W200 Update

W200 update

I have now settled on a way to study -  I am currently doing mind maps, linear notes while I am reading the text (so I can interact with the text while I am reading it), and flash cards.  The mind maps will be per unit (and per 'sub-unit' if there is a lot of information in a 'sub-unit' as there appears to be!).  Linear notes will be all the way through including any supplemental reading - like the English Legal System book by Gary Slapper.  And the flashcards, these have been split up into definitions, opposites (e.g. criminal v civil law), learning outcomes, and cases.  I am finding there is tons of new information to learn - even though most of the items we covered in W100, W200 goes into more depth.. so the flash cards should help with that as well.  Hopefully the mind maps and flash cards will be useful for revision - time will tell.

Mind maps:  I have so far completed a mind map for unit 1 and used some software called imindmap to 'type it up'.. As you can see I love colour on my mind maps......!  I will make a seperate area soon where I will upload my mind maps -so people can get an idea of how to do their own mind maps, anyone want a hand or assistance starting off with mind maps just comment on this post and I will get back to you ....

Mind Map for Unit 1 of W200

Linear notes: these are straight forward linear notes made from the various manuals and the textbook, I have attached a picture of a set I started off doing, however have now moved over to A4 paper, so I don't need to rewrite them, and place them in my Staples Arc folder:-

Linear notes for unit 1 - W200

Flash cards:  Having started with some basic index cards I bought from Staples, I found these to be too thin and impractical for what I wanted to use them for - a fellow student - Jamie, suggested these on Amazon: 
Extra thick flashcards.  
These are excellent - although I would prefer colourful flash cards, these are extra thick and so will last a lifetime, they are the size of a credit card which are smaller than the ones I purchased from Staples, but this will stop me writing an essay on each one !  They are matt on one side and shiny on the other, I was worried they wouldn't take coloured felt tip pens very well but they did:-

An example of the front of my flashcards for unit 2A learning outcomes

An example of the reverse of my flashcards for unit 2A learning outcomes

transcribing all my old flashcard info onto the new ones

Key for colours to write with depending on type of card

Books: - have ordered some more Law Express and Concentrate books to help with an overview of the general topics on W200...

Facebook blocking:  I have resumed blocking Facebook from 0900-1700 every day.. although I tend to sneak on it via my ipad and iphone so not need to find a way to block facebook from these two devices! If anyone knows of anything please let me know.

Finally some titbits from the English Legal system book by Gary Slapper - I surprised myself by finding that this book is actually an interesting read.....  :-

Some things the government have done or not done as the case may be:

In the legislative and regulatory reform bill 2006, they tried to enable ministers to create new criminal offences, punishable with less than 2 years imprisonment, without the need to debate this in parliament, luckily overturned......

The minister for women and equalities will not enact part of the equality act 2010, which imposed a duty on public bodies to have due regard when making strategic decisions to reducing the inequalities of outcome that result from socio economic disadvantages - I am tempted to say that is a typical Tory response but am beginning to think all governments act like this..

Overall thoughts so far:  Finding there is a lot of information to get through, need to read about 50 pages per week, not including any supplemental activites, and readings.  But at the moment it is keeping my attention.  The more I learn about law, the more I realise that it needs reforming and changing as it doesn't appear to be working in the way it should.

W200 first unit read and Study Skills

W200 update - unit 1 read

Just literally finished reading the first unit which covers what we covered in W100 - no new stuff to learn yet.  It covered for example what is the difference between a social/moral and legal rule.  Why do some social rules become law and others not.   A person spitting in the street is not commiting a crime however I think many people would consider it against a 'social rule', and a person cutting in front of you in a queue - you would not expect to see them in court over it (unless violence was involved), but once again a social rule has been broken, but a legal law hasn't - at least in the UK.  Then it covered the main differences between civil/criminal law, and sources of law.  The one thing I found slightly offputting by this unit was the amount of external links to the College of Law website - which isn't opening until the 22nd Jan, however because most of it was on items that had already been covered in W100 felt relatively confident to just read the comments on those activities and move on.

