DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - TMA06 Marked and Returned

Not particularly happy that this TMA has taken so long to get marked, especially as my tutor seems now to be questioning the complexity of what I am doing and has suggested a far less interesting adjustment. This is especially odd as I pretty much laid out exactly my plan at the last tutorial and no concerns were raised then..... 

Also my lowest mark so far by quite a bit, although still a Pass1, which sort of reflects my running out of steam and enthusiasm for the EMA. Also I submitted early after a particularly mind-numbing spirit-crushing tutorial dominated by somebody to whom brevity is a stranger, so not surprised by the mark really.

Graham, who runs the Econometrics Forum, has been far more enthusiastic (although to be fair this appears to be his default position on almost everything), and so I will crack on against tutorial advice rather than have an extremely simple and mundane project. I must say however, that this has been my undoing in these sorts of projects in the past so the outcome will either be that the odds were that I would come good eventually or that I never learn.

I have no doubt that I could submit what I have done already and get a pass, but I need a Pass1 from this course in order to stand a chance at a 1st Class Honours - so I am afraid that the pressure is on.

I have to say that Graham is doing an excellent job on the econometrics forum, he appears to be there almost all the time and has been extremely helpful and patient, I'm not really sure any of us could have asked for more from him.

So, time for a big push over the next 10 days, as not only is the end in sight, it appears to be careering towards me !

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - Still no TMA06

Less than a fortnight to go before the EMA has to be posted and TMA06 is still conspicuous by its absence.

Not happy about this at all - so I guess I press ahead and hope there is no need to make any changes.

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - TMA06 NOT Marked and Returned yet.

A huge downside of submitting the TMA early is that you want it back even sooner and life just doesn't work like that.

It has been well over 24 hours since the TMA deadline and still nothing from my tutor.......

But am I bored, no not at all - GRETL has seen to that.

For my EMA I wish to graphically illustrate the points I am trying to make regarding the correlation between education and wages. Unfortunately, due to some bug or other between the GRETL econometric application and the graph drawing application it is not possible to draw more than one line or indeed add a different line to the one GRETL wants you to add. I have therefore been on a  crash course in EXCEL scatter plotting, which sounds easy but can be very frustrating.

I have about 20 different scatter plots to produce, I am halfway through, my eyes were going skelly last night with the repetitive mundane task of copy - paste - scatter - adjust - title - save - check -save again - next!

I also have some sort of OCD condition in that I am unable to concentrate on writing text until this task is complete and all the graphs look perfect, same font, size, layout, colours - and I'm sure that the marker wouldn't really care if it was a hand drawn scatter - it is the information it conveys that is important not the presentation - but that is not how my brain works.

Also after several emails from the Open University, arriving with increasing regularity, I have done as asked-ordered-threatened and paid for my last course DD306. They hadn't reached the level of threat you'd associate with a crack-addled loan shark, but it was heading that way.

So, the end to my years of study for this BA PPE is not quite in sight, but it is just over this EMA shaped horizon.

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - TMA06 Submitted

TMA06 submitted over TWO DAYS EARLY.

That is the first time I've managed that on this course. I'm sure the experience would be one to savour if the EMA wasn't hunting me down - I think I can feel its breath on the back of my neck.

Quick cup of coffee then back to Gretl......

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - Week 28

Week 28 – Block 6: TMA week

Part	Task
1.1 Block 6 TMA week	Complete TMA 06

There is a tutorial this weekend at which we are expected to make a presentation of our EMA project so far. Then fast on its heels is TMA 6 which is basically our literature review.

Having ahead a great bank holiday weekend on the canal, no project work has been done for some days, so this week and the weekend is going to be pretty full on.

The econometrics side of things seems to be falling into place, and it certainly helps that the econometric forum tutor, Graham Stark, is incredibly active, informative and encouraging. I have seen some complaints of inactivity on the projects forum for primary and secondary data, well that is certainly not the case for econometrics, and between the help from my tutor and Graham I really have no excuse not to do pretty well - I just have to apply myself.

I think once the literature review is out of the way and I can really examine the data and draw conclusions I may actually enjoy this......

