M253 put to bed

At last the result for M253 has been issued, and thankfully I achieved a pass, which was all that was required. There was no specific grading, just pass or fail.

I'd had a couple of moments of panic where the thought crossed my mind that I might fail and have to do the whole thing again.

What a horrible experience it was. I'm truly glad it's behind me.

The M253 torture is over

M253 came to an end for me tonight when I sent in the final EMA. I wish I could say that I'd enjoyed the experience, but I didn't. Not one second of it! In fact I don't even feel like talking about it.

I hope I did enough to pass.

M253 TMA02 is marked

The M253 TMA02 assignment mark showed up today. According to the Undergraduate Handbook, I should have had this within 14 days of the cut-off, which was 29th August, so it was actually slightly late, adding even more undue stress. If ever there was a module where you need your assignments marking early, then this is it, for the following reasons

(a) Each assignment has a threshold mark which you must achieve (no point in continuing if you've already failed)
(b) Without the feedback to know what you have done right/wrong, you are unsure where to go next

The result is that you are left dangling, not really wanting to do anything until you know it's not going to be wasted effort, and yet there is a schedule of activities that need completing. To be honest, I've done very little since I sent in the last assignment, and now there is some catching up to be done.

btw. I scored 78% this time, which was an improvement over my 75% for the previous TMA. Still, the worst two marks I've had for any TMA's to-date, but comfortably out of the danger-zone.

Roll on October, when I'm finally done with this module.

The untold benefits (?) of M253

I'm truly hating M253, even more than I expected to having read the dire reports from previous students. It's everything anyone said and more.

The worst thing about it, is that it's caused me to lose motivation entirely, and as such is affecting my work on other modules.

Right now, I'm supposed to be doing some preparatory work for MST121, but I'm on such a downer with M253 that I find I'm not able to put my heart and soul into it despite knowing I should.

If M253 had been the first module I'd tackled, I can truthfully say that it would have been the last, and I would have abandoned my degree aspirations before completing the module.

However, I'm a stubborn SOB, and I'm going to get I'm almost 2/3 of the way through this nightmare module, and I'm determined to see it through one way or another.

M253 team working?

2 weeks in, and only two thirds of the "team" have shown up. Unlike in business when there is a team and someone doesn't turn up at meetings etc, there is no manager to call, in fact, no way to even try to contact the no-shows.

I didn't really want to do this module, but I didn't really have an alternative, and it's proving so far to be living up to the reviews of past students.

M253 off to a bad start

I've not been looking forward to this module, due to the bad write-ups from previous students among other reasons, but I'm trying to approach it with an open mind.

Unfortunately, we're off to a bad start, since all material is on-line, and the first file I need to load gives me a "File not found or not accessible". I called the help desk, but apparently there's nothing that can be done until Monday at the earliest, which has effectively written off this weekend.

The only consolation is that the helpdesk has assured me that everyone will be in the same boat.