OU blog

Personal Blogs

Michael Gumbrell

The long wait

Visible to anyone in the world

The long wait for the exam result begins, which made me wonder...

If you could just slip the exam marker 100 quid and say... here mark mine now please.

....would you?

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Exam

Visible to anyone in the world

Well that's it. The very last exam, my next 2 modules, which are also my final two, are scored off of a dissertation.

So no more exams for me. Happy days.

I think today's exam went well for me, hopefully all of you did well.

Study England opened for part time loans today as well, i will probably do my application next week, after 9 months of economics, i have earned a weeks sitting down time...   

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Revising

Visible to anyone in the world

What did Dory from finding Nemo say...

Oh thats it.

Just keep revising, just keep revising.

This economics exam will be my last exam.

Essays all the way home after Tuesday.

Lets get this last exam done and dusted.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

A few short weeks to the exam

Visible to anyone in the world

Not long left now before the DD209 economics exam.

It will be my last exam

All the level 3 modules on my pathway require an final 3000 word essay.

My pathway also only had one level 1 module in it.

So i have had 3 exams in a row, and am approaching my 4th and final one.

It will be nice to have finished with exams.




Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

oh yes, where was i?

Visible to anyone in the world

Thank you to everyone who commented on my moany/ quitting/ why bother post from March....

I have not bothered to blog since then, such was the depth of my disenchantment.

Just stuck to the study planner, kept my head down and got the course materials completed.

Completed they are now, all TMA's submitted and marked, just the exam to do....

Made a decision for next year, after being so frustrated/ bored/ wound up/ pissed off by the last two years, I decided I may as well plough on, after all,

 I am in for a penny, so why not be in for a pound?

Although my student loan balance statement came through this week, so it is more like...

In for £11,000, so why not be in for £18,000.....

Heart stopping isn't it... £ 18,000.....

I have decide to do DD316 for my next module, it is a brand new course, came out this year, and it's set book is George Orwell's 1984.

I thought that after hating philosophy and economics so much, I would do Politics next year as I have enjoyed all my politics modules.


That leaves me with Hobson's choice for my final year, Philosophy or Economics?


At the moment I think I would find a final year of Philosophy tolerable, Economics not so.

That decision is still ongoing, T+C's apply, actual decision may not match promotional material, may not be available in you area, model shown is a May 2018 model.


We will see,

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

And i'm done.....with Philosophy

Visible to anyone in the world

Got the exam done.. 

Went alright, i did questions 2, 8 and 11.

Which in Philosopher bingo is...

Hume, Kuhn and Nozick, which almost rhymes....

Happy to be finished

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

The exam venue

Visible to anyone in the world

Well here i am, sitting in the car park outside the exam venue. 2 hours early, but better to be early than be in a rush and risk being late.

So a bit on bonus revision time, a spare 90 minutes to sit in the car with my books and try and gain one last burst of insight....

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

259 to go

Visible to anyone in the world

So the exam is tomorrow, i am all revised out, and am ready to go, i downloaded the last 6 years of exam papers, i am doing questions/revision for Book 1 -The self, book 4- Knowledge and book 6 - political philosophy. Checking the questions from the previous six years, i can answer all the potential questions- apart from 2016 when then threw a cheeky- what does novak's public address thought experiment show- question.... That's is the only curve ball question i found. Just in case they do wish to drop a curve ball in this year, i have revised Thomas reid's major/general objection to Locke's position of personal identity.

So this is it, i have really despised this module, and tomorrow i will be finished with it and philosophy for good. I am happy about that and i hope i do myself justice in the exam.

GOOD LUCK to everyone tomorrow.... may the revision and remembering gods be with you... and may your work books fill with retained knowledge that is both relevant and answering of the questions asked of you.

As for the 20,000 views by tomorrow target, i am 259 short, and i cannot reasonably imagine many of you will be surfing blog posts tonight, when we still have revision to do.. so i think i will miss by a couple of hundred, not that 19,800 views is anything to sniff at.

So lets do the exam thing tomorrow, stay focused everyone and stay on target... and may your arguments be incisively inductive, unless you are doing Maths, Physics, Chemistry or Law, then let them be deductive... Piori and postpiori and all that......bloody Rene Descartes....

#bloodyA222

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Wednesday, 20 Jun 2018, 21:43)
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Nearly there...

Visible to anyone in the world

I had the ambition to reach 20,000 views by the time i sit my exam on Tuesday.

Only 494 views to go..

How fantastic.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

No more philosophy tma's

Visible to anyone in the world

Well, my struggle is almost over... i wrote my tma6 this week and got it submitted... so only the exam in three weeks and thats philosophy done.

Philosophy done and never to be returned to.

I will have 2 economics and one more politics module to due.

So my philosophy exam is on Tuesday 5th of June 2018...and that will be my exact half way point... it will be 2 economics and one politics to the finish line.

So quote an emotional time... it is just a shame that at the moment the strongest emotion is contempt. I have little but contempt for this philosophy module... i can't say i have hated every moment of it... the first two weeks were okay ( probably because i had not worked out what was going on in those first two weeks) but after that initial period of grace, the contempt started to build.

I have the exam revision lecture tomorrow, so just stomach that and did the exam done and i will be free.

