Exam nerves

I have been home from the cruise for a while now (we disembarked the ship in Australia, which gave us a long journey home - way outside my comfort zone for flights). We are in lockdown like everybody else. Because of our ages, we are not shopping for ourselves and are reliant on scarce and unreliable delivery slots. This is very stressful for a control freak like me and my concentration is very short. Not an ideal way to study quantum mechanics and the theories of the universe.

Fortunately the exam is cancelled but we are to do it at home over a period of 24 hours. No exam conditions required, so I will have access to the course materials, which means that it is no longer a memory test. A huge relief!!

I am also helping in a very small way to educate a couple of locked down children (ages 4 and 6). So far we have looked at the Big Bang and the solar system. Not as nerve-racking as the exam but they still terrify me as an audience. Next week - space craft. About which I know absolutely nothing.

Can I do this?

So I am half way through the OU physics and space course (still the equivalent of 1st year undergrad). Strange course - a mixture of topics I covered in A level physics (1969) and some very tough quantum mechanics. I looked at a past paper for the exam which I will be taking in June and couldn't find any question I could fully answer. So there is a huge amount of work to do.

But the marks for my assignments so far have been very acceptable so with a big push on revision I could be OK. And I am currently on a cruise ship which is having problems docking anywhere because of covid-19. No-one is ill as far as I know and the ship is taking many precautions. But I have my work with me.

Delighted

So I have the Distinction - I got 96% in the exam. I really am thrilled to be able to do maths like this after 45 years of working in another field. I hope I can keep this up with the physics.

We will be visiting our favourite restaurant to celebrate.

Going into space

The maths course is finished and the examination taken. The whole thing was much harder than I expected but I enjoyed it greatly. Sometimes I think I was born to do maths, so why have I spent all my working life in IT? Simple - for the money!!

I hope that I have passed but my assignment scores have been high and I am hoping for a Distinction. Fingers crossed!

I have signed up for the next course on my path to the stars. This one will involve some quantum mechanics, which is a new area for me. And a new computer language - Python.

First assignment on Maths course

94%. Phew, that's a relief. Since I already have a maths degree, I feel under a lot of pressure here. But I am still so slow compared with how I was at 18, 19, 20 ….. But I suppose that is normal. I just don't like it.

Just got results from S111, the OU introductory Science course. Distinction. What a nice surprise! But it increases the pressure on the new module - Maths. Which I used to be very good at. My 18-year old self is looking over my shoulder and laughing at how slow I am.

Maths unit

This is me back in my comfort zone. Mostly algebra so far. I need to improve my accuracy because I keep losing minus signs. Maybe I should just be neater.

One sixth there

I have finished 'Questions in Science' - the introductory 'bit of everything' science course. We have not had the results yet but I think I already have enough marks for a pass. I have learned lots about chemistry and biology and remembered things about maths and physics. For five years 1967 - 1972, I lived and breathed maths and since then I haven't used it at all. 46 years!! But I am becoming more confident and working a bit quicker.

Is it a bar? Or a histogram?

Muscle strain much better. And I got good assignment scores - 89% for the tutor marked one and 100% for the computer marked algebra/arithmetic. So maybe I am back in the groove. But I am struggling with the difference between a bar chart and a histogram. Everything I read makes me more confused than ever.

The volcano and earthquake section of the course was very interesting - especially since it concentrated on an area at the north end of the Pacific Ocean, where I will be cruising later in the year. Over all that frenetic earth activity.

Next section is chemistry again.

Sitting quietly at home

I have managed to pull a muscle somewhere near my hip. It has been very painful all day and I have done very little to advance my degree in astrophysics. I am actually feeling like an old lady, which is very rare for me. I have been sometimes sitting and sometimes trying to move around. I have not done any of it quietly. Fortunately it was not my turn to make dinner.

