OU Students Past, Present and Future

olly300

GlasweJen wrote: »

Got my first eTMA result back and i'm quite confused/disappointed.

Tutor wrote that I covered the topic well but that my essay was quite slow to get started and I sent it in in the wrong format (even though i emailed her and asked to confirm the format was right and she said it was!) and gave it 50%.

I'm not too fussed because it's a pass and tbh the course is boring me already, tutor doesn't seem to give a monkeys, is slow to respond to emails (if she does, several people on the forum havent heard a dicky bird from her), the course CD came without instructions and the literature is dated. Start my new course later this month which already i've had loads of support from, the materials arrived and the stuff is modern and very relevant so hopefully my first module isn't a sign of things to come.

What course are you doing?

GlasweJen

DS871 - exploring cognition: damaged brains and neural networks. It's the last presentation but i expected the material to be a bit dated but not 10 years old, i think even the tutor is bored with it!!

Zziggi

GlasweJen wrote: »

DS871 - exploring cognition: damaged brains and neural networks. It's the last presentation but i expected the material to be a bit dated but not 10 years old, i think even the tutor is bored with it!!

Isn't this the course that's only been running for about 5 years? I'd say 50% was OK.

I know many won't agree with me but;
I don't know if this is your first postgrad course or not.... At undergrad level the grading is much more important as it reflects your degree classification. At postgrad level this is still the case as you can get pass/fail, pass/fail/merit/distinction, pass/fail/distinction BUT who ever asks what classification you got at masters level? At batchelors level - yes, classification is often asked for. At masters level I take a much more relaxed attitude. Whilst some of my courses offer pass/fail/distinction, I just look at it as 40% pass/fail. I'm not going to half kill myself for a distinction when no-one is ever going to care. 41% & a reasonable family & social life is as good as 99% & my kids wondering who the person stuck up in the study is!

*NB* then you have the added complication of a masters consistingof 3 courses in which one offers fail/pass, second offers fail/pass/distinction, third offers fail/pass/merit/distinction. The problem is, even if you got 100% in all three courses your masters certificate would still award a "pass" grade despite 2 distinctions. So why not got for 41% & anything higher is a bonus?

Zziggi

Rebekah24 wrote: »

hehe...I met some funny people on my last one...the tutorials were silent...and nobody said even a hello! ....needless to say I didnt go back to any tutorials:eek:

That's wierd! Can't say I have ever had that.

Zziggi

MargB wrote: »

Oh go on then ....add me in

Freely admit I'm an OU addict ...after 2 BSc hons, 4 diplomas and a cert in contemporary sciene, I must be. Its amazing what you can get with some double corse countig and careful timing of claiming awards.

Good old 1/3 "unique study" rule

Floxxie

penguin83 wrote: »

I have noticed that the W221 seems to be quite intense - have you done that one Floxxie - it might just be the time of year that it runs over but I had an assignment due in on the 2nd Dec and the next one is on the 6th Jan with 4 units to cover in between. I work full time as well and have 2 kids (6 and 4) and with it being Christmas as well it feels a bit full on! xxx

Sorry penguin, for some reason I am no longer subscribed to this thread

You are expected to do the courses in order so W200 and then W201 and then W300 and finally W301. The W200 also covers some of the basics for W201.
I've just done W200 and will then start W201 in Feb.
W200 was slow at the beginning and then everything was crammed in the last few months.

mum2one

Raksha wrote: »

Hi again. I'm looking at picking up my OU studies after a 10 year break. Are there any OU business studies students out there? I'm not looking at doing a specific degree at the moment, but I would like to start with B190 Introduction to Bookeeping and Accounting. Then moving on to Management, marketing and law 10 point courses.

Hi

The great plan is a BA Hons in Business, I was the same as you hadn't studied for 10 years, I went straight into B120 Introduction to Business, Level 1 (30 points), really gd entry point,

Level 1
B120 Intro to Business
DB123 - You and your money ( sort of side tracking but I found it an eye opener to how money worked, and options available - really gd course)
W100 - Intro to Law - I found that hard -more like a level 2 course

B202 - level 2 business
on another level 2 now.

I know you get 10 points on a opening course, out of what you have mentioned go for the Law, (new course - would be an eye opener to the level of work involved).

If you like marketing as well, the DB123 - has an element of marketing, opening down the marketing road, without actually crossing the road.

If you want a chat or any questions to what I studied - just pm.

Good luck xx

GlasweJen

Hi Zziggi, it says in our introduction stuff that the course is in its last presentation so we'd need to source our own up to date information, some of the stuff is from 1986! Not sure how long the course has been running but I assumed 10 years as that seems to be how long the other programs are running for.

And I agree, no one seems to give a stuff what sort of masters you have hence me not bothering too much, I'm more bothered about the tutor as i'm stuck with her to April and my new course starts the end of this month so I can see myself getting bored quickly and chucking this course aside.

Zziggi

GlasweJen wrote: »

Hi Zziggi, it says in our introduction stuff that the course is in its last presentation so we'd need to source our own up to date information, some of the stuff is from 1986! Not sure how long the course has been running but I assumed 10 years as that seems to be how long the other programs are running for.

I think it is a bit of a cop-out when they tell you that you need to source your own info like this - especially given the price of the postgrad courses. No doubt the justification will be that at masters level they expect you to develop your researching skills.....:rolleyes:


P.S. has any other seasoned masters level students noticed how the newer courses make a much bigger things about you must find your own info whilst the older masters level courses you could rely much more heavily (or entirely) on the provided materials? The older courses are so much easier.

GlasweJen

I think it's a bit shocking tbh because the people on the first run of the course had all this up to date info fed to them but because we're on the last run we've been hit with outdated resources and we're expected to do all this research that the first run didn't need to do but all for the same award. Choosing new courses from now on!