Thoughts Of E215

[Serena]

Anyone had their first assignment back? Not enjoying this module. I had those feelings initially about the E115 but had very good grades. My results for my first Tma came in and l had 48. Really dissapointed . It was not even a difficult one and am feeling if l cant do the easy one, how am l going to cope with the more difficult ones.

[Gezabel]

HI Serena

I am not currently studying E215 but have done this course. Sorry to hear you are disappointed with your first TMA result - however you did pass the assignment which is a positive but I can understand your concern that a low mark at the start of the course might not be a good sign. The other way of looking at it is that this is only the first assignment so plenty of time to take stock and think about how you approach future TMAs.

 

I think you need to allow yourself time to be 'upset and disappointed' but then dust yourself down, remind yourself you are capable of doing this course and have a really good read of your tutor feedback. Hopefully you will be able to see 'what was missing'.

 

I am not sure that it is a level of 'difficulty' in that I don't think the TMAs get harder more a case of the required content changing as you go through the course but in general terms E215 is a evel 2 course whereas E115 was level 1 but irrespective of that I think for each TMA the best thing is to read the TMA guidance and make sure you include all they ask for - I don't mean to sound as though I am stating the obvious but it is quite easy to miss something out and then pay the price by receiving a lower mark than you are capable of achieving. I use to 'break down' the TMA guidance into bullet points and then use bold font/highlighters in different colours/underlining etc to make I sure I got everything in - I even had a tick list and read through my TMA before sending and ticked the list to make sure I had the points they wanted. On more than one occasion I found something missing or something I had included but not really made explicit.

 

Don't be too hard on yourself I have just completed my second level 3 OU course and a fellow student failed the first TMA and was ready to throw in the towel but perservered and achieved passes for the rest of the assignments with some really good marks.

 

Hope this helps a bit and do shout if you want specific help. I am happy to root out my E215 TMAs if I can be of any help

[Serena]

Thats why l love this forum so much . Thank you so much for those encouraging words.

[dublinbay]

Excellent advice from Geraldine as usual.

 

I passed this TMA too Serena but not gained the marks I thought I would have. BUT..... it is a pass and I have read the tutor's feedback determined to just get on with it and do my best again for the remaining TMAs.

 

I'm hoping to get settled into the course during this next assignment and I really hope you do too.

 

Best of luck and feel free to start a discussion on here any time so we can support each other.

[Sue R]

I got mine back yesterday - passed, but like you two not particularly pleased with grade!

 

Struggling a bit with this one - maybe a bit 'studied out' as I haven't had a break since I started with OU - been overlapping etc and may have made a mistake doing that. Finding the forum stuff irksome as we don't seem to be gelling as a group the way my E115 lot did - perhaps it's still early days. Shame, because I had thought that'd be the easiest bit - with all the practice I get here

 

Still, tomorrow's another day...

 

Sue ((hugs))

[Gezabel]

I debated whether to post this message or not and then thought why not?!! This forum is all about sharing and that includes the good and bad so here goes..

 

I think you all know that in general terms I am a big OU fan and normally sing their praises but having just read about Sue's disappointment with the OU E215 forums I thought I would share this with you and in doing so may save you some time and stress!!

 

When I did E215 with compulsory tutor group activities I was almost driven insane by students who simply didn't participate. It really was a bone of contention it was the same 2 or 3 who religiously did what we had to do, after all it was a compulsory part of the course and yet many just didn't join in. WHen it came to including references to tutor groups discussions in TMAs I had little to write - in the end I had a bit of 'a tantrum' and actually wrote in a TMA ' I suggested in the tutor group discusssion that blah blah but unfortunately received no response' - I got really nice feedback from my tutor and she agreed there was little else I could do.

 

WIth hindsight I realise I spent an inordinate amount of time checking conferences when that time could have been better used for my study and I certainly wasted time 'stressing' over the lack of contributions by others. I really hope the current irksome feeling is just early days but thought it worth saying it may not improve and if that is the case don't get stressed about it like I did - you are studying for you and if others choose not to participate in compulsory aspects of the course then that is their problem not yours - I wish I had thought like that at the time!!

 

Oh and just a 'reminder' - I think I have put this in another post a while ago so sorry for the repetition - E215 will count towards your degree classification if you go on to BA so it really is worth putting in the effort (not that I am suggesting you don't!!) and getting the marks you know you can achieve. The first TMA usually contributes only a small percentage of your OCAS so marks that you are not happy with won't really impact to any great degree (no pun intended!)

[Sue R]

Thanks for that Geraldine, that was a part of my beef, there!

 

Sue