OU Exam on Tuesday - Help!

[unfitmother]

Have got my (hopefully) final OU exam on Tuesday, K307.
It's hopeless! Mum died a few weeks ago and my concentration is shot to pieces, I don't understand what the last 2 modules are about so don't know how I am supposed to revise them.

I might as well have a go at the exam, I've nothing to lose but am not feeling very confident.
I will put in the extenuating circumstances form but am worried about that too as it says it's for things that affected you in the 3 weeks leading up to the exam and Mum died 6 weeks ago.

Hi unfitmother (sure you are not!)
i am not a student, but trying to decide which OU course to do at the moment. howver when i was younger i completed 1st yr at uni and part way through 2nd yr. i can understand how hard it is when you are suffering, i did and didnt get to the exams, but strongly advise you just sit it, as you are. can you get a doctors note? as although it was 6 weeks ago the grieving process itself is a lot longer. you could give docs note with circumstances form and say how it has affected your concentration? just an idea?

I'm very sorry about your mum. No wonder you can't focus. Just before exams I would do practice questions. You can download them from the OUSA website IIRC. Then you make sure you are not just learning the stuff, but putting it all together. I often found the big picture really helped me understnad it (I was a bit of a TMA and nothing in between kind of girl). Good luck.

That'd be OK if I hadn't gone back to work I guess as I'd have a sick note but I didn't take any sick time just compassionate leave and annual leave.
I do actually feel better when I'm at work, no time to think!

sorry about your mum :(

I'm sure you'll do well, and if it doesn't go to plan you can resit I think? I would phone up your regional exam office and have a chat.

I have my maths exam, M208, on Wednesday. nervous I need 85% to get a distinction overall on the course, and got 74% on the mock with no revision... just trying to cram in as much practising as possible! I agree about doing lots of questions.

Good luck!

So sorry about your mother - poor you. No wonder your concentration isn't there. Really sad for you. I hope you are getting good support

Re the exam - it's okay not to do it if you don't feel up to it. You could just pull out and do the resit in a few months time?

If you do go ahead, have you been on to your K307 student forum for last minute revision tips from fellow students? My AA312 forum is buzzing with advice

Take care,
hmc
x

First of all, I am very sorry for your loss.

Can you contact yr tutor and see what they say? I don't think they will discount your extenuating circumstances form because as things go, the loss of a parent is major. It is not like you've been ill with food poisoning or broken your arm, which the 3 week thing seems to be aimed at. First of all the loss is a shock the system whether you were prepared or not, and then you go through the grieving process. 6 weeks is not long :(

I think contacting someone for a chat is the best way to go. I think they will be helpful esp considering it's your last exam.

Good luck.

Student Support were useless the first time I rang (sobbing). I rang back during office hours and they were good. Tutor pretty crap for this course, sadly.

There is a resit in April but I did think I might as well have a go. I downloaded a couple of past apers from the OU shop and thought I'd got the wrong course!
I couldn't make head nor tail of them and that was when I started to wonder whether this was good idea after all.

Good luck to all fellow students doing exams soon!

Sorry to hear that.

You've a couple more days to try and make some sense of it all but what's the worst that can happen?
If you don't pass it's not the end of the world!
Good Luck!

I've checked my exam booklet today on line (my exam is tomorrow) and I completely misinformed you, if you 'no show' you won't just be invited to resit, you will be asked to re-take whole course.

You can however fill out a from explaining extenuating circumstances and why your examination performance has been compromised.

And you can apply in advance for a deferral if you have good reasons (and you surely do)

For details - go to your home page and click oon the links for the exam and read the exam ghandbook.

Thanks hmc, I plan to turn up, have read rules from cover to cover, I have to stay for 30 mins.
Already have a copy of extenuating circumstances form but it does say it will have limmited effect. I need to send it off in the next 7 days, I've got a copy of the medical certificate (death certificate yet to be issued) and a copy of a letter about the inquest.
I hope they have a heart as before Mum died my marks were 70-80% but then shot down to 40-55% afterwards.

