DD209 Running The Economy : I want my TMA05 result.... NOW ! ! !

Found myself checking the OU website for my TMA result, which is a bit previous becuase the deadline for sublission is tonight at midnight. Doh !

The perils of submitting early.......

This is goona be a long wait.

DD209 Running The Economy : Course Work Complete - Just the exam to go.

Well today's OU study has gone far better than expected.

The last essay for DD209 is now finished and submitted, and I have to say I'm feeling pretty confident about this one..... well it seemed to go pretty well and the words flowed from my fingers to the keyboard, so from that point of view it wasn't such a chore to write, and now that I know pretty much all I need to about inequality that pretty much guarantees it won't be in the exam.

So I'll give myself the rest of today and tomorrow to relax and watch the footie, and then I'd better get a study plan organised and more importantly stick to it.

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 28

Would you believe it, I seem to have caught up with the course at last :-)

iCMA 44 - submitted already. Pretty confident on all but 4 questions and of those 4 ther eis only one that I have serious concerns over, but I had had enough of this and thought best to submit it and then that is that - I can do not more even if I wanted to.

TMA05 - is pretty much finished. Word count is around 1700 which is OK, well within the 10% anyway, and I just have to tidy up the references and give it another read through.

Strangely, this seemed to be the easiest TMA to write as it appeared simply to be a matter of addressing the question section by section and once done the maximum word count had been reached - at lest I hope this waas the approcah that was required.

The real challenge now is to keep the study momentum up for the next month, as I feel that the Exam will soon be upon us. This will be especially difficult while waitng for the results of the last two pieces of course work.


And I also came across a particularly useful website..... well it certainly explained the effect of Tarrifs far betterb than the book did. The blog is at Claire Ramsey's Blog

Right then, where is that Harvard Referencing guide, time to put the TMA to bed.

DD209 Running The Economy : Nearly finished the course work

This week has sort of gotten away from me as with two days effectively travelling or in transit and trying to get my head round a fairly difficult time difference I find that it is suddenly Thursday and the TMA and iCMA have to be submitted next Tuesday.

The iCMA is, as usual, straightforward, but it is easy to make silly mistakes and there is one question that isn't exactly covered in the course work so a bit of deductive reasoning required on that one.

However, the TMA is another matter. I sat down tonight with a plan and some carefully crafted diagrams and 3 hours later I have the TMA pretty much finished. It needs edited and ideally get the word count below 1700 words. I need to sort out some references and examples but all in all it is there or there-abouts. This means either I have completely understood all of this section of the book, or I have completely misunderstood it. Either that or I have mis-read the question and over-simplified the answer. However, I am not minded to start again, I think that ship has sailed.

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 27

WEEK 27: TMA week.

After a mammoth catch up session I have finally finished the book. However, in the rush to finish the book the last 2 chapters seem a bit redundant as regards the TMA, so probably means it will come up in the exam - so best not to ignore it completely.

So, 8 days to write the TMA and finish the iCMA, seems do-able, and then the studying needs to commence.

DD209 Running The Economy : Book 2 Glued Shut

We were out on the canal this weekend and I though it may be an excellent opportunity to get a bit of reading done.

Didn't turn out that way and it was only when I got home I realised that the book has come into contact with some sort of liquid which appart from swelling the top right corner of the book had also stuck all the pages, and I mean every single one of them, together at that corner and across the top of the pages.

Luckily, it had not completely dried out so I went through the book, page by page, separating the pages with a knife, and managed to do this without too much damage mainly because of the big margins at the top of the page and down the side, rather than my knife skills.

It now looks a bit scruffy and beaten up, bit at least it is readable. Now to find the time to read it :-)

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 26

Week 26: Global public goods

Just finished Chapter 16: Inequity and Redistribution (Week 23's work) so beginning to panic slightly that the TMA is going to be a bit rushed.

After Chapter 15 being really good, this was just a bit lame. Gini Coefficients, Lorenz Curves, measures of inequality PTR and the IRON TRIANGLE, it took a whole chapter to say what could have been said in far fewer words.

Oh well, on to Week 24s work, lets hope that is a s simple.

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 25

Week 25: Government action, public goods and welfare economics 


WEEK 25 !!!! It is starting to really worry me how far I am behind.

I am just finishing week 22. I know there is a study break coming up for a week but this TMA is going to be another struggle, especially as I'm off abroad again at the end of the week.......

However......

Chapter 15 : Trade and Inequality, the best chapter of the book so far. Really interesting to see economic models showing how trade can increase inequalities between and within countries, and how government tariffs and import taxes may benefit domestic firms and the government but overall the effect is negative and it is the consumer who pays for this.

If the rest of the book is like this is should be a pleasure to read.

DD209 Running The Economy : Where has the motivation gone........

I've really hit the study-buffers, and I just can't get motivated to open the books for the last section and considering what a rush it was in the end to get TMA04 submitted you'd think I'd know better.

My tutor has promised that the TMA will be back by, or on, Wednesday, so I'm hoping that receiving the mark and feedback will re-ignite my study mojo.

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 24

• Data week
• Week 24: Exploring relationships to guide policy

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 23

Week 23: Inequality and redistribution

Update: Monday 24th March 12:00

I have not had a chance to even look at Section 5......

Sunday was a marathon TMA writing day, in-between the usual Sunday past times and I am now thoroughly fed up and bored of competition models.

I have just over the maximum word count and I think 5 diagrams so I am now pretty much finished. I will give it one more read through tonight and try and edit about 30 words out of the text to get below the word count, and examine it against the student notes of what is required but to be honest I have neither the time nor the inclination to do nay major re-writes if I have got this all wrong.

At least I have the Easter study gap week to catch up with stuff on before the last TMA is due. So, I need to get this submitted and get motivated to start the reading again......

The study is getting a bit relentless now....... I have to remember that I am supposed to be doing this for fun.

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 22

15 Mar

• 
• Week 22: Trade and inequality Website content
• Assignment: iCMA 44 (open date 15 March)

Events

• Assignment: TMA 04
  
• Assignment: iCMA 43 (cut-off date 18 Mar at 23:59)

DD209 Running The Economy : Course TMA & iCMA Information

"The DD209 module website will open on 26 September 2013", I'm not sure why the website opens so late. It is a source of great frustration that the OU keeps the Online website closed until the course has almost started. It is a good job that the Facebook group has started as this has been pretty useful so far with some links and ideas with regard  to study materials.

The one thing the website does however say is that we will have ONLY 5 TMAs, 4 iCMAs and an exam as marked components. The first observation, although the dates could change, is that this year we can look forward to Christmas and New Year without either TMAs to write or waiting on marks to come back - so somebody has planned this using common sense.

However, I have no idea what a iCMA is ? Interactive computer marked assessment I suppose - so an online test - but is it time limited and what are you supposed to do ? They don't carry as many marks as the TMAs, but if you are a borderline student you can't afford not to take them seriously. The other problem is if you are the type of person who works right up to the deadline, having the TMA and iCMA cut off date on the same date shows somebody has planned this using no common sense :-)

The published dates so far are.....

TMA   01       7%	29 Oct
iCMA  41       7%	10 Dec
TMA   02      15%	10 Dec
iCMA  42       7%	11 Feb
TMA   03      20%	11 Feb
iCMA  43       7%	18 Mar
TMA   04      15%	18 Mar
iCMA  44       7%	6 May
TMA   05      15%	6 May