Please, in case you want to tell me something be aware that this is a blog that has the comments hidden for a reason. I decided to hide the comments and apply comments revision after a bad experience some months ago.
I will publish all those comments that are respectful and do not contain what I consider sensitive information in it.
I do not provide TMAs, module PDFs or old exams to anyone, do not add advertisements of any kind to my blog and will not accept any type of insult, threat, etc. as part of the comments towards myself or others.
In principle, unless it is very well justified I will not contact anyone that leaves their email as part of a comment even if they ask for it and I will not publish those comments either (in fact I delete them).
So, unless I know you personally based on my real life or by prolonged contact in this blog please do not assume I will contact you just because you left your email inside a comment, I won't.
If you want to tell me something, please feel free to do it as part of a comment. You can add a request for the message to be deleted and/or not
published and unless I need it as a proof of something I will delete it after reading
it in those cases.
I'm glad that this blog is a way of sharing and encouraging each other, I'm always open to people that wants to share their thoughts freely and respectfully. I hope you all understand and this will not stop you to comment and share here.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
6 months left
Today I received my results from TMA01 and all the hard work has finally given its fruits: 92%
It's not a bad start at all, having read and highlighted the entire book "Projects in Computing and Information Systems. A Student's Guide" by Christian W. Dawson has helped but it also helps to read carefully what is expected to be present on the TMA.
So far I think this is the module that demands more time, effort and dedication in the entire BSc. Maybe it's because my idea is an original idea and I need to do a lot of work just to have it up and running but maybe not and all of us are exactly in the same situation. I cannot see why my case would be different from others, so I assume all of us are under pressure ;-).
As an advice for all those ones taking this module in a future: It's not easy to fit all the tasks in the allocated time, remember: "it implies hard work", a lot of it.
For some reason this year the forum moderator tended to show as "acceptable" mostly original ideas and not extensions or versions of something already existing. Some of the comments have been quite devastating and I have to recognise I felt relief when my second idea was well received. I would have expected that approach on original ideas to be present in the research module of a PhD but not exactly for a BSc.
After that I relaxed until the beginning of the project on 1st February as a way to avoid engaging into the preparation forum just for ending being told my idea wasn't good enough or similar...and haven't relaxed since the module started ;-).
My tutor is very kind and encouraging, I hope the allocated time it's enough for me to finish the project and learn a lot of new things. It looks that I lost my 8% because I did not reflect on my process at the level I could have done.
I had this same issue in BU130 where I passed from a 69% (OCAS) to a 44% (OES), that have been my lowest grade with The OU (by difference) and believe it or not it happened because I'm a very reflective person (maybe too much) and when I need to talk about something in a module that expects you to make a new reflective process for it, as I do it as normal and it's not new for me at all I cannot find what is the thing that is so different to what I do every day for me to add it to the TMA. On the other hand if I add all the things that I reflect on it would be a book instead of a TMA.
I will need to find the equilibrium on this.
It's being engaging and also interesting, on the other side of things I do not have free time at all, my weekends are "project weekends" and my life can be summarised as "house work - project work - job work".
Only 6 months and it will be over, hopefully with a BSc (Hons) Computing under my belt a few months later.
I contacted the Uni in Sweden and they have just told me that I cannot apply this year because my BSc results are released in December and the Masters degree starts in August, so it will be a 2015 start for me if they accept me next year.
It's not a bad start at all, having read and highlighted the entire book "Projects in Computing and Information Systems. A Student's Guide" by Christian W. Dawson has helped but it also helps to read carefully what is expected to be present on the TMA.
So far I think this is the module that demands more time, effort and dedication in the entire BSc. Maybe it's because my idea is an original idea and I need to do a lot of work just to have it up and running but maybe not and all of us are exactly in the same situation. I cannot see why my case would be different from others, so I assume all of us are under pressure ;-).
As an advice for all those ones taking this module in a future: It's not easy to fit all the tasks in the allocated time, remember: "it implies hard work", a lot of it.
