Thank goodness! With all of the testing events of the last two months, I genuinely thought that my journey on M208, was over. I had written TMA04 under the influence of opiates, tricyclics, barbiturates and a bucket of caffeine.
After a few 'all nighters', I managed to stay on track and submitted my script, only two days over the submission date.
My score was 87% with dropped marks from a circular proof and the odd typographical mistake or omission when setting out my proofs
The knock on effects of getting this TMA submission in on time, is keeping on track with the relentless programme of TMA production and unit material study.
I think that if I had dropped even a week behind, then it might have finished me, such was the low level of belief, last month.
Well, this keeps the dream alive, and in a strange way, i suspect it has shown me what my actual level of 'ability', really is.
What I mean is, throughout my OU Maths studies, I have polished and perfected TMA's, often to the point of neurotic obsession. And, whilst this has allowed me to gain marks in the 90's, I did often feel that it was a false achievement. False, because it is probably possible for anyone to score well on a TMA, given enough time.
So, by having my time squeezed and my senses dulled by medication, I believe that this has allowed my 'raw' TMA scores, to reveal themselves. I suspect these scores are my 'true' level of mathematics ability.
Is this level of ability enough to achieve a PhD and beyond in mathematical physics?
Well, I have heard two views on this.
Firstly, last year, I was told by a Learning Advisor at the OU, that I had no business thinking about postgraduate maths work, unless I was scoring an average of 93%+ on my TMA's.
Another view from Prof. De Garis, is that one needs to have an intelligence level within the top 1% of the population, to cope with PhD level mathematical physics.
Well, with a raw TMA score, it seems that my ability is probably around the 86% mark. With polish, it is nearer 95%.
I believe that beyond intelligence, there is one factor that is the most important in deciding as to whether success is part of your life. And that is: good old fashioned elbow grease.
The Midnight oil has never been such a valuable resource!
Well done! Considering what you were going through I think you did really well. Don't worry your level of ability. What really counts is determination and the strength to keep going even though, at times, you get totally daunted by it all. It will keep happening as you progress through your degree and postgraduate work, but if you keep your dream alive you will succeed.
ReplyDeleteThanks Duncan. Once I am feeling better, I am planning on doing some enrichment work of a collaborative nature; Chris mentioned a Cambridge computing project as an idea. I am taking the quantum mechanics and relativity courses next year, so I may seek to recreate some of the concepts, from first principles. If you are interested in joining us or have any thoughts on activities, jump in.
DeleteDan
Yes, I am always interested in joining in. I don't have any plans at the moment to do any further OU courses, so I should have plenty of time available for this sort of thing once M208 is over.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI'm taking the M208 course at the moment too. I've been following this post for the last few months for some sort of a guide to how I was doing. It's a great blog and very informative. Well done. 11 weeks to the day till the exam. Just about to start AB3. My study style changed as I got into AB1 and AB2. I didn't necessarily go through the text as I normally would. I'm just skipping to the examples and doing lots of questions. I think this is better prep for the exam while maximizing study time! I started doing this because I just thought to myself. Do I actually remember any of the text from the first units of this course? No. So, question practice alone, unless I have a problem with the concept of the question, is my only method of exam prep from here on in.