Sunday, December 25, 2011

The results are in . . .

. . . and I got a quite healthy 70% for my TMA 02.


More than I thought I would get, truth to tell, and probably more than I deserve, given that so much of what I am reading isn't sticking :(


In all truth, I was on the point of contacting the OU and giving up this course, especially with my health being at an all-time low right now. I have just been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, as well as Lupus, so I'm not a very happy bunny, to put it mildly. In fact, I've slept so much over this last week, that this is the first opportunity I've had to actually write in my blog, especially as my results came in a week ago.


I wrote to my tutor, setting out my problems, but she seems to think that I've actually got a better grasp of the course than I think I have, and she is encouraging me to keep on trying, as she says things will be a little easier, the further along I go in the course. 


I'm not sure I believe her, to be honest with you, but I'm giving myself a couple of weeks study free, so that I can try to recover a little health-wise, without the stress of the course making things worse for me. But I know that I really do need to keep on studying, as TMA 03 is due to be posted by noon on 12th January, and I'm already a week behind in my course work again.


I guess, all I can do is try each day to do a little bit, working on the next TMA as I go along, hoping, and praying, that I get enough right to keep passing each TMA, until I either recover enough to catch up, or, please God, find the course easier to absorb, as my tutor tells me I will.


I'm finding the idea of this being my last course with the OU rather more pleasing than I have ever done in the past but, rather than looking forward to a completely study-free future, have decided that I'm going to concentrate on my story writing in the future, with the research needed, for this to be a success.


No matter what happens, though, I know I will always be grateful to the OU, for teaching me how to do proper research, and then to be able to write a decent story from the results of my research, and I'm hoping this will hold me in good stead when I make the attempt in the future :)



Friday, December 16, 2011

They say that patience is a virtue . . .

. . . but I'm not sure whether I've learned enough of it as yet!


My tutor started to mark our TMA's last weekend, but I still haven't got a result as yet, and so I'm spending every minute I can spare, going on to my OU course site, and staring hopefully at the results page - only to be faced with a blank once again.


I really should have got used to the wait by now, especially after 6 years of studying with the OU, but I'm afraid I haven't, as yet, and we're getting perilously close to the weekend again, with the chance that I might have even more time to wait :/


But I am being good - sort-of, and doing my best to continue on with the activities I need to complete, especially as yet another TMA will soon be looming. 


I actually had a look at TMA 03 yesterday - something normally unheard of for me, as I prefer to come at it fresh when it's time to start work on it. Imagine how I felt, when I read the statement I'll be working on, only to see that there's barely any difference between it and the last TMA!


I really don't know what the course leaders are playing at, but it feels as though we're just going round and round in circles with this one. There just doesn't seem to be any progression between each TMA. Usually, when I do a course, each TMA will show a significant step along the journey I embarked on at the beginning, and each TMA will show me yet another aspect of the course, and what I'm supposed to be learning from it - but this one? Nope!


I'm going to keep on with it, purely because I'm not a quitter, but I'm just hoping and praying that the second half of the course shows some difference, otherwise I'm going to be an extremely miffed woman indeed :(



Saturday, December 10, 2011

TMA02 is off!


With lots of hair-pulling, and angst, I finally managed to get within the word count allowed for this TMA.


I can't, with any honesty, say that it's my best effort to date, as I've been fighting migraines over the last few weeks, and have spent more time than I'd like sleeping the effects away, but I managed to cobble something together that, I hope, is enough to afford me at least a pass.


To be honest with you, I've given up worrying about how little I'm absorbing with this course. I just want to get well enough to at least retain some of the info I'm reading for a change!


On that point, I have an appointment with my Rheumatologist on the 23rd of the month, so I'm hoping that he'll have some idea why my health has got so bad. I'm hoping that the positive anti-nuclear factor they've found in my blood, is just a glitch than can be easily fixed, and that this is the reason for the real down-swing in my health. I'm just praying for an easy fix, I guess, as everything else wrong with me is incurable to date.


It would be so very nice to have something that's curable for a change!


And, in the meantime, I guess I should try and catch up with all my activities, so I'm not so behind for TMA03, which is due on 12th January. It's as well I don't do Christmas, I guess! :)



Friday, December 02, 2011

It's definitely becoming a bit of the Tortoise and Hare scenario here :/


I have to confess that I put all my books away for a few days - firstly, to recover from yet another cluster migraine, but also more in the hope that I could look at them with fresh eyes when I got back to them again but, alas, it didn't work, and I'm still creeping along, well behind so many of my fellow travellers in this particular course :(


I was fairly good today, and have caught up on my Study Guide activities, and most of my Course Text activities, but I'm still no closer to writing my TMA, I'm ashamed to say. Procrastination is becoming a bit of a habit for me where this is concerned, but I'm going to have to get back on track, and soon, or I'll never read enough to complete this next TMA.


This course book that Carter wrote is becoming a bit of a weight on my conscience as, with each day that it remains closed, I'm feeling a terrible guilt at not trying harder to understand what he's trying to say to me - but I think I need to be the Minotaur to follow all the complex twists and crazy routes in this maze of a book!

While I was talking to my tutor at the Elluminate tutorial, she commented on the fact that I kept referring to my course work as a journey. I hadn't realised that I was doing this but, on thinking about it, I guess I do look at it that way.


It has been a long journey for me, this learning lark, and it's one I stepped out on with much trepidation, six years ago. There have been times when my road was direct and smooth, with nothing to disturb me, so that I had time to look out at the pretty scenery, and smell the scent of success coming towards me. But there have also been times when the road became steep and curved, where I had to slow down or lose my way - but this is the first time I've really felt as if I were lost, and without a signpost in sight. 


I guess it's time for me to stop for a minute, get out the road maps, and plan a route that will guide me back to the path I was on as, being so near the end of my journey, it is so very frustrating to have got so lost!