I got my Exam Timetable mailing for the June/July exam period yesterday, and have been freaking out a little bit this morning about the prospect of fitting M257 revision in alongside M366 and MS221. The main thing that was worrying me was the fact that the TMA02 cut-off dates for both M366 and MS221 fall in the couple of weeks before the M257 exam (which is on the 17th of June). Last year during the summer exam period, I put MT262 on hold for about a month while I revised for M255 and M263, which seemed to work fairly well; but this year, I’ve got two courses to put on hold while I revise for a third, and that feels a bit trickier to negotiate.

So, to stave off the increasing panic I was starting to feel this morning, I sat down with Alex and had a chat about what I need to do in the next three months, and particularly about what the best order to do it in would be. Here’s the to-do list we came up with:

  • MS221 Block B
  • MS221 TMA02
  • M366 Block 3
  • M366 TMA02
  • M257 TMA03
  • M257 revision

The question paper and files for M257 TMA03 have already been released, so I could switch back to Java right away if I wanted to, but I’ve decided to leave that as late as possible so that there’s only a small gap between TMA03 and the revision period. Hopefully I’ll recieve the feedback for TMA03 early on during the revision period, so I can work it into my revision strategy, but my tutor for M257 seems very busy so that doesn’t look terribly likely!

At the moment I’m working on Chapter B1 of MS221, and thankfully the OU have released all of the assignment booklets for that course already, so I’ll be able to get started on MS221 TMA02 fairly soon. I have to admit that I’m a bit reluctant to turn my attention back to M366, since it’s not really as enjoyable as MS221, so in a way I’m quite glad they haven’t released the second TMA booklet for that one yet! Still, on the other hand, the next block of MS221 is about calculus, which still intimidates me a bit, so maybe M366 Block 3 will be a welcome relief from differentiation…