For some reason this year the forum moderator tended to show as "acceptable" mostly original ideas and not extensions or versions of something already existing. Some of the comments have been quite devastating and I have to recognise I felt relief when my second idea was well received. I would have expected that approach on original ideas to be present in the research module of a PhD but not exactly for a BSc.
After that I relaxed until the beginning of the project on 1st February as a way to avoid engaging into the preparation forum just for ending being told my idea wasn't good enough or similar...and haven't relaxed since the module started ;-).
My tutor is very kind and encouraging, I hope the allocated time it's enough for me to finish the project and learn a lot of new things. It looks that I lost my 8% because I did not reflect on my process at the level I could have done.
I had this same issue in BU130 where I passed from a 69% (OCAS) to a 44% (OES), that have been my lowest grade with The OU (by difference) and believe it or not it happened because I'm a very reflective person (maybe too much) and when I need to talk about something in a module that expects you to make a new reflective process for it, as I do it as normal and it's not new for me at all I cannot find what is the thing that is so different to what I do every day for me to add it to the TMA. On the other hand if I add all the things that I reflect on it would be a book instead of a TMA.
I will need to find the equilibrium on this.
It's being engaging and also interesting, on the other side of things I do not have free time at all, my weekends are "project weekends" and my life can be summarised as "house work - project work - job work".
Only 6 months and it will be over, hopefully with a BSc (Hons) Computing under my belt a few months later.
I contacted the Uni in Sweden and they have just told me that I cannot apply this year because my BSc results are released in December and the Masters degree starts in August, so it will be a 2015 start for me if they accept me next year.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
The horse is outside
The rubberbandits video, horse outside, comes to my mind at this moment. It's more or less how I feel, I mean, not like anything in the video plot - that is also a bit weird to say the least - else like if I have a horse outside just ready for me to fly away.
I'm just thinking about finishing the TM470 module and end up with the OU, I have even thought now about cancelling my Foundation degree in Leadership and Management if the new Uni accept my application for the Master and going straight away into my IT Master's degree on 2015. Yep, I think that will be what I will do.
The reason for the current mood is that the results were published today and far from having broken the loop - as I thought I have had - I achieved this year again an 81% in the M362 exam, a grade that The OU decided again not to put up a bit so....Grade 2 for me...and bye, bye First degree option.
It's the first time in my life in a module that is programming related that I do not achieve a Distinction but hey!, that was a 100% theory exam (a bit weird for a programming module to be honest).
Who cares! Just achieving a 40% in TM470 will give me now a 2:1 and nothing can give me anything better so if we add to this the fact that the TM470 preparation forum is being a bit of a pain for me I honestly think this is the best that could have happened.
As things are going for me in TM470 up to now I do not want to imagine myself if I would have had a Distinction in M362, just forcing myself to try to have a Distinction in TM470 just because that would have been my last opportunity to have a First degree. That is a reality that now will never happen. For once I think I will be happy with this situation.
I will try to make my life easier this year, so next goal will be "to achieve at least a 40% in TM470" and after that I will fly away, next stop will be Sweden so I need a good horse for that...and it's outside :-)
I'm just thinking about finishing the TM470 module and end up with the OU, I have even thought now about cancelling my Foundation degree in Leadership and Management if the new Uni accept my application for the Master and going straight away into my IT Master's degree on 2015. Yep, I think that will be what I will do.
The reason for the current mood is that the results were published today and far from having broken the loop - as I thought I have had - I achieved this year again an 81% in the M362 exam, a grade that The OU decided again not to put up a bit so....Grade 2 for me...and bye, bye First degree option.
It's the first time in my life in a module that is programming related that I do not achieve a Distinction but hey!, that was a 100% theory exam (a bit weird for a programming module to be honest).
Who cares! Just achieving a 40% in TM470 will give me now a 2:1 and nothing can give me anything better so if we add to this the fact that the TM470 preparation forum is being a bit of a pain for me I honestly think this is the best that could have happened.