Getting there

The second assignment went better and I have reasonable hopes for the third and fourth. My main concern now is that I am so slow. Maths techniques I used to live and breathe now have to be grappled with. No idea if I am improving but I feel a bit sharper in my mind so maybe I am achieving something.

First marked assignment

78%. I am pleased with this, but dismayed that all the people on FB who are saying what they got have (apparently) scored well over 80% and in one case 99%. So I am bottom of the class. But what about all the people who haven't said?

I lost most of the marks on reading and describing the cell specimens I could see through the virtual microscope. I found this part of the course fairly incomprehensible, not to say uninteresting. I hope I never have to do anything like that again. If it turns out that I do have to, I might have to do some extra study. On something that bores me to tears?

Improvement

I did my first ever on-line computer marked assessment. Only 5 questions on fairly basic maths. I have a good O level (GCSE) and a good A level and an honours degree in maths. But it was so long ago that I was petrified about getting them wrong. And under pressure not to disgrace the bright young person I used to be. But I got them all right first time. It felt like a huge achievement even though that bright young person would be scathing about how long it took. Pathetic!!

Me doing biology!!!!

I have been reading about cell types and organisms. This is not really my thing and I hope that I can do just enough to get through - I have no intention of doing any more biology if I can avoid it. It seems like a massive memory test to me. If you go to IRL lectures, you would hear the words over and over again and they might go in, but it is very difficult just reading and writing about them. 

 I tried the virtual microscope practical this afternoon (they have a page set up so that you can replicate most of the functions of a real microscope) and they said to allow about an hour. But they are asking for measurements on 45 slides. Even at 5 mins per slide (and my first few took a lot longer than that), it would take around 3 and a half hours!! Have I read it wrong?

And another experiment not doing it

This time I had to put water into a plastic container, weigh it and mark the height of the water and freeze it overnight. The next morning the water was frozen and still weighed the same (good). But the ice still seemed level with the mark I had made ie it had not expanded as it should have (bad).

The rest of the course is interesting and not, on the whole, difficult. I either never knew, or had forgotten, that there is a 'triple point' where water can exist simultaneously as ice, liquid and gas (steam).

Not my strength

Today is the first day I got to do any practical work. I joined two pink marshmallows and a white one with cocktail sticks to provide a model of a water molecule. I posted the pic on the forum - competent but not as tidy or pretty as some of the others.
The second experiment was with balloons and a stream of water - rub the balloon to remove electrons and show that the resultant positive charge diverts the water stream. Trouble is - it doesn't always work for me. A basic law of physics and it my hands it fails.

Starting

The OU website seems very confusing. I am not used to doing everything on-line. Last  time I did this, they sent an exciting box of books. But I have started to navigate my way round it and have read a lot of the introductory material. Not all the material on computing - I worked in IT so I am hoping my skills there will be OK. I am most worried about the practical experiments. When I went to university the first time (1969 - 1972!!), I loved it - all of it - except physics practical, which I found really hard. I am more of a theoretical scientist.

Big excitement

The course website opened today. Somebody registered on it before 4 am!! I was a bit later than that . I have now completed the 'Are you ready for the course?' questionnaire. I scored full or high marks throughout, so I am ready. But it took ages because I was petrified to get it wrong - especially the simple maths!! I am also trying to make more use of a calculator instead of pencil and paper. I can, of course, use a calculator but it is not my default method of, say, calculating a percentage. So far, so good.

Nearly time

So after not answering emails for 6 months, our plumber announced yesterday that he is starting on Tuesday. Two days to clear up after Christmas, wash guest sheets and towels, move out of bedroom and bathroom etc. etc. And the course website opens on Friday - I need to de-stress by then.

Don't they want me?

I started the registration at the OU. Yes, I bit the bullet and tried to register for 'What is Science?' Hopefully I have some idea of the answer but I want to take this one slowly. The system told me that I had been a student before. Well remembered after about 6 years. And then said I needed to contact them before I could register. Do they not want me back?