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Well, I got 50% for TMA 03 for TM352 which gave me 200 marks for all three = 66.66%. Now, all I have to do is is to get a decent mark for the EMA. This,however is looking out of sight. I have explained that I am no real shakes at JavaScript. Well, the EMA requires some Java as well. I did manage a project being written in Java once (c2001) but I have never had to write code in it. So, my prospects are looking fairly slim - except... Q1 has some HTML bits which I can get a few marks for. Q2 has lots of HTML that I can get some marks for plus a few other bits that I can cobble together. Q3 is an essay so I should, at least, get half marks for that. All in all, I think that I should get about 40 - 50% as a minium. Not good but a pass. If I can get 55%, I will get a grade 3. Well,at 72 years old,I should be happy with that.

Out of it all, I will come from this course with no more knowledge about the web or REST; no more knowledge about the cloud - especially AWS; a bit of understanding about writing Android apps - probably enough for me to cobble together a mobile front for my TM470 project. That's not a lot for 8 months study but - hey - 30 credits is 30 credits.

On to better things. My TM470 TMA 02 went in at around 4,000 words when there was supposed to be a 3,000 word limit. There has been a lot of chatter on the forums about this course not being what was expected. I can't see how this can be as, to me, it was obvious. People are saying that they thought that there would be more than there is and why did we pay so much for something that doesn't even have any module texts. Well, they didn't read the brief. I am writing software to manage model railroad freight car forwarding. Others are doing research projects. How could there be module text about these disparate topics. The project course always was just about "the project" and by this I mean the process. They want to see if you can manage and report on a project - not check on what you are actually doing. Imagine that my tutor should come to me and say - "David, your allocation of locomotives to specific trains looks a bit too random for my book!". He is a lecturer in Agile programming and Games at Burnley College, why would he know anything about my topic other than what I tell him.

No, they told us that the deliverables were four project reports and no software testing. They even set out the "learning outcomes" (LE) and told us which ones applied to which TMA. So, what did I do - I checked the LEs; checked my report; went back in and made sure that the tutor could tick off every LE against my submission. How did I do - well, it came back as 67%. I was a bit disappointed as I thought that I should have done better. I remembered something that was said on the forums a week or so ago about how the marking was, possibly, incorrect. Yup, there it was 80/1.2 = 67. Divided by 1.2? Why? Well, last TMA there were 6 marking areas, all with a top mark of 20 so to get a percentage, the final total had that 1.2 adjustment. This time, there were only 5 areas. I contacted my tutor who immediately saw what had happened and confirmed my understanding. Hey, I got 80% (I got 70% for TMA 01). 

Advice to all TM470 students. Read the LEs and make sure that you cover every one. As an example, I couldn't see how my hobby project had any Legal, Professional, etc. responsibilities but - there was the LE - so I dragged up a web page (Purple Zeus) about this and wrote some stuff around it.  That got me the marks.

So, I am happy and worried at the same time. I have to take a break from TM470 so that I can get the TM352 EMA done. Somehow, I will get to grips with this Java thing and get the marks that I need. I have until 1st June so nearly a whole month. Surely I can do it, can't I???????