Please tell me I'm not completely barmy to be considering an OU course

[Callisto]

...in Natural Sciences, considering I have the maths skills of a chicken and feel my brain turn to mush when people talk about things like quantum physics. Added to which I'm knocking on the door of 40 and struggle to remember my own name these days so the idea of finding around 18 hours a week, ontop of looking after DD and getting through the work I do is probably as dumb as they come.

It is affordable and something I'd love to do but I don't want it to turn in to an appalling waste of time and money if I just can't hack it. Help!

My OU study is just coming to an end (final course results due out on Friday, aargh!). When I first started I had 3 children under 4 plus a part time job, so it is do-able!

Why don't you start with an Openings course? they are a good way of seeing if OU study is for you, and aren't too expensive so if it all goes wrong it isn't as much of a loss.

Do it! OU is designed for people like you. Talk to an adviser about which course is best for you to start with, they may suggest a maths one, and they can start quite gently.

I did my first OU course when my DD was born, and my first summer school when she was 9 months old.

There is an 'easy' start course which I will probably go for first which is only £120 I think so easy on the wallet as well as (hopefully) the brain cells.

Thanks all, I'm quite excited about it. Tell me, how old are you/were you when you started your courses? I'm feeling like a bit of a gimmer atm.

I was 28. But most of the friends I have made through the OU are older than me. A friend of my mum's is in his sixties and studies with them.

do it do it do it.

OU is so fantastic for people with kids. I'm halfway through my maths degree (though I get it all funded because we are v. low income) and will hopefully be a qualified teacher by the time I'm 30 and the kids are in school, fingers crossed!

if you're worried about the subject specifically, well, don't worry! one of the beauties of OU study is that you can change your degree choice partway through. I started off with psychology but then decided I missed maths too much to give it up

you just need to be aware of which courses are compulsory in a degree and which are optional, and there are rules about having a certain number of points from each level etc. or if you're not terribly bothered about having a subject degree you can do an 'open' degree and just study whatever you want.

best phone them up and have a chat, they are normally very helpful!

Thanks so much everyone. I shall look into it further and hopefully get myself onto the September intake for the starting science course.

MathMaths - deeply impressed that you're doing a maths degree.

Aww thanks. I do get a lot of when I tell people... I just like it though really - lucky to have a dad who's good at it/loves it too although sadly I've now passed the point where I can ask him for help

My father despaired at my maths ability (or lack of I should say). He is a geologist and so brilliant at maths etc. I'm utterly hopeless.

Having said that, I've just taken the OU's Exploring Science test to see if I'm up to it and it wasn't half as bad as I thought. I seem to have got over the terrible brain-freeze I used to suffer in maths class...

maths is one of those subjects that can paralyse people unfortunately, especially if they're unlucky with teachers. maybe you could take the openings maths course to get your confidence up!

Well I've enrolled on the Science Starts Here course which will be followed by the Exploring Science course. I love the modular nature of the courses and how they all fit together really well. I'm looking forward to starting in October.

Thanks MadMaths, I had a series of awful maths teachers and although I was streamed in the top two sets for English, sciences etc I was streamed in the bottom set for maths. It made me feel like such a failure and I just gave up on it.

I shall be calling on you for help with all those tricky maths questions that come up in my course.

that's fantastic callisto, it's so exciting starting a new course isn't it. every time I get a new delivery of textbooks I'm like a child at Christmas!