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - Week 27

Week 27 – Block 6: Project work

Part	Task
Project work	Project work

I have been data sorting on my quest to prove the obvious statement that the more qualifications that you have, the more money that you are likely to be paid.

There is quite a lot of data sorting to be done....... from an initial data set of over 30,000 entries, by the time I have removed those not between 16 and 65, and those not in full time employment, and indeed several other variables, I now have less than 9,000 entries to work with.

Results so far are basically what you would expect, it would be nice to find an anomaly to investigate.

Need to get the literature research under-way to underpin this project.

TMA06 next on agenda for 12th May, but really need TMA05 back in order to move on with any confidence.

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - Week 26

Week 26 – Block 6: Project work

Part	Task
Project work	Project work

Hang on there Mr. Overly Optimistic Study Timetable...... we will be working on the TMA until pretty much the submission deadline and then having a couple of days brain rest.

Project Panic will recommence at the weekend....

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - Week 1

	Week 1 – Industrial capitalism, markets and economics Part Task 1.1 Explore the DD309 study materials Read online welcome letter 1.2 Using forums in DD309 Read forum information 1.3 Industrial capitalism, markets and economics Read DEPMP, Book 1, Part I, Chapter 1 1.4 Rethinking market economics View a short film 1.5 Online tutorials: Game theory Complete Game theory I and Game theory II 1.6 [Optional] Tutorial 3: Modelling demand DD202 CD-ROM tutorial (revision material)
	Even before you get to 1.3 and opened the book for the first time (were you to do everything in the order suggested)  there was quite a bit of reading in 1.1 and 1.2. The main message I took from these sections was that Level 3 courses will be a bit of a step up from Level 2, a far bigger step than that from Level 1 to Level 2
	The TMAs on their own are around 50% bigger in terms of word count and require a far better standard of answer than I have been used to for the last three years.( Writing at Level 3 ) From the DD309 Course Webpage the TMAs are made up of the following sections. TMA/EMA Cut-off date Word limit Weighting 01 18 Nov. 2014 Part A: 800 Part B: 1800 20% (substitutable) 02 6 Jan. 2015 Part A: 700 Part B: 700 Part C: 1400 20% (substitutable) 03 10 Feb. 2015     Part A: 800 Part B: 1500 20% (substitutable) 04 10 Mar 2015 Part A: 800 Part B: 1500 15% (substitutable) 05 21 April 2015 Part A: 1200 Part B: 800 15% (substitutable) 06 12 May 2015 1200 10% (non-substitutable) EMA 5 June 2015 5000
	So, if nothing else this demonstrates the need to keep up to schedule, I'm not going to be able to wing a 2600 TMA in a day or so........ At least Chapter 1 was fairly straight forward and I still remember and understand the game theory sections from DD209, so not too much of a study shock from Week 1. GRETL and the accompanying data sets for Part 1 are downloaded and installed, but as yet I've not attempted to do anything with them. TUTORIALS Mid-week last week the tutorial dates came through, and then went away again.....and then came back. Initially I was very disappointed at there only being three face to face tutorials and the rest, five I think, are online. I like the chance to meet other students face to face and this has been severely reduced now. The DD309 that is running now had tutorials in London and they seemed to meet up before/after for drinks/discussions which seems a good idea, but now I will be driving that is less likely especially if there is only three tutorials as it doesn't really afford the opportunity to develop relationips. On the plus side it will cut down on traveling and getting up really early, and as long as the 'technicals' are up to speed, it may be a fairly efficient way to do tutorials...... we will see.
	It would appear that the tutorials are a real lottery. Those in London, Tonbridge and Cardiff have 6 face to face tutorials, while those in Ireland have only two face to face tutorials, so there doesn't seem to be any set standards for the learning experience.

DD309 : Doing economics: people, markets and policy - The Course Website Opens

The course website is open and looks a pretty familiar setup which is good. As this is a fairly mature course there will hopefully not be some of the problems we came across in DD209's first year.

No news yet on my tutor or tutorial dates, but hopefully that will come soon.