So sorry to hear about your mum, my dad died in May & his funeral was on the day of my OU exam. I couldn't face sending in the form because at that stage I didn't even want to see the death certificate.

I have another exam on the 20th, I am sure I don't know enough to write for 3 hours but I am going to see what happens, if you get between 15 & 39% you can resit, have to pay an admin fee. If you get over 40% you don't have the right to resit & have to pay to do the course again to improve your mark!

Best of luck, exams are stressful without any extra things going on

I am sure they will have a heart. People submit forms for moving house, redundancy etc - i.e. sound reasons but not as devastating as losing your mum . I think they will up your mark - am almost sure of it

Thanks hmc

minipen that's awful!
What did you do?

I don't want to do the whole thing again, have got 63% overall for the OAS, which was 5 TMAs so just want to scrape this bloody exam!

I did the exam in the mroning & funeral in the afternoon, I thought that I had put in so much work before he died the information had to be there somewhere, interesting theory, not sure how it worked but if I hadn't have done it then I'd have had 2 exams & an ECA this month. I remember very little from the day to be honest

I am not sure they can claim grief is over & done with after so few weeks, ask them which rsearch they are using with full references!

Best of luck & remember they are meant to positively mark!

Bloody hell minipen! You poor thing, that puts my problems into perspective!
How on earth did you manage to do that? Did you pass?

Ring the student support people again NOW.

Explain your concentration is non existent and ask for their help. If you get someone useless ring back. More good people work there than not so you will get lucky

Get a dr certificate/note to demonstrate that you are still suffering from bereavement/grief/depression.

And good luck - Exam boards at the OU are very good at considering circumstances and marks (it might be worth contacting your course leader in MK for reassurance). Then again, you might just go into automatic and produce a good exam. Stranger things have happened.

Yes I passed, just a few marks of what I wanted, should have put the form in! Focus on all the work you have done before losing your mum, that knowledge is in there, put in your form, if you get in the exam & don't like the questions(!) try for the under 39% and get a resit? That would be my plan!

Looking back I don't know how I did it other than focusing on the work I had done and I think I was still in shock & on auto pilot!

Best of luck, let me know how you got on and thank you, I didn't even know this board existed until I saw your post

Have another not very mumsnet hug!

Thank you both for the sneaky, non-MN hugs, (I won't tell anybody!).

Whilst you're probably right don'tdistheteens, I don't want a drs note as I don't want to be off work.

I think at this stage I'll just have to go for the over 15% to get me to a resit. As minipen suggests I do know the first half of the course better and could answer questions on that. Mum's illness was very sudden.

Sadly the paper is split into 2 parts and you have to answer a question from the second half of the course.

Just a note expaining the issue, validating your concentration issues, will not affect employment. They need not know. I hope it goes ok tomorrow. Oh, and while I have focused on your questions I am sorry for loss. X

Hope it's all gone well today.

Minipen - you poor thing!

Hi unfitmother,

I hope your exam goes/went well.

The exam boards at the OU will consider your special circumstances form and will look at the discrepancy between your TMA marks and your exam mark (if there is any) when deciding on which status to recommend (if you get a pass 2 or a pass 3 for example). You need to provide as much evidence as possible, so a doctor's not would be helpful. However, the exam board will be made up of perfectly sensible, reasonable people who will realise that the death of a parent is not something one just gets over in a couple of days. Exam boards actually do discuss the circumstances and decide whether or not they are likely to have had a significant impact upon your preparation.

You can also explain that the circumstances affected your final TMA on the form too, as they clearly did.

Well done for giving the exam a go.

Thanks everyone!

It was pretty hideous, diidn't have time to revise everything so went for a few core topics, none of which came up!

One question I answered easily, two I made a really crap stab at.

Oh well, it's out of my hands now, I will get the paper work in though.

Thanks for your support.

Well done for going through with it. I admire you

Well done for turning up! I have been wondering how you got on

Remember they are meant to mark positively, award you for what you have done. I am hoping I'll get 50% next week for writing my PI number!

Take care of yourself I imagine you are exhausted with everything that has been going on.