Mature Student Mutual Support Thread.

[unleashingtheflyingmonkeys]

Hi all,

I go back to uni in Oct to continue on with my LLB. There are very few mature students on my course and I am the only parent so I would really like some other students to talk to. About anything really, how your course is going, managing workloads, trying to socialise - so I don't feel so alone.

I am trying to prepare for going back, reading more to stretch my brain, getting a jump on some of the work, preparing workspace etc.

If any academics are also around, any studying advice would be really helpful - how you prepare for assignments, tips on how to prepare for exams, how to manage your workload and time more efficiently (something I'm trying to improve upon from last year),

I thought I'd try to start a thread where we could mutually support each other (so I don't feel as isolated as I did last term).

Oh wow that's amazing. I'd love to get something like that. But in my area it's just not really offered. They expect you to come with the experience.

Sofa how many contact hours a week do you have? I only have 9/10 hours per week, in 4th year. Anyone else studying Biomed? It would be interesting to see what differences there are across different unis.

I have about 12 hours of lectures over 2 days and then 3 days lab time for my final year project.

It woukd be more but I took an optional units over the summer than means I already have 20 credits done. So those that have a different optional units will have an extra 3/4 hours. Although I'm currently wishing I took a dry project!

It has massively dropped from the 1st year though. I think we had around 25-30 in the first year.

Juneau , hi! I'm an OU student too in year 4/6
Also struggle with finding other things to do but really going to try and stick to the study plan. I try and do a couple of hours each weekday mornings then have the rest of the day for housestuff and getting ready for my 5 kids to get home!
I also try and get out for excercise most days

Hi bumpety. Wow you're already on year 4, well done managing to get that far and with five kids too! I've only got two, but they go to a school that asks a lot of parents volunteering-wise, so I'm having to say 'no' a lot at the moment until I've worked out how/when I study best.

I also like to exercise most days and I have the usual home and chores to attend to. I spent all morning running errands and unfortunately this stuff is not going to go away once the OU term starts, so I think being realistic about what I can achieve is important. A great tip I got from the Student Hub is to fit in 10 mins here, 20 mins there, in between tasks and I've started doing this already - it works! In fact, I just watched a 10 minute video while eating my lunch. Now I just need to sort out why I've been given a tutor who lives 300 miles from me

I haven't even got my tutor yet
You're right it's great fitting in it's of study, I study while mine football train -amazing how quickly the time goes when you're absorbed In something!

The time goes quickly if you work stage by stage -TMA by TMA . I still feel like I have ages to go but will plod and get there.

I get overrun by chores often and am prone to Throwing the odd hissy fit!

Finally I have submitted my MSc Dissertation today, such as relief that I can now focus on the MRes (although I am giving myself a week break from doing any work outside lectures).

I really admire you distance studiers, I struggle with actually motivating myself to do work until the last minute, let alone having to study completely under my own steam rather than set lectures. I am going to attempt to be motivated by you all though and become more organised this year.

I have also just finished my first week of lectures, typically I have 3 9.35am starts and have had to ask permission to be late to every lecture so I can actually get my DC to school and pre-school then travel in.

Still I feel a weight has lifted off my mind, blocking out that I will need to do another 20,000 word dissertation this year too.

Hope everyone is getting on well so far!

Lectures start next week and already I have deadlines !! I don't feel prepared for this.

I spent all day attempting to write my dissertation introduction but it seems to be too loose and I need to reign it in a little. We have to have our first 1500 words done by mid October if we want any feedback on direction. I had a meeting with my supervisor this week and he didn't seem to care about the deadline. So i dont think it will matter too much .

I think getting back to full time study after a whole 8 weeks of nothing is going to be hard going

Hello! Can I join in too? I'm going back to retrain as an OT at the grand old age of 40. It's so different from when I did my first degree. I'm married with 2 kids at primary school, living an hour away from uni but doing a course which requires lots of collaboration so getting on with peers at least in a work capacity is critical. We have anatomy classes. They require removal of clothing. As a group we will have nothing to hide both literally and metaphorically.
We start on Monday. I wish I was prepared enough to be nervous. I'm still mostly in denial. I just hope it works out. On the basis that people are more likely to regret the things they didn't do rather than the things they tried, I hope to be ok...

We have anatomy classes. They require removal of clothing.

Blimey - one of my good mates is an OT and she never told me about that aspect of her degree!

The more I talk to friends about this the more I discover that lots of people I know have gone back to uni in their 20s, 30s and 40s to do a new degree that's totally different to their first one. So many of us get it wrong at the age of 18 and its hardly surprising. I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do with my life and uni was really just a way of putting off any decision-making for a further three years.

