S276 – Geology Booked!

I’ve spent a while recently looking over future modules and trying to fit the start/end dates together like a big jigsaw, however it’s proving a little more difficult than I would have hoped.

As a result, today I booked my first level 2 module, S276 – Geology which kicks off in November 2012. Alongside it, I’ll be doing the remainder of my level 1 modules. I’m hopeful that the workload will be okay as the level 2 modules are 30 points, supposedly 1/2 of the 60 points I’m currently doing for S104 – Exploring science.

I’ve updated the study planner yet again, all modules planned in until the middle of 2014!

In other news, after 4 chapters of hell, Book 4 – The Right Chemistry has picked up again. I muddled through the iCMA 44 at the end of last week, 3 wrong answers and several correct at the third attempt but I’m glad to have got rid of the damn thing to be honest. I’ve made a good start on TMA 04 which is due on 31st May, somehow I’m finding it easier than the iCMA which is a first.

I’ll be checking out Amazon soon and seeing if there is a ‘Biology for Dummies’ for the Kindle, in anticipation of Book 5 – Life. I’m just about to finish  ’Chemistry for Dummies‘ and it was a pretty good book, it certainly helped explain many of the concepts that weren’t so clearly covered in Book 4.

And finally…

Ash and Lightning Above an Icelandic Volcano

Open University & Study Route Update

I’ve updated the study planner page with a fresh study route. Two modules have been replaced with new equivalents.

The level 1 module S187 – Elements of forensic science, which to be honest was only included as it was the only other module I had the slightest interest in, has been replaced by ST174 – Inside nuclear energy. While not actually any more interesting on the surface, it’s much relevant to the earth sciences route I’m following.

The level 3 module S330 – Oceanography finishes in 2013, which as it turns out is a good thing. As with the level 1 modules, oceanography was the only module left, I had to pick it to meet the study point requirement, I wasn’t all that bothered about doing it. So, in it’s place, in comes S366 - Evolution, which I am pleased about. There’s some fossils and palaeontology in it, along with maybe a little more biology than I’d want, but it’s all good.

The Open University is in the middle of a total overhaul regarding many modules, all brought about by the increase in fees, which in turn was because of the governments reduction in funding. Almost all modules, from what I can see, are changing over to an April & October start in 2013.

This isn’t ideal for fitting in, and finishing of my level 1 modules. Looking at the dates it looks like I’ll need to overlap a few in order not to have 3 or 4 months next summer with nothing to study! While having the summer off sounds okay in principal, I’m trying to keep the modules back-to-back to reduce the total time needed for the degree

Book 3 – Assessment Results

The first shock of the day, receiving my marked TMA back already. A big thanks to Ros for turning it round in record time!

The second shock of the day, my best scores so far, I think they must have mixed me up with someone else, haha!

iCMA 43 – 77% (course mean 75% – 1539 students)
TMA 03 – 86% (course mean n/a)

I’m convinced the real reason it was a good TMA for me was the huge amount of maths, and serious lack of ambiguous, woolly essay type questions. Those are the most tricky parts of the TMA’s for me now. I never manage to include everything what they want to hear, and I loose marks, it feels like I need to be a mind reader sometimes.

On the course website it turns out there’s a tool where you can predict your results. As it turns out I have 25% towards the OCAS (Overall Continuous Assessment Scores) so far. The pass mark is 40% so that’s good to see, especially considering we’ve only done 6 of 16 iCMA’s/TMA’s. Of course you also need to get at least 40% in the final EMA (End of Module Assessment) which is a bit of a beast and covers all books but I’m sure it will be fine…

Book 4 is going well, although things have slowed a little with chapter 5. After a bit of digging around, it turns out that this book, used to be 2 books. The OU stripped out a lot of content and condensed everything into one book which explains it’s somewhat erratic nature.

Anyhow, nanoo nanoo for now!