As things are going for me in TM470 up to now I do not want to imagine myself if I would have had a Distinction in M362, just forcing myself to try to have a Distinction in TM470 just because that would have been my last opportunity to have a First degree. That is a reality that now will never happen. For once I think I will be happy with this situation.
I will try to make my life easier this year, so next goal will be "to achieve at least a 40% in TM470" and after that I will fly away, next stop will be Sweden so I need a good horse for that...and it's outside :-)
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Initial contact with TM470 and how things are
I have found that in TM470 there are no PDFs to download yet and as I don't like to read everything on the screen in a certain way I'm a bit "behind" my normal schedule as even when the module hasn't officially started yet under other circumstances I would have already read part of the materials, etc.
I published my idea in the forum the first day and I'm trying to progress on that following the advice of the forum moderator. I'm trying to do something that would push me to learn new things because how can I report on my learning if I would do something that I would already know by heart? Anyway, all this "tell me about your idea and I will tell you how wrong you are" is putting me a bit down really because somehow I feel I cannot get it right but I'm not surrendering.
Good news are that this will be the last module for this degree and that I still can enjoy the experience if finally my idea is accepted by my teacher.
On other OU related things, I'm still waiting for my M362 results that now are said to be published around 6th Dec the sooner, the OU sent yesterday an email that indicates that there could even be further delays. M362 is the module I want to base my project on so I need to wait until I have the results (hopefully a Distinction) to be able to fill the form that will help me to have a teacher assigned.
I published my idea in the forum the first day and I'm trying to progress on that following the advice of the forum moderator. I'm trying to do something that would push me to learn new things because how can I report on my learning if I would do something that I would already know by heart? Anyway, all this "tell me about your idea and I will tell you how wrong you are" is putting me a bit down really because somehow I feel I cannot get it right but I'm not surrendering.
Good news are that this will be the last module for this degree and that I still can enjoy the experience if finally my idea is accepted by my teacher.
On other OU related things, I'm still waiting for my M362 results that now are said to be published around 6th Dec the sooner, the OU sent yesterday an email that indicates that there could even be further delays. M362 is the module I want to base my project on so I need to wait until I have the results (hopefully a Distinction) to be able to fill the form that will help me to have a teacher assigned.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
OU printed materials available on demand
The OU has reached an agreement in October this year to start with 10 modules to pilot the process so those ones needing the books or preferring them can still have them for a small charge.
More info here: http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/82/245
and here: http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/rostra/news.php?r=82&t=2&id=231
Unfortunately for me B201 does not appear in this initial list but during next year I will contact them before I register on it, hopefully I will have a printed copy available then (or at least a PDF copy).
Only 3 weeks to the official results date and currently reading about the Master during what it is my first holidays without a TMA around.
I'm finishing now with the highlighting (and my second reading) of the book "Projects in Computing and Information Systems. A Student's Guide", Christian W. Dawson.I find it very enlightening regarding the project process.
I'm trying to have all my highlighting done before the project module opens this 19th Nov. (The OU delayed the starting date from 10th Sept to 19th Nov.).
More info here: http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/82/245
and here: http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/rostra/news.php?r=82&t=2&id=231
Unfortunately for me B201 does not appear in this initial list but during next year I will contact them before I register on it, hopefully I will have a printed copy available then (or at least a PDF copy).
Only 3 weeks to the official results date and currently reading about the Master during what it is my first holidays without a TMA around.
I'm finishing now with the highlighting (and my second reading) of the book "Projects in Computing and Information Systems. A Student's Guide", Christian W. Dawson.I find it very enlightening regarding the project process.
I'm trying to have all my highlighting done before the project module opens this 19th Nov. (The OU delayed the starting date from 10th Sept to 19th Nov.).
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Crazy as hell
I have been thinking about giving the step forwards professionally and about preparing myself for a Project Manager or a Team Leader role.
It's not that I do not like the Senior Web Developer role I have been into since several years now, in fact I like it but this is about personal and professional development, finding new challenges and learning new interesting things.
Yesterday a colleague told me that some people can go 'stir crazy' for being doing the same thing again and again at work as that will make them feel demotivated. I feel that the best way to avoid it is to put oneself in situations that will bring new learning to your table and keep your enthusiasm alive.
