M208, First Thoughts...

Well, I have launched my study of Pure Mathematics M208 with the Open University; and I can say, straight away, that I am impressed with the quality of the unit books, that form the main text of the course.

I was able to launch straight into the first book of 24 that make up the entire course, which is entitled 'Real Functions and Graphs'.

The course notes state that it is a quick introduction to the topics that you should have met before, but then adds a little more detail to them, in preparation for the later blocks that cover analysis.

The content is fairly straight forward, although the more advanced graph sketching techniques of hybrid trigonometric functions, is something that I usually struggle with, so it is welcome practise.  I have looked through 4 previous M208 exam papers and the specimen paper that was sent out with the course books.  From what I can gather, there is usually just one 5 point question on sketching a graph, in each exam.

They also appear to usually have just 5 key method points to cover, so I would suspect that some of the more lengthy and difficult trigonometric sketches, involving up to 10 / 15 different calculations / decisions,  may not come up in the actual exam.

However, I am sure that one will probably pop up in the first piece of coursework (TMA) that is due in March 2012.  We shall see.

It has been 'so far so good':

2 days of study (6.4hrs)
Mindmap of unit 1 created and annotated with my study plan for this topic
1st pass of the whole unit done
Several exercises attempted (had to use the book solutions, to go through the hybrid/trig sketches)

I am feeling okay so far and now plan to use the rest of the allotted 18hrs of week one study, to repeat approximately 3/4 of the exercises, until they are second nature.  I'll leave the other 1/4 for exam revision.

Also, If I can work out how to do it, I may post copies of my mindmaps, (without annotations), onto the blog.