applied myself to the course better - particularly to the stuff at the beginning - I might have achieved a distinction. The fact remains I didn't, and I have to say that with the work I did (including not the greatest amount of revision) I probably achieved the mark I deserved.
I have decided that I would like to try and aim for a first for my OU degree. To this end I will need to pull my socks up and apply myself to the Level 3 course that starts in January.

M256 TMA04 - The Result

Well, the fact that I have found the second half of this course more interesting than the first has been borne out in the results for the final TMA - 97%. This means I have successfully completed the Continuous assessment part of M256, and just have the exam to sit (and pass) on October 13th (luckily not a Friday). Revision seems to be going okay - I have gone through Units 1-7 so far, but I have to say that the first part of the course is still as dry to me, the second time around, as it was the first time. Important of course, but dry.

M256 - TMA 04

With the 11th September deadline looming for the final M256 TMA, I am happy to say that I managed to answer all the questions and have submitted my best effort. This will mean that I get the chance to enjoy my birthday, and gives me a clear run for the exam on October 13th. I should have a great deal of time to spend on revision given that my current job ends on September 25th, and I don't take up my next position (teaching Pharmacy at the University of Hertfordshire) until 3rd November - so hopefully the things which are still a little fuzzy will have crystallised in my mind by then.
I have to say, I found the latter half of this course much more enjoyable than the first bit, which I thought was dry and uninspiring. I found it much easier to become interested and involved with the more esoteric discussions surrounding usability in the later chapters than the specific language and structure required of, for example, requirements documentation in the earlier part. Like M263 it has been a course of two halves. On reflection I have enjoyed this course. Lets hope the exam isn't too bad.

M256 - TMA 03

It seems like an age since there was any OU news, and now there are two pieces!
In addition to the M257 result, I have received the result for M256 TMA 03. A respectable 94%, which I am very pleased with. I did have an epiphany when I read my tutors comments wrt Question 2e - it was along the lines of '......ah! That's why it was worth so many marks' but it actually made sense - which is a good thing. I hate it when you have no idea what the issue was. :)

Reading the post-mortems on the M257 forum it seems like a lot of people got caught out on the exam - mainly the compulsory Question 1-10 section. It seems that there is something amiss when people averaging more than 90% on their TMAs are achieving only 58% on an examination - and I wonder whether this is usual for examinations. I can understand in the majority of cases that the scores achieved for TMAs will be higher than scores achieved for the exam - but largely think that attainment in TMAs should reflect attainment in exams. A discrepancy of over 30% between the two is something examiners should be worried about - isn't it?

M257 - The Result

Well the M257 results have arrived, and I passed with a Grade 2 (76%). I am happy with the result, and the breakdown showed that I scored between 70 and 84% for all questions on the paper (1-10, 11 and 12) making it a solid Grade 2 performance. Given this, I don't think that there was an awful lot I could have done to push up for the Distinction (9% is a great deal to claw back!), but want to congratulate the 10% of people who sat the exam who achieved the highest grade. I thought I would have been more disappointed....but guess that I do have a healthy perspective on these things after all.

Things to take from this, is that I obviously need to concentrate on packing the relevant information into my short answer style questions (1-10) if I am to achieve the highest grade, and that subtleties in longer answer questions (11 and 12) need to be accounted for properly. All in all though, a satisfactory outcome, and if I can achieve a similar mark for the M256 exam in October I think I will be happy.

The M257 exam

Well that wasn't too bad - in a bizarre twist, the man who marks my M256 TMAs was sitting beside me taking the M257 exam - it seems strange I was so worried about submitting my TMA on time, and having time for revising M257 whereas my tutor must have been worried about revising, and having time to mark all the TMAs.

There were no time constraints in this exam - finished with 20 minutes to spare (after travelling through at a leisurely pace) and was largely happy with what I had written. There are a couple of places where it wasn't clear what the examiner wanted, and I may have gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick, and a strange error (or deliberate mistake) in one of the longer answer questions which confused me - but overall I was happy with it. Think I've done enough to pass comfortably, and would hope for the highest grade for this one, but pride may come before a fall and so I will try not to get my hopes up.

Life can kind of resume now. I have M256 to finish - with the exam on October 13th - and then a short break until the Level 3 courses begin in January. The dogs, which have been in kennels for the last two nights, will be back tomorrow so things should return to normal fairly soon

Results due in August (6th). Will let you know how it goes.