I contacted The OU on 12th Oct. regarding their Foundation Degree in Leadership and Management (G08), mainly asking if I would be considered a continuing student after finishing my degree in 2014, being so able to use my Business modules to do the foundation degree without adapting to the new structure, provided I finish my foundation degree before 2017.
After some confusion - where they thought I was asking for an extension of my transitional arrangements when that wasn't the case at all - everything is clear now and even when I was only asking to be able to decide accordingly in a future they took action and yesterday I received an email indicating they have already linked all my correspondent completed business modules now to the foundation degree (all the first level modules are done now, they even selected the free module for it without asking which would be the module I would like to use but curiously they selected the one I would have selected). It will be more than £2,500 per module as only two 60 credits modules left for me to claim it and I really need to think about it before deciding anyway.
At the same time, and in part because The OU took so much time to reply, I have been looking around for optional studies that could fit better to my professional aspirations and I have found a Masters degree that looks even better than the Foundation degree the OU offers because is IT specific.
I'm now crazy trying to see if I can fit all my studies and make them all :-), if it would be convenient for me not to go for some of them or what. I also have pending the top up degree and I'm still searching for online IT top up degrees with good modules.
What a cooking pot life is, I have all the time 1000 things going around and I'm always saying that I want my life back and have a rest but always engaging in new learning challenges. I have started to accept that this (studying all the time) is really my life and that what have happened before was really the unusual bit.
I have also enrolled in an online Maryland University course that will start on 6th Jan and will help me with my project idea's programming needs. There is also another course from Vancouver University in March that seems to top up the Maryland one so I need to think about it as well.
So many things one can do but we just have one life to do them.
Will all the trade-offs we do during life count as a coin in the other side to buy a ticket to come back and do the things that we left aside? :-)
It's not that I do not like the Senior Web Developer role I have been into since several years now, in fact I like it but this is about personal and professional development, finding new challenges and learning new interesting things.
Yesterday a colleague told me that some people can go 'stir crazy' for being doing the same thing again and again at work as that will make them feel demotivated. I feel that the best way to avoid it is to put oneself in situations that will bring new learning to your table and keep your enthusiasm alive.
I contacted The OU on 12th Oct. regarding their Foundation Degree in Leadership and Management (G08), mainly asking if I would be considered a continuing student after finishing my degree in 2014, being so able to use my Business modules to do the foundation degree without adapting to the new structure, provided I finish my foundation degree before 2017.
After some confusion - where they thought I was asking for an extension of my transitional arrangements when that wasn't the case at all - everything is clear now and even when I was only asking to be able to decide accordingly in a future they took action and yesterday I received an email indicating they have already linked all my correspondent completed business modules now to the foundation degree (all the first level modules are done now, they even selected the free module for it without asking which would be the module I would like to use but curiously they selected the one I would have selected). It will be more than £2,500 per module as only two 60 credits modules left for me to claim it and I really need to think about it before deciding anyway.
At the same time, and in part because The OU took so much time to reply, I have been looking around for optional studies that could fit better to my professional aspirations and I have found a Masters degree that looks even better than the Foundation degree the OU offers because is IT specific.
I'm now crazy trying to see if I can fit all my studies and make them all :-), if it would be convenient for me not to go for some of them or what. I also have pending the top up degree and I'm still searching for online IT top up degrees with good modules.
What a cooking pot life is, I have all the time 1000 things going around and I'm always saying that I want my life back and have a rest but always engaging in new learning challenges. I have started to accept that this (studying all the time) is really my life and that what have happened before was really the unusual bit.
I have also enrolled in an online Maryland University course that will start on 6th Jan and will help me with my project idea's programming needs. There is also another course from Vancouver University in March that seems to top up the Maryland one so I need to think about it as well.
So many things one can do but we just have one life to do them.
Will all the trade-offs we do during life count as a coin in the other side to buy a ticket to come back and do the things that we left aside? :-)
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
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.
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.
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