With about 3 weeks to go until the cut-off for S186 (this is my deferral date, so no further extensions), I’m just starting Chapter 5. This isn’t exactly where I wanted to be with this course, but domestic issues plus the dreaded M359 have meant it’s been on the backburner for a while. I’m now looking to “cheat” a little to get the ECA done & away on time (31st July) without neglecting M359, as I’m already behind on that.

That’s not “cheat” in the sense of doing anything the OU wouldn’t like, though – just in the sense of making sure I only cover the minimum of material needed to get the pass. Thankfully, the ECA is fairly clear about which questions relate to which chapters, so at this point I’m looking to just read the essentials (chapters 7, 8 & 11 for the questions I still have to do) and ignore the rest of the course for the moment – I can read the rest of TYVET at my leisure when I have more time to spare. With the course being a simple pass / fail one, there’s no real incentive to bust a gut looking for extra marks.

As for M359 – it’s still a huge timesink, but bar a disappointing TMA01 I’ve been doing okay with it. I can see myself having to abandon a large chunk of Block 4 for the time being (assessed by TMA03, which is already done & marked) in an effort to get back up-to-date ahead of TMA04. I’m doing the course in about 4 hours per week at the moment, which really isn’t enough – oh for another 8 hours a week of free time. Amazingly, a distinction still isn’t entirely out of the question – but with that needing a score of 92% on the final TMA to get my OCAS up to the required 85%, it’s unlikely. My confidence about the exam isn’t exactly high, either. Bah.

Edit: Aha. I forgot that substitution applies to M359 – which means that, assuming I can scrape 85% in the exam, I only need 85% on TMA04 and substitution will take care of the rest. Still unlikely, just not as unlikely.