 

Chemistry for Dummies

In anticipation of  Book 4 – The Right Chemistry,  and alongside all the Physics and the TMA last week, I downloaded ‘Chemistry for Dummies‘ from Amazon. As usual, I bought it from the US store as the UK Kindle store is rubbish

A week in and it’s a pretty good read, much better than ‘Physics for Dummies‘ which I bought at the start of Book 3 – Energy & Light. If that was ’Physics for Dummies’, I needed ’Physics for Numpties’ as it jumped straight in, got very complicated and never looked back. I gave up after about 5 chapters.

Alongside ‘Chemistry for Dummies’ on the Kindle, I also watched several of the introductory chemistry movies at Khan Academy. All this extra work has paid off so far, I’ve done the first 3 chapters of  book 4 and it’s been pretty smooth sailing, let’s hope it continues!

Book 3 – Energy & Light… Done!

Finally! Book 3 – Energy & Light, done. TMA 03 complete, iCMA 43 submitted. I’ll give it a few days then go back over TMA 03 and submit it before Thursdays deadline.

Book 3 was definitely the toughest yet. There was probably only 2 or 3 chapters out of the whole book that I didn’t find tough to keep slogging through, although I think I’ve found a new remedy for insomnia, hehe. The sheer amount of content that whizzes past your eyes over 3 or 4 weeks doesn’t help, you feel constantly up against it and are hesitant to spend too long getting bogged down with any one topic.

In a nutshell, Book 3 reads like this; kinetic energy, rearranging equations, force & work, power, gravity, potential energy, internal energy, specific heat capacity, electric charge, electric current, solar energy, nuclear fusion, energies & intensities of light, diffraction of light, electromagnetic radiation, energy of a particle and finally, light as waves & particles… still awake?

The TMA was tough too, although to be fair, it did seem to go pretty smoothly after the first 6 hours or so of banging my head against the desk!

Next up, Book 4 – The Right Chemistry, and looking at it from here I can see it’s thicker than Book 3. I’m so excited, I think I’m going to open it right now and have a flick through

Mount Etna Erupts With Violent Fury

Europe’s tallest active volcano, Mount Etna, has been blasting flaming lava and ash into the air in its sixth eruption this year. The eruption is the 24th in a series that began in January 2011.

 

 

Book 2 – Assessment Results

I’ve now received the results for the 2nd TMA and iCMA. These covered “Book 2 – Earth & Space” which I finished a few weeks ago.

iCMA 42 – 73% (course mean 86%)
TMA 02 – 81% (course mean N/A)

Another good TMA result that I’m really pleased with. I worked hard to show all workings for my calculations after the feedback in the first TMA. All the maths questions were answered correctly with just 1 power of 10 error right at the end of one question, doh!

Next up, I need to work on the ‘knowledge and understanding’ type questions. I’m getting most of the points for the answers a lot of the time, I just need to add more details and explanations in places. To me this feels like I’m not being clear and concise enough if I waffle on for another 2 or 3 sentences. It does feel like trying to hit a moving target sometimes!

Book 3 – Energy & Light is tough going as anticipated, the first 4 chapters are done though. It’s a tighter turnaround for the next TMA and iCMA too, deadline is 19th & 17th April respectively.

I’m not expecting very high marks for these at all so I’m fully prepared for an epic fail!

Book 2 – Earth & Space… Done!

I’ve been plugging away at Book 2 – Earth & Space , alongside TMA 02 and iCMA 42 since my last post. This was a much better book for me, quite a few  interesting chapters, lots of rocks, earthquakes, volcanoes and plate tectonics!

I submitted iCMA 42 last week and completed TMA 02 over the weekend, just a few finishing touches left. The deadline is Thursday so there’s plenty of time for the obligatory check, re-check and re-re-check before I submit it.

I made a start on Book 3 – Energy & Light on Saturday, albeit a small one. This really is a beast of a book, it’s all physics, algebra and equations from what I can see. There are plenty of people in the Facebook group struggling to take it all in and threatening to take the book outside and shoot it already! hehe

Looks like it’s going to be a bumpy ride this month…