Reading (active reading), always ask questions about the text, it helps maintain interest and improves the quality of the note taking. Questions I ask - What do they mean by that, In what context is that, What is that referring to - this helps me to stop running my eyes over many paragraphs of text without thinking. I sometimes break the paragraphs down in to sentences and ask myself if I fully understand, if I'm tired I may even break the longer sentences down (where there are new concepts or sentences with many ideas).
Review earlier work before commencing and review new work completed at the end of a study period. This counts when taking breaks too. I tend to read through my notes of the previous session.
If stuck on a subject put it down, take a break and come back later, the next day. I found this particularly effective when studying MS221 Exploring mathematics, an overnight break often helped when coming back fresh and spotting a misunderstanding.
If still stuck after banging your head against a topic and having overnight breaks, try formulating a question to ask in the First Class forums. The process of working out how to ask a question can help in spotting a misunderstanding. If still stuck then you can post your question and get someone elses view.
Further things to try when stuck, try explaining the problem to someone else, the cat, dog or hamster even. Another person may ask you questions that force you to rethink, a family pet may not ask questions but you still have to verbalise your thoughts. Expressing yourself in a different medium may help you to rethink and understand a problem.
Always give yourself a fair chance, getting stuck on a question does not mean you won't be able to work out the answer, don't rush to ask but think the problem over, put it aside, come back to it a few times.
Try all the examples in the course text and write the answer using a pen and paper, no matter how tedious some of the self assessment questions may appear.
And practise, practise, practise, Carnegie Hall awaits. The old joke.
I need to start taking some of this advice!
Monday, 12 January 2009
Sunday, 11 January 2009
On course
Surprised to find I am on course with my studies - according to the study calendar. It's in the OU forums where I keep seeing questions asked about things that are not just in the next few units but in the next block (or sometimes the block after that)! A feeling of inadequacy can creep in and of being left behind. Just don't think about them, they are either massively well organised, have enough time on their hands or never do anything but OU work. Perhaps I should discover who the well organised ones are and find out their secrets.
Today has been mostly study of unit 7 of M255. It involves a lot of practical work altering classes, making frogs do things that they might not do unless genetically interfered with (perhaps given the hummingbirds ability to hover), overloading and overriding methods. It keeps me amused - apart from the displacement activity of nipping out to chop down a shrub that was allowing water to penetrate the house brickwork (water displacement removal activity?)
I make paper notes as I go along, marking headings and listing the Unit and Section I am on at the top of each page. This should make it easier to locate where I should look up information in the text if my notes aren't as helpful as I'd like when revising. I have tried mind-mapping/memory-mapping before but didn't find I very helpful, I used a commercial application, perhaps I should use coloured pens and paper. I don't find colour that useful being red/green colour blind although restricting to a small range of high contrast colours might help. But mainly my working habits consist of an A4 pad, a pen and the computer. At the end of each block I write a glossary of all the terminology and attempt to memorise it (not verbatim), although I think it would be an idea to do this at the start of each block and review it after (it will be reviewed naturally throughout study to a certain extent).
I'll get on with some more work later this evening and then have a bottle of Leffe when I've finished. It's a cheap trick but it's helpful to have a treat lined up!
Today has been mostly study of unit 7 of M255. It involves a lot of practical work altering classes, making frogs do things that they might not do unless genetically interfered with (perhaps given the hummingbirds ability to hover), overloading and overriding methods. It keeps me amused - apart from the displacement activity of nipping out to chop down a shrub that was allowing water to penetrate the house brickwork (water displacement removal activity?)
I make paper notes as I go along, marking headings and listing the Unit and Section I am on at the top of each page. This should make it easier to locate where I should look up information in the text if my notes aren't as helpful as I'd like when revising. I have tried mind-mapping/memory-mapping before but didn't find I very helpful, I used a commercial application, perhaps I should use coloured pens and paper. I don't find colour that useful being red/green colour blind although restricting to a small range of high contrast colours might help. But mainly my working habits consist of an A4 pad, a pen and the computer. At the end of each block I write a glossary of all the terminology and attempt to memorise it (not verbatim), although I think it would be an idea to do this at the start of each block and review it after (it will be reviewed naturally throughout study to a certain extent).
I'll get on with some more work later this evening and then have a bottle of Leffe when I've finished. It's a cheap trick but it's helpful to have a treat lined up!
Study, study, study
Sunday today, would normally go out for a mountain bike ride for a few hours but my cycling pal has pulled out citing aches and pains, tiredness and the cold weather. I am secretly relieved at this as I have a whole lot of OU work to catch up on.
I don't want to blame work as I can also be a little slack in the evenings and weekends at doing the amount of OU work I should do, but we were called in last Sunday due to there being a 2 minute power failure which affected one of our machine rooms over Sunday night. The generator failed to start and some sort of logic problem stopped the UPS failing back over to mains power. Most of Sunday was eaten by bringing servers back and making sure all was well in the virtual environment, the SAN came back seamlessly fortunately. Then I lost Tuesday and Wednesday evenings to troubleshooting another problem. Grrrrr!