FREE... in the John Locke essence of ''natural freedom' or Berlins essence of ' negative freedom'?

Either way, to quote Bob Dylan....

" i shall be released "

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

So tired, tired of waiting..

Visible to anyone in the world

Still waiting for my tma 03 mark.

I am already 75% through book 4 already. I have already started the tma 4.

I have also downloaded the last 6 years of exam questions and put them into a matrix to inform my revision.

I have a question for simon reed. In your comment to the blog post below, you mentioned last years a222, book 3 tma question, which was different to this years book 3 tma question.

Do you remember all of the tma questions from a222 october 2017 to june 2017.

I would be really keen to know, i could put that info into my matrix to see the relationship between tma and exam questions... that would help my revision program greatly.

Permalink 4 comments (latest comment by Simon Reed, Sunday, 4 Feb 2018, 15:04)
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

revision

Visible to anyone in the world

so i have now been going through the books for my revision program.

I have been going through each introduction and conclusion, then revisiting the chapter to revise key points, just a couple of more days for that and then it is onto a week of practising writing short and long answers to the specimen and 2016 exam paper.


Only 9 days to go before the exam gets done.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Thats it for the flash cards

Visible to anyone in the world

I am calling it quits now with the flash cards.

Time to move on to revising the module books this weekend and the website modules after that.

I hope that my fellow students who i shared the flssh cards with found them in some way useful.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Block 5 flsh card 4 transnationalism versus suprainternationalism

Visible to anyone in the world

is it transnational or suprainternational?

You decide... with the help of this flash card for block 5, globalisation.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

block 5 flash card 3 international relations with a thunderbirds theme

Visible to anyone in the world

I think I only have 2 more flash cards to do, then I will just get on with revising from the module books. It might be well time to move on, I gave this latest flash card a thunderbirds theme because it looks at International Relations. My focus might be starting to slip, only two more to go though.....


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

block 5 flash card 2

Visible to anyone in the world

now for the second flash card about globalisation.


Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, 18:48)
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

DD211 block 5 revision flash cards

Visible to anyone in the world

So now I move onto the final taught block of DD211, block 5 globalisation.

I am still finding it good revision practice to make these, and am sharing them with some of my fellow students who attend tutorials with me.

Here it is block 5, flash card 1 Globalisation:


Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Tuesday, 16 May 2017, 18:35)
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Final Lijphart flashcard: leadership

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is my final flash card for DD211 block 4, this one deals with leadership within lijphart defined liberal democracies.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Lukes and Lijphart

Visible to anyone in the world

Here is the flash card that ties Lukes (block 2) with Lijphart ( block 4)


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Creating the infographics for revision.

Visible to anyone in the world

I am really enjoying making the infographics for revision. For me it is a good revision tool, I am able to produce them without referring from the module materials, I only check what I have produce against the module materials to correct what I have produce, so I must be retaining the info quite well.

I am about half way through producing the flash cards, I have 2 more to do for block 4, Lijphart's model of liberal democracies. Then I will move onto 4 cards about globalisation.

That should mean I can take sound knowledge of 4 of the 5 blocks into the exam, and then once there, I can decide on the structure and themes of my short and long answers, depending on my confidence in producing short and long answers to each block themes.

Well that is the plan anyway.......

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Lijphart

Visible to anyone in the world

Onto Block4 of DD211 now, revision on Lijpharts models of liberal democracies.

Here is the first flash card, an overview on Lijpharts themes.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Ideology of Liberalism

Visible to anyone in the world

Ideology of Liberalism. it has a spelling mistake, Liberals usE not liberals us the above. also i am stopping here with ideology, i would only ever carry it forward to the exam as a short answer. i don't have time to do each ideology in relation to welfare, nor make a infographic for feminism or environmentalism. I am moving onto Lipjhart and his modules of Liberal democracies next. so sorry Simon Banks van Zyl but it's 4 flash cards only for ideology.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

Mark arrived

Visible to anyone in the world

My feedback for tma 4 came in this evening.

I scored 82% so not bad, i think this module is coming in at a pass grade 2. 

I would need to find 3 extra percent and scored 89% on my final tma plus 85% on my exam to get a distinction. Thanks a stretch, so a grade 2 pass is more likely for me.

I will have to make sure i really stick the exam to be sure.

 

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

last block

Visible to anyone in the world

Here I am, still waiting for the TMA 4 mark, and 2 weeks in to the 4 week module 5.

All down hill from here, block 5 is the last learning block of the module, block 6 is set aside for revision for the final exam.

So I am getting closer to wrapping up the taught blocks, then to consolidate and do the Exam.

DD211 was alright I suppose, level 2 is hard and this module was okay.

I thought this last block, with its theme of international relations was going to be more interesting, but it seems to be quite dull.

I thought I really hated block 3, ideology, however looking back I am starting to feel the love for it a lot more, it might even turn out to be my favourite block of this module. I never thought I would be saying that 2 months ago.

you live and learn, that's the whole point of this really.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Michael Gumbrell

waiting is wilting

Visible to anyone in the world

i still wait,

under no pretense that i am waiting with any kind of grace.

Got on with my Block 5 materials, it is hard to believe this is the last block, revision for block 6, so this is it, the home straight and an exam to do.....

I might suggest it has all been exhausting!

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 443708