Two months and TM470 is over!

Today I came from some short holidays I had booked since long time ago as some friends had invited me to their wedding in France since 2 years ago and I had accepted. After two years saying I would be there it was my obligation (and desire) to be there.

Exactly 2 months for the project to finish... a post was mandatory :-).

I'm still waiting for my TMA03 result and I will be starting in a new job next Monday. So, a lot of things going on and everything still to be defined somehow.

It's working for me but unfortunately not for everyone

All the efforts done during TMA02 served to keep the level achieved during TMA01. Today I received my results and I was very happy to see I achieved a 91% this time.

I have now taken 2 weeks off to dedicate myself entirely to the programming part, (hopefully) being so able to manage all the demands on this TMA03 without needing to do the same prolonged effort I did for TMA02 where every day was a challenge trying to find as much time as possible to dedicate to the project.

I have already the 10% needed from TMAs to pass the module in case EMA result would be a clean 40% (40 x 75% = 30%), in fact I have already achieved a 13.7% of the total grade so now my TMA03 result will serve to put my gradings up assuming my EMA will be a 40% or more.

It's being a lot of work but I'm really enjoying this programming part as I'm learning CodeIgniter as part of the process and the feedback from my tutor is being extremely valuable for me to see my own mistakes and (hopefully) fix them.

It would be a sort of an irony if I finally have my only level 3 Distinction with this module but I would also be glad if that's the case as it will be a recognition to all my efforts on this module up to today. I will also be glad with a 40% if that's the case as the important bit for me is to achieve my BSc this December (almost only 4.5 months now for this to finish!!)

Based strictly on my own experience I would not recommend to anyone doing TM470 beside other modules at the same time as I think it's really hard to keep a good level on TM470 in such cases due to the extreme demand that this module is meaning (at least this year and at least for me) and also could affect your final results of the other modules.

At the same time I'm happy for my results I'm also sad to see the amount of people that have demonstrated that are very hardworking individuals during years and are now suffering a lot with this module according to the forum posts.

Some people is now considering to leave the module and re-take it next year, even when I know this happens every year as I know some of those pupils for having coincided with them in previous modules it makes me feel sad that knowing how hard they have worked to reach this point they are now feeling they don't have enough strength, time, etc. to cope with this module demands.

My support and encouragement to all of them in a situation like this. I honestly wish things go better for them in next TMA if they decide to stay.

I have broken the loop for good!!

Today I have received my M362 TMA03 result and I have achieved a 90%!!.

M362 This year:       TMA01:88%, TMA02:87%, TMA03: 90%
M363 Last year was TMA01:88%, TMA02:87%, TMA03: 80%

I have broken the Déjà vu!!

Three months of hard work just for 3% more than the previous one that was done in 12 days. Explaining theory is not my best skill and I have sweated blood with this TMA, reviewing it over and over again up to the point I knew it by heart. I did 16 different versions of this TMA before I was sure enough I couldn't improve anything else.

I can now tell that once I sit my exam on 7th October I would have sat all my BSc (Hons) Computing exams with the option to have a Distinction in place. Unfortunately the materialisation of that option hasn't been easy at level 3 for me, having sat two exams seriously ill (M359 and M364) and achieving an 81% last year in my M363 exam but... let's see how it goes this time :-).

It's a big true that 88% on OCAS is not the best average I have ever had, it's not even the best average I have had at level 3 either but it's over 85% and that is the only thing that really matters.

For a Distinction I need yet to make it real at the exam hall on 7th October and that is the hard bit of all this.

August it's being a very busy month (as it is every year for me, for some reason) but I'm already studying for the exam.

Question marks

I have just received my M263 TMA03 results two days ago and I had a 90%, this means that I only need now a 53% in TMA04 to keep the Distinction option for the exam. I have never had such a low mark in any TMA during the 4 years I have been studying with The OU so I assume it's very doable to sit the exam with the Distinction option in place.

A completely different thing will be to have more than 85% in the exam in June. If that would happen my classification table would be reduced to its first column and I officially would be in route towards what is called in UK a good degree (a First or a 2:1 Honours degree classification).

Today I'm already highlighting Unit 15 (out of 16) of M263, the last one I will need for TMA04 (due on 16 May) as Unit 16 is assessed at the exam only. So, I calculate I will be uploading the last TMA soon with more or less one month in advance. That will allow me to concentrate on preparing the exam and doing the TMA02 for M362.

Now that I mention M362, I uploaded M362 TMA01 on 1st April (15 days in advance), my tutor marked it straightaway (2nd April) and it's now waiting to be released (probably on 17th April).

So, some question marks are still to be unveiled in the next months but for now is good to dream a bit about it. That is to say, the other columns of my classification table are still there but small-dreaming like this provides motivation :-)

Distinction opportunity in M363 remains!

For some reason August is always a very busy month for me so I pushed myself to have my TMA03 done, spell-checked and have it "perfect " before15th August because I was afraid of not having enough time if I would delay its completion, but being a perfectionist I wanted to be sure that it would be a very good TMA and not one just done rushing due to time constraints so I finally submitted on 17 August after I was happy with the result and all the revisions I did to my answers, cut-off date was 5th Sept.

My teacher's feedback is fantastic and - for the first time in my OU experience - he marks my TMAs almost as soon as I upload them, it was "marked on 20th August and waiting to be released" since then, so it has been a long waiting time, an experience almost identical to when one expects an exam results. Today I was very nervous, 40 minutes ago I visited the page to see my results.

I needed a minimum of 80% in this TMA to have an overall OCAS equals to 85%, so keeping my opportunity to go for a Distinction on M363.

I have worked very hard in this TMA, seeing his feedback it seems to be that the points I lost where due to my perfectionism, (over)trying to secure a good score I lost the point here and there, giving too much explanations sometimes and taking a different path to the requested due to it.

I scored an 80%!!

It's the first time in my life that I pass a threshold so near I could have failed in my goals but I'm over the moon with this.

Just the exam now, I have past the last week revising already and 7 out of 14 units are already reviewed. I have bought all the past exam papers and I'm already refining my notes while going through the Units.

It's true people normally do worst in the exams than in the TMAs but there is still hope here. Fingers crossed  and hard work is the road to take now.