So having made my excuses I'd better get down to some serious work today. I will be doing concurrent courses later this month so I need to crack on, I will be starting T209 that will run alongside M255.
I don't want to blame work as I can also be a little slack in the evenings and weekends at doing the amount of OU work I should do, but we were called in last Sunday due to there being a 2 minute power failure which affected one of our machine rooms over Sunday night. The generator failed to start and some sort of logic problem stopped the UPS failing back over to mains power. Most of Sunday was eaten by bringing servers back and making sure all was well in the virtual environment, the SAN came back seamlessly fortunately. Then I lost Tuesday and Wednesday evenings to troubleshooting another problem. Grrrrr!
So having made my excuses I'd better get down to some serious work today. I will be doing concurrent courses later this month so I need to crack on, I will be starting T209 that will run alongside M255.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
M255 first TMA returned
Dropped a few marks due to minor errors, not properly re-reading the questions and checking my answers. I did re-read but obviously missed the finer detail of the points required, it's easy to do when keen to submit. I submitted a day before the deadline so wasn't particularly hurried but this must be a problem that many other people have to contend with when working full-time and finishing OU or other study in the evenings. Maybe I was a little complacent too as the course seems quite easy at this point. However, having said all that my mark was 91% so I can't really complain, although I will have to make sure I am more careful for later TMA's as they will be more challenging and I would like to keep the standard up. Maybe that sounds a little smug, boastful? I hope not.
Reviewing and revising the course should start quite early on, it's easy to make fundamental errors that become entrenched knowledge if not corrected while the information is still fresh. I remember being in my late teens before I was completely sure that a fly-over didn't involve a car leaping off a ramp and landing on a road on the other side! I'd believed it from such an early age that it had a huge momentum of plausibility behind it. Hopefully Things won't go as far astray as that.
Reviewing and revising the course should start quite early on, it's easy to make fundamental errors that become entrenched knowledge if not corrected while the information is still fresh. I remember being in my late teens before I was completely sure that a fly-over didn't involve a car leaping off a ramp and landing on a road on the other side! I'd believed it from such an early age that it had a huge momentum of plausibility behind it. Hopefully Things won't go as far astray as that.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Results and stuff
I received my result for T224 Computers and processors last week and confirmation by post this week, a distinction, hurray. As I enjoyed the course and didn't find it an onerous task to put the required hours in I thought I would do pretty well.
It was my fifth exam with the OU over the past three years, my revision technique has improved and although I retain a little adrenalin fear for the exam itself I find that I don't get as nervous as I did in the early days.
I recently started M255 Object-oriented programming with Java. There have been no surprises so far and I have found it straightforward, this may be due to the similarity to C++. I did C++ for an earlier course, MT262 Putting computer systems to work, and did very well, a distinction. No doubt the Java course will be very different from C++ as the course progresses but as I enjoy the process of programming I hope to do well again.
The pressure may build a little in 2009 as I will be starting T209 Information and communication technologies: people and interactions. I have done 30 point courses with an overlap before but a 30 and a 60 at the same time may present more of a challenge.
Working out a timetable that is realistic and achievable is key to doing well and maintaining interest and enthusiasm. Working full time it can be difficult to fit the hours in, particularly if your work follows you home in the evening and at weekends. I try to fit in a couple of hours of study each night during the week, when doing courses concurrently this needs to be increased. One day a week I have an afternoon of study time provided by my employer, this is really helpful as I can get a good long run of study, more so than is possible at the weekend in fact, although weekends can be another good period. I get at least eight hours out of the day on my study afternoon. When I say a good long run I should be clear that to make study most effective then breaks should be factored in! Otherwise fatigue sets in and words may be entering via the eye portals but they just bounce around inside your head until the letters are rendered disparate entities without form or meaning!
It was my fifth exam with the OU over the past three years, my revision technique has improved and although I retain a little adrenalin fear for the exam itself I find that I don't get as nervous as I did in the early days.
I recently started M255 Object-oriented programming with Java. There have been no surprises so far and I have found it straightforward, this may be due to the similarity to C++. I did C++ for an earlier course, MT262 Putting computer systems to work, and did very well, a distinction. No doubt the Java course will be very different from C++ as the course progresses but as I enjoy the process of programming I hope to do well again.
The pressure may build a little in 2009 as I will be starting T209 Information and communication technologies: people and interactions. I have done 30 point courses with an overlap before but a 30 and a 60 at the same time may present more of a challenge.
Working out a timetable that is realistic and achievable is key to doing well and maintaining interest and enthusiasm. Working full time it can be difficult to fit the hours in, particularly if your work follows you home in the evening and at weekends. I try to fit in a couple of hours of study each night during the week, when doing courses concurrently this needs to be increased. One day a week I have an afternoon of study time provided by my employer, this is really helpful as I can get a good long run of study, more so than is possible at the weekend in fact, although weekends can be another good period. I get at least eight hours out of the day on my study afternoon. When I say a good long run I should be clear that to make study most effective then breaks should be factored in! Otherwise fatigue sets in and words may be entering via the eye portals but they just bounce around inside your head until the letters are rendered disparate entities without form or meaning!
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