The way I studied the unit was to write down all the headings onto an index card, indenting them depending on what priority the unit gave them (whether this is the intention of the indents in W200 I am yet to figure out - however the assumption is a heading with 1. Sources of law is more important then 2.3.4 xxxx).  Then I went to the review section at the end of the unit and wrote those down as well on a seperate index card.  Then I went and read through the unit reading and making notes under each section title.  Now I have to decide whether to type up the notes so I can put them on my iphone so I can read them while I am out..  or to make a mind map - or do both.  I have attached a picture of the notes so far (bear in mind I have actually written them down double sided on the main notes, so 6 sides of large index cards and 2 single sided for the headings and overview):

Unit 1 notes for W200

It took me about 4-5 hours to read through unit 1 and make the notes.  Although I still to type them up or do a mind map etc. This unit however is an overview of what we have already studied in W200 - will be interesting to see how long it takes me to do unit 2.

Study skills

New facebook group

I have created a new group on Facebook called Study Skills for OU students.  Kept on seeing loads of posts dotted about on loads of different forums relating to study skills, so nice to have everything in one place.

Procrastination article

Procrastination: found a good website blog which details a lot of study tips.  One in particular caught my eye regarding procrastination - it says leave Facebook lol!  Here is the page - the specific leave Facebook article is about 4 posts down (the other posts are useful to read as well)

Tips for fighting procrastination

Book for studying?

Have just bought this book onto my Kindle - have no idea whether it is a good book or not but looked good from the reviews etc, will let you know if it is worth a read

Link to the Study Skills Essentials book on Amazon

Cats and studying

Every time I get my books out a certain moggie appears on my books, namely Ruby lol, common problem amongst us cat owners! - I have created her own little space to the right hand side, but she still prefers plonking herself right on my books!

W200 update/desk layout

W200 update

 Just literally started W200 last week - in that I have started reading the first unit...  At first glance it looks like it is just a review of W100 with a few extra bits added in.  I love the end of unit reviews as I can use that for revision and a base for writing my notes and mind maps.
There also appears to be a big step up reading wise - unit 2 which is quite big needs to be read and 'digested' within a week!  So getting ahead - even slightly, is essential.

I may consider switching back to the LLB as oppose to an open degree, but will see how I get on with W200 first as there is plently of time to do that

Desk Layout 

Following are some pictures of my desk layout currently - relatively tidy at the moment as this was taken before studying commenced.  Second picture is my collection of law books amassed so far:-

S104 and W200 update

S104 update

Currently 2 weeks ahead of schedule (bar one experiment which needs to be completed for the next TMA).  TMA02 all submitted, due date 5/12.
I found TMA02 relatively straight forward, and thought it was slightly easier than the first one, hopefully that isn't a false sense of security.
Have just completed upto chapter 8 of book 3, to be honest book 3 has been a bit of a struggle.  The maths side of things I am fine with, it is the understanding of the physics which I can't get my head round.  I have only read the chapters once so far so that probably isn't helping.  The difficulty I feel comes from trying  to visualise the actions behind the formulae, all I seem to be doing is figuring out which numbers to plug into where and getting a result - correct result yes, but understanding the equations behind the result - no.  Ah well maybe chemistry and/or biology are more my 'thing'.  Pity because I do like problem solving and maths.
As for icma43 - have messed up on 3 questions already, 2 because I was over confident and not reading the question correctly, 1 because I feel the question wasn't very well worded.  Still have 3 more questions to do before I know the result for that.

I think book 3 seems to be a stumbling block for most people on the course.  There unfortunately have been a number of students who have already dropped out of the course, and even I had a low point while studying book 3, just need to keep on going and remember that this particular part of the course is only for about 3-4 weeks of the whole schedule.

W200

Books arrived on Friday - all I can say is, there are a lot of books - 15 altogether!  (mine are comb bound though so this increases the number of books that have been sent)

Having had a quick look at TMA01, it covers parts of the law that have already been covered in W100, so feeling comfortable at the moment.  Am busy reading the Course guide which in itself is 42 pages long!  And having had a very quick look in the manuals, no pretty pictures and the text is smaller compared to the W100 manuals received last year - lol...... so a lot more reading by the look of things.

Have purchased some books already for next years course:

Still waiting for the results from the W100 EMA, which will hopefully arrive this week sometime (they are officially due on the 14th December).

On a lighter note one of my 'moggies' seems to be taking an interest in my W200 materials already!

S104 update

S104 update

Received my score for TMA01 - 72% - made some really silly mistakes but these are easily rectified for the next TMA....., one of the questions I changed the correct answer for an incorrect one which wasn't good.