As for distance-learning being harder - god I hope not! When I had lectures to attend at 9am I often missed them because I was still asleep. My hope is that by not having to waste time travelling to/from uni I'll have time to do the chores of home and also fit in some study. I've already colonised the far end of the dining table

I think that when I have days of no lectures... I'll study at home saves 2 hours of commenting etc etc... but way too many distractions... the only time in my life I've ever been tempted to clean the skirting boards... i am the worst procrastinator.

Clothe removal! I've studied anatomy and there were no clothes removed! Perhaps different in OT where you have to touch patients etc.

Although our lecturer was once giving a demonstration on using a stethoscope on someone.. and inadvertently said...'sometimes it's best to take them from behind'

Funniest lecture ever!

Last day today. Im mentally preparing myself to stop being on top of everything and go back to barley organised chaos that has existed the past 2 years

Well, I've started. Being nice to 20 folk I don't know is pretty tiring. By lunchtime today I desperately wanted to run away to the library... but I went to the union with some of the others instead. Lectures proper start Thursday and I'm really looking forward to that. Anyone else?

I'm studying with the OU so can be a hermit. Have a free morning and really need to get my arse in gear!!!!!

Do you have a tutor yet bumpety? The whole tutorial booking system seems to have gone into meltdown - at least for my module. Everyone is panicking and stressing and posting anguished missives. It's definitely frustrating, particularly as a) we have our first TMA due in 3 weeks' time and b) I'll be on holiday on the day its due and I really need to get it done by Fri 14th Oct as after that my kids are on half-term. I thought the OU would have this distance studying thing down to a T, but its been chaotic so far. Hope it improves!

I do have a tutor now -she's just gone on holiday - and I booked my tutorials yesterday but yes absolute mass hysteria and panic, not to mention disappointment. My tutorials are miles away but I've booked on-line tutorials so I'm hopeful this will work!

This whole tutor/tutorial thing is such a mess! I was allocated a tutor 300 miles away (and I live near London, so its not like I'm in a remote part of the country), and couldn't get any response from student support until today (they're promised to re-allocate me to someone closer).

The tutorial booking system is still a disaster - no face-to-face sessions available for booking, no detail about how is running the tutorials, no choice of times or dates. To start with I was being sanguine about it, but this has really made me question whether choosing the OU was the right choice.

Previous years have been absolutely fine and this is the first year there has ever been a problem with tutorials so fingers crossed it will be sorted very soon. I think it's the first time we have been able to choose and book-previously we've just been given dates/times-which might explain the chaos it's causing!!!!

In my last module I didn't attend a single tutorial and was fine and in ones before that l
I did the online ones . Loved sneaking to. Ed with a glass of wine and laptop and really I did get a lot out of them!

As I understand it this is a new system, hence the problems, but I'm still not very impressed. They've had three months over the summer to set it up, test it, and get it functioning properly - and despite saying it will be fixed today its still not working.

I see I've been allocated a new tutor, but I have no contact info for her ...

Man I am so tired!

To get to uni for 9am I have to get up at 6am. Get my youngest to breakfast club at 7:30am and then sit in an hour of traffic!

The summer was so nice! I don't want to go back to working everyday lol

bumpety and juneau I'm on the other side and it is just as chaotic for us. I know when and where I am supposed to be teaching but we don't know whether the rooms have been booked. All I can say is complain, complain, complain.

I feel for you too shouldwest - you're as much a victim of this cock-up as we are. No-one seems to know what's happening, when or where. I don't even know who to complain to. If I call the student support number I get told that they'll pass my questions on to my 'local area team', but it all seems to be done internally and when I get communications from my local area team its all via email, no names, no return email address (it just comes from a central server). Its really frustrating. The system seems designed to keep students at arm's length

To vent your frustration we have been told to direct people here because the SST are running around with holey buckets trying to bail out the sinking ship. I am sure that when it is all running properly everything will be back to normal. Have a list of this weekend's tutorials which I will put up in a minute.

Here are this weekend's tutorials, don't panic if yours isn't there as some are next weekend instead.

Thank you shouldwe - I'll post something on there later today. Bloody hell though!!! The courses all start tomorrow. On my booking system there were 7 online tutorials available, but I have no idea who's running them, there are still no face-to-face ones, I've now got contact details for my new tutor, but when I mailed her via the OU system I got a message back saying she's moving house and doesn't have access to email at the moment. WTAF??? This is 2016. Everyone has a smartphone surely with email on it so is not tied to a broadband connection at home to reply to emails from a static computer. I'm feeling utterly stressed out. Not least because my wretched course has this very early TMA, helpfully due during half-term. Argh!!!!!

I've just don't my first full week back, feeling the pressure of final year with lots of assignments before Christmas plus starting dissertation. Luckily one module crosses with my dissertation so some reading is done that way!
I've not been well this week and am exhausted after early starts and poorly children