DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : TMA06 problems......

Received an email from my tutor to say he has not received my TMA, which was posted on the 3rd May.

He says he has however received notification from the post office that there is an item waiting for him which does not have enough postage on it, but he hasn't had time to collect it (he seems to have some difficulty getting to the post office which is why we were asked not to send the TMAs recorded delivery, as he would not be in when they came round and he would then have to go to the post office to collect them which was a problem), so  I'm sort of hoping this is my TMA otherwise it really is lost in the post.

Apparently this (under payment) is not uncommon as people misjudge the weight and thickness of the TMAs, and as they are more than a normal 1st or even large packet 1st class stamp there are quite a few across the country waiting for the tutors to make good on the under payment when they collect them. As I 'relied' upon others to post this for me, this could well be my TMA cluttering up the post office.

On the plus side, when I had not received confirmation of the TMA being received by the 8th May, I emailed the scanned copy of the TMA as a backup. However, as this does not have the OU form with it he was giving the post a bit more time and will wait to see what is at the post office before reverting the to electronic version.

On the downside, it looks really unlikely that  I will have a mark or comments when the day school comes around which is a bit unfortunate.

So the moral of this story is don't rely on others for anything important and regardless of what the tutor wants send it recorded delivery.

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Week 31

11 May

• Study Guide Week 31 URL
  
• Activity: Discussion Audio H, 'Reading across'; Theme Lecture 3, 'Participation and dissent'; Specimen Examination Paper; Theme Lecture 4, 'Equality and difference'

Its been over a week since I sent TMA06 in, even though the deadline was the 9th May, so it seems like ages since it was completed and I just want it back.

At least the mark back - I won't be able to picik up anything sent home until the end of the week, but at least a good mark would be a  motivator towards more study. So, I guess I'll keep checking the OU website and hope for the best.

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Official exam season.....

Got an email from the OU this morning titled "Getting ready for your examination". Full of 'useful' advice such as re-read your course texts and notes, and learn the key arguments and theories..... thanks for that, was rather hoping for a more targeted nugget of advice such as "if I were you, I'd be looking at these two books and this one theme - as we will be asking this........"

Oh well, better get re-reading and learning.......... the countdown has begun.

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Week 30

4 May

TMA week

• Study Guide Week 30 URL
• Assessment Guidance Repeat
• TMA 06

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : TMA06 - Done !

I was going to give the TMA a trial run tonight, but I thought 'what's the point', and decided to go for it.

As a practice for the exam it was really useful, the time just flies past, and I'm going to have to re-think my essay plan. In just over 50 minutes, I wrote about 1000 words, and could only fit in two case study examples - which I guess is why they say a minimum of two case studies / arguments.


100 - 120 words - into.

150 - 180 words - definition

210 - 255 words - argument  A

210 - 255 words - argument B

120 - 145 words - conclusion

1000 Words in total

So, get it in the post tomorrow, and I can put my feet up for a week :-)

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : TMA06 - nearly ready......

I've been making notes for the TMA essay, but looking at them and taking into account that I am pretty sure that 1200 words will be an absolute maximum for the hand written essay, ther eis going to be far less in the essay answer than I would have liked.

The theme lecture videos are at least useful, and the lecture on Centre-Periphery ends with the advice than any answer has to consider these 4 points.

• In what ways, and to what extent is the contemporary state to be regarded as the centre of power?
• Do centres always dominate peripheries?
• Is political power becoming more centralized or more diffuse?
• How should centre–periphery relationships, both territorially and functionally, be organized and adjudicated?

 So, I think I'll give it a go tomorrow to get an idea what can actually be done in about 45 minutes and then go for it for real on Thursday. Get it over and done with before the weekend, have the weekend off and then start studying again..........

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Week 29

27 Apr

• Study Guide Week 29 URL
• Activity: Discussion Audio G, 'Reading across'; Theme Lecture 1, 'Powers and structures'; Specimen Examination Paper; Theme Lecture 2, 'Centre and periphery'

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Handwriting Speed, therefore length of exam answers.

My tutor advised that we have a go at handwriting a section of text to get an idea of how much we can write in the exam, giving that the handwriting has to be legible and you need a bit of time to plan and some thinking time mid-essay.

I managed 120 words in five minutes copying a section of text, it wasn't as legible as it could have been, but it wasn't too bad.

So if I work on 10 minutes to read the question and set out the essay plan and ideas, 5 minutes during writing as thinking time and 5 minutes at the end to read and if necessary edit/add, that leaves me about 40 minutes of writing, which is effectively 1000 words.

100 - 120 words - into.

150 - 180 words - definition

210 - 255 words - argument  A

210 - 255 words - argument B

210 - 255 words - argument  C

120 - 145 words - conclusion

1000 - 1210 Words in total.

So, this week and over the weekend I'll get the materials needed for TMA06 together, and then the following week I'll see how realistic this schedule really is.