Open University Science

It's about time I blogged about this, as for the last 9 months or so it has dominated my life.

I am currently studying at Open University. Just for fun.
I know, I'm crazy.

I'm willingly putting myself through coursework, deadlines, tests and so on, when I don't have to. I'm not planning a career change, I just got bored one day.

It was about 2-3 years ago. I was stuck in a dull job and desperately needed something to fill my days. OU filled that gap.

I'm the sort of person interested in everything - so to date I have studied:

Archaeology
Psychology
History of Mathematics
Evolution

and finally: Science.

This year I embarked on S104: Exploring Science.

[Btw Open University students seem obsessed to name everything by the course code - as if everyone else knows/cares what you're on about. I avoid reducing my academic advancement to this. Rant over.]

A good course as it covers all the basics: Biology, Geology, Chemistry and Physics.

The first excitement comes when your textbooks arrive, as they are colourful and shiny.

It is nice to lay them out and look at them in a pretty way, as this distracts you from the scale of the challenge ahead.

I'm not going to go into loads of detail here. An excellent post can be found at:
http://girlinclouds.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/exploring-science/

The highlights for me:

1) Hating each book whilst reading it, loving it about 2 weeks later.

2) The joy at getting your assignments back and realising you're on the right track

3) Going to the tutorials put on as part of the course - doing silly experiments.

4) Meeting other students at the tutorials - some have become friends even after the course has finished.

5) Doing maths again (I like maths!)

6) Feeling dead knowledgeable about the world in general. I've learnt so much!

The only lowlight was the unrelenting pace and trying to keep up. Each book gives about a chapter of GCSE and then goes straight up to Year 1 degree at alarming speed.


So, it is now over and I just have a couple of months to wait for my result.

My books are safely stowed away on my shelf, a sign of my achievement.

Couldn't resist another picture!