OU Students Past, Present and Future

Ames

That's brilliant advice, thanks!

Floxxie

giggles_alot wrote: »

Yet again I've left my TMA to the last minute and was starting to fret.
Just spotted this on TGF from my tutor,
"Please note that I will be working away from sat 25 Jul until Wed 29 jul. Today is the cut off for TMA 03 - so, I will be down loading TMAs today. If it helps anyone stuggling to get their TMA in today, next downloading will be on 29 Jul."
Do you all read the same as me, that it will be okay to submit TMA late as long as tutor has it waiting to be downloaded on 29th?

I read it as well but could you give your tutor a call this evening to confirm?

Floxxie

Ames wrote: »

I've done A200 and A207, now I'm about to do DD306.

The info from my tutor for A200 was really bad, I'd get a low score and all she wrote was how good the points were. I put down in the survey at the end that I didn't think her feedback was useful.

A207 was the other way round, I'd get higher scores (low 70s) even though I'd made big mistakes - one of my highest marks was for an essay where I wittered on about the significance of Notre Dame in the background of the painting only to find out from the feedback that it was set in Lyon! One of the things I got wrong was not stating that the pieces of writing I was analysing were different, ie one was a poem, one prose etc. Apparantly that was what would have pushed me into a first, whereas I'd assumed it was so obvious it didn't need mentioning. So I know in future to always state the obvious!

Yep you've just reminded me of one where I lost some marks because I didn't state the bleeding obvious :rotfl:
I think it mentioned somewhere in my course introduction to write as if you are telling someone that does not do your course. Obviously you couldn't do it that basic but gives you an idea of remembering to include the obvious.

olly300

welshmoneylover wrote: »

An experienced OUer who was getting good grades gave me a big tip and it has helped to improve my TMA scores as well by about 10 percentage points.

First off read the tma questions before doing anything with the course material so you know what to keep an eye out for.

When reading the course material, write notes in the margins when you come across relevant material for the tma. Then you can refer back to them when it comes to writing tmas.

Don't leave it too late to write tmas, in fact, spend more time on them than you would reading the course material.

hth

Yep I've noticed the TMAs I do this for I get much higher marks than the TMAs I don't.

While your tutor may tell you not to worry about the TMAs when attending tutorials, you need to have an idea of what material you should focus on.

Ames

Thanks for all the advice. I'm planning to do a literature course next and I'm looking at getting the texts so I've got time to read them all at my leisure, but it's so annoying that it has to be specific editions! I've already got loads of the books, but need to buy them again. I'm looking on ebay but so many sellers don't do postage discounts. Might start regularly trawling the charity shops, although I'll have to reign myself in from buying loads for pure pleasure!

justpaper

giggles_alot wrote: »

Yet again I've left my TMA to the last minute and was starting to fret.
Just spotted this on TGF from my tutor,
"Please note that I will be working away from sat 25 Jul until Wed 29 jul. Today is the cut off for TMA 03 - so, I will be down loading TMAs today. If it helps anyone stuggling to get their TMA in today, next downloading will be on 29 Jul."
Do you all read the same as me, that it will be okay to submit TMA late as long as tutor has it waiting to be downloaded on 29th?

ive heard from other students (in my class) if you tell the Tutor before hand they would give you a few days, if you asking for more time every TMA deadline then thats just not going to work out,

In your case i would do it Asap and get it in, dont send it on the 29th, ifyou can get it in 26th night just makes you look better,

Floxxie

Ames wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. I'm planning to do a literature course next and I'm looking at getting the texts so I've got time to read them all at my leisure, but it's so annoying that it has to be specific editions! I've already got loads of the books, but need to buy them again. I'm looking on ebay but so many sellers don't do postage discounts. Might start regularly trawling the charity shops, although I'll have to reign myself in from buying loads for pure pleasure!

Aren't you given them as part of your course materials? How about borrowing them from the library? I've done that for several other courses before and just kept on borrowing them for quite a long time :rotfl:
Also check out greenmetropolis and Amazon if you do need to buy them although my best buys have been from charity shops and car boot sales.

Ames

I'm not going to start the course till Feb, so I wont get the course materials for ages yet. It says to read as much of the reading list as you can before the course starts, so I'm trying to do that.

Our library's useless, I went in once with a list of 100 books, and they had about 5, and only a couple in stock. I don't hold out any hope of getting the right editions from there!

I'll check out greenmetropolis, and the charity shops, thanks.

Floxxie

Your library can get them in for you. Also if you are in a university town/city, check what you can get as a local person/OU student in terms of access and borrowing.

It might be worth calling the OU and finding out if they provide the books for you. If so, you could then just read any edition.

juno

Ames wrote: »

I'm not going to start the course till Feb, so I wont get the course materials for ages yet. It says to read as much of the reading list as you can before the course starts, so I'm trying to do that.

Our library's useless, I went in once with a list of 100 books, and they had about 5, and only a couple in stock. I don't hold out any hope of getting the right editions from there!

I'll check out greenmetropolis, and the charity shops, thanks.

Can you read the course materials online? I don't start MST121 until September, but the books are all available online from now. It isn't as convenient, but will be cheaper