Firstly, as I think is as traditional as anything can be in blogging I suppose I need to start my first post of 2013 by saying 'Happy New Year', I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year and have all now recovered from the lack of a Mayan apocolypse (you'd already forgottn hadn't you?)!
As you'd imagine having a 6 year old and working in a job which doesn't recognize Christmas Day as a bank holiday (study motivation enough for anyone I'd imagine) Christmas was pretty busy in our household and, not unusually seemed to pass by in one big hyperactive, chocolate fuelled blur. An amazing time had by everyone but as always over far too quickly and one very steep drop back into reality.
Now that's all my personal stuff out the way and on with the exciting OU news of.....
MY DD101 MATERIALS CAME! Yes, the all caps were necessary. Coming home from a frankly horrendous day at work to find a nice big OU branded box waiting on the table for me really cheered me up. Also the delivery came on what I think may have been Friday of this week so actually before the course site expected them to have been dispatched. Seen as I'm far too excited about this I'm putting this down to good Karma and deciding that this bodes well for the months ahead.
After several minutes squealing and clapping like a seal (definitely serious student behaviors *ahem*) I finally calmed down enough to sit down and actually open the box. To be honest I was so excited the materials had arrived and I'm such a sucked for 'new book smell' that I would have been pleased no matter what I was sent but I have to honestly say I'm really impressed with the materials. The sheer volume of course material provided by the OU and the (from what I can gather from an initial flick through) organized and in depth study guides all look both incredibly interesting while still looking (reasonably accessible).
Having said that I do have a confession to make. I may have had a quick skim through the assignment list provided and had a small (to medium) breakdown. Being a fairly unintelligent person with basically no formal qualifications beyond school level who's been out of eduction for 7 years the whole thing just completely overwhelmed me and I may or may not (but definitely did) end up in a defeated heap on the floor questioning what had possessed me to sign up for this. Thankfully my ever supportive husband glanced up from his iPad long enough to tell me to 'stop being stupid' & in his own distinct way snap me out of it and give me a bit of much needed perspective and I'm now back to normal and excited to get on with the challenge.
I may have also mentioned in an earlier post that I had ordered 'Good Study Guide' and 'Good Essay Writing: Social Sciences' from Amazon and was excitedly awaiting arrival over Christmas. Well both books arrived around New Year and I've spent the last few days ready through them.
Although I did miss out the 'Computer Learning' chapter of GSG as I feel more than comfortable using a computer and also missed out the 'Exam Preparation' section this time around purely due to the lack of a formal exam on my module I did find the book incredibly helpful. It eased a lot of the worries I'd been having about studying and really helped explain a few points that had me completely baffled at the start. I'd definitely recommend anyone waiting to start course to get a copy if you can, I think the clarification it gave me more than justified the £15 or so it cost to get hold of a copy.
Having said that I've just this afternoon finished reading 'Essay Writing' and I'm now seriously concerned about my writing ability. I think to someone with no writing experience it is a genuinely terrifying book and has really made me doubt myself more so than before I read it. That said I have put it in my 'OU Box' along with my course materials and lovely new notepads for future reference as although reading it right through has terrified my I think it will come into it's own if used in separate chapters when actually writing an essay and it definitely had a lot of helpful advise and material in which I know I'll need to go back over later in the course.
With all that said I'm now of to start going through my course materials as although I'm over my initial breakdown I am still massively concerned about my (lack of) academic ability and I think giving myself a head start in getting on with the material might bring me just about to the same level as everyone else by the start date. Hopefully!
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