Just submitted TMA02, although I will need to review it in a couple of days just to make sure I don't make any silly mistakes like I did in TMA01, it took quite a long time to piece together this TMA - over 5 hours spent today doing 1 or 2 whole questions and typing it up.  Just hope subsequent TMA's don't take a longer time to do.

Having completed Book 2 I absolutely loved the astronomy part of the book - so if I do decide to continue with science after W200 then maybe astronomy/physics is the way to go.

About 2 weeks ahead now, which makes me feel a little more comfortable, ideally would like to be  4 weeks ahead in preperation for W200, which starts in February - the W200 materials are due to be dispatched end of November.   Having spoken to a couple of students who were on last years presentation of W200, it definitely ramps up in quantity and technical detail, work wise which needs to be done, so really need to get further ahead in S104.

S104 update/W200/future plans?

S104 update

Am about a week ahead of schedule still, but it is literally taking me about 3-4 hours a day to keep that up...  Just finished the astronomy chapters of book 2 and they were brilliant, really enjoyable. 
Just started chapter 14 and it isn't the most exciting subject in the world - I know it is letting people get into physics gently, but it is a bit basic, asking questions like what happens if the push force is reduced, umm okay - nearly fell off my chair laughing when I read that.  At least I suppose it isn't going straight into the complicated stuff - hopefully it will liven up in book 3.

Finished the second iCMA, and could have kicked myself, only had one question wrong on the first attempt and that was because I transposed the numbers when typing them into the calculator - like putting down 6531 instead of 6351 - really annoyed myself there.. ah well lesson learnt, will need to triple check my answers from now on, and wait some time to let them 'digest' before entering them..

TMA02 progress is relatively okay on this, need to really buckle down and spend a day or two just finishing it - deadline is still about 2/3 weeks away but would like it completed.  I still haven't received a mark for TMA01 yet, which isn't helping as I am not sure if I need to amend any of my 'TMA writing' techniques for TMA02.

Also in reference to TMA01 there is a tutorial in Southampton tomorrow, and I really would like to see my TMA result before attending - don't know why this is, but I don't have any motivation to go to the tutorial at the moment.. so please tutor hurry up with the marks lol ;)

W200

Have just finalised signing up for W200 starting in Feb 2013, after a lot of trouble over this new OUSBA system that has been put in.  At one point had the OU saying they couldn't see the information on their system regarding the loan, and OUSBA saying it was the OU's fault as they hadn't registered me on the course, so I had a loan for a lot of money and no course - I was not happy.  I am also a little unhappy with the OU support desk as they don't seem to be taking ownership of problems.  The OU gave me the phone number of OUSBA to sort out the problem, when surely they should both be talking to each other, and not leaving me to be piggy in the middle, so to speak.  I am finding if you do anything slightly unusual with the OU they find it difficult to resolve it.. ah well I hope that is just a temporary glitch as they both get used to the new systems.  As new students may well be put off the OU if they had encountered the same type of support I have had the past couple of weeks.  They should really have one person you contact to sort out any problems, whenever I rang back had to repeat everything again as the notes the previous support person put on didn't explain the situation well.  Enough of the ranting !.........

Future plans?

I am still not sure which direction I would like to go in (especially since all the Geoscience courses are being rearranged etc) - either science or law.  Advantage with law is it is all laid out very nicely with the OU, and it is not going to get messed around with.  They have even just put on a new LLM course which looks interesting.  Will hold off any decision for future plans and play it by ear and see how I feel after I have completed S104 and W200.  Taking one course at a time now.

S104 Update

S104 update

Am now slightly ahead of schedule - having just completed the mind map for Book 2 chapter 6.  And am ready to do a mind map for chapter 7..  TMA02 question 1 still needs to be done, but I have all the 'answers' for that anyway, so just need to put pen to paper.  Question 2 is now complete, just need to type it up.  According to the calendar chapters 6-8 inclusive should be finished by the end of next week which I will be fine with..  There is definitely a feeling of the course ramping up a little with the complexity and volume of the text needing to be read, and the TMA questions.  And I have been well informed that is it not until book 4 that the intensity really increases...  so this could be interesting!

Still waiting for my result from TMA01, not panicking just yet as the tutor is given 2 weeks to mark them.  I noticed a few students have received their marks already.  Getting used to pressing the F5 key!

So current challenge is to stay ahead of the calendar.  It would be so easy to get behind on this course, even getting behind by just one week, it will be quite hard to catch up so must keep the pace up.