A day of revision to prepare for that dreaded exam...
It started off gently enough with PP giving a general talk on exams and how to revise for them. He looked at various strategies and what was useful and what wasn't. He was against question spotting, meaning revising answers to specific questions that seem to come up - as you get that sinking feeling when they don't. Rather revise common themes that come up. He also told us to make revision fun - so I started a quiz on the FC forum.
Then it was into S204 revision class with CM, which went well, but I think a number of us came out realising we knew less than we thought we did! We covered long questions, data interpretation, and enzyme/membrane kinetics. Another graph drawn helped lock in the v/S stuff a little more.
Over lunch it was back to PP and how to deal with data interpretation questions. You can't revise for these, you have to know how to use the skills you've learnt. Anyay we tried a couple of examples, and learnt to use the clues in the questions.
After this, back to more S204 specifics with GL. He had a few tricks to share with us, things like learning certain diagrams that were adaptable to multiple questions. Also learning specific organisms that could be trotted out as examples. Then we went through a number of example short answer questions and discussed answers and where the marks might be.
All in all very useful. Not exactly feeling confident about the exam, but feeling it is possible.
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Saturday, 10 February 2007
S204: Tutorial
First tutorial for S204 - and although its close by it takes me a while to find the actual location.
When I do there is only one other student and the tutor, and that turns out to be all that attend.
The tutorial starts off with a simple test of logic problems, like
The tutor also went over that most scary of prospects, the exam, what parts there were, what you had to do, what was optional etc.
Then a quick bit of practice at writing a precis of an article, and finally he talks through the statistics we will be using, which is largely the student t-test.
The tutorial is very useful, not from a gaining knowledge perspective, as much as the tricks of the trace answering exam and TMA questions.
When I do there is only one other student and the tutor, and that turns out to be all that attend.
The tutorial starts off with a simple test of logic problems, like
"There is a house with four windows. There is one window on each side of the house. All the windows face South. A bear runs in front of one of the windows. What color is the bear?"Its a trick question - the bear is white as the only place the house can be is on the north pole. The idea was to get you thinking and looking carefully at the question. A lot of people loose marks by not reading the question fully or answering a different question to that written.
The tutor also went over that most scary of prospects, the exam, what parts there were, what you had to do, what was optional etc.
Then a quick bit of practice at writing a precis of an article, and finally he talks through the statistics we will be using, which is largely the student t-test.
The tutorial is very useful, not from a gaining knowledge perspective, as much as the tricks of the trace answering exam and TMA questions.
Friday, 12 January 2007
S103: A slight hiccup
I had managed to complete TMA-4 just before Christmas which was well ahead of the early January deadline. I had an ulterior motive for this, and it wasn't just so that I could enjoy the festive season. I had wanted to see how well I got on with S103 and if I wasn't finding it too taxing, then I might be able to start a new course in the new year. So I was working on getting up a good head of steam so I could make some time for a 2nd level course, the biology one - S204.
So - I had handed in my TMA before Christmas, and started work on block 6, which was chemistry. However after Christmas, we had a slight break in proceedings. I turned up at the first tutorial of the new year, and the building it took place in was even more disorganised than before. They had a lot of building work going on fitting out new classrooms and things, and this time it was even darker and more eerie than the first tutorial. It appeared they were improving security and were going into a keycard system of access.
I checked at the reception and a security guard showed me to the tutorial room, which was in a slightly different place to some of the previous ones. Instead of an organised room with a circle of tables laid out as normal, with a smiling tutor, the room was dark, and empty. The guard switched on the lights and left, and I sat down and unpacked a few things. Another tutee turned up shortly, and we arranged the desks into our customary circle and chatted about things.
After about 30-40 minutes, we decided there must be a problem, and either we were in the wrong place, or maybe there was a tutorial going on elsewhere. Anyhow it looked like there wasn't going to be much happening tonight. We packed our things up, and put the tables back, and then made our way out.
Then, we found a problem. We managed to find our way back nearly to the entrance, before coming up against one of those keycard doors. We couldn't open it. We looked around for a button to open it, but there didn't seem to be one. We then tried to find another way out, and found a few other rooms and various places. Eventually we found an outside fire exit door, which said it was alarmed. However we decided after a bit of discussion to try this. We pressed the release button, and nothing happened. We tried a few other things, but it wasn't going to open.
So, we turned back and made our way to as near as reception as we could get, and tried banging on the door, but in vain. Finally my colleague had a mobile phone, so she phoned directory enquiries, and after a few attempts managed to get them to put us through to the college, and got through to reception where she asked them to come and let us out!
The next day I tried to contact my tutor to see if we'd got the wrong place or the wrong day or something, but I didn't get a reply. So later in the week I contacted the regional center, who moved swiftly to sort things out. It seems my tutor had been taken into hospital and with Christmas and the new year things had got a little confused.
Anyway, the centre found us a new substitute tutor, and arranged for our TMAs to picked up and marked by alternate tutors, and everything was soon back on track.
So - I had handed in my TMA before Christmas, and started work on block 6, which was chemistry. However after Christmas, we had a slight break in proceedings. I turned up at the first tutorial of the new year, and the building it took place in was even more disorganised than before. They had a lot of building work going on fitting out new classrooms and things, and this time it was even darker and more eerie than the first tutorial. It appeared they were improving security and were going into a keycard system of access.
I checked at the reception and a security guard showed me to the tutorial room, which was in a slightly different place to some of the previous ones. Instead of an organised room with a circle of tables laid out as normal, with a smiling tutor, the room was dark, and empty. The guard switched on the lights and left, and I sat down and unpacked a few things. Another tutee turned up shortly, and we arranged the desks into our customary circle and chatted about things.
After about 30-40 minutes, we decided there must be a problem, and either we were in the wrong place, or maybe there was a tutorial going on elsewhere. Anyhow it looked like there wasn't going to be much happening tonight. We packed our things up, and put the tables back, and then made our way out.
Then, we found a problem. We managed to find our way back nearly to the entrance, before coming up against one of those keycard doors. We couldn't open it. We looked around for a button to open it, but there didn't seem to be one. We then tried to find another way out, and found a few other rooms and various places. Eventually we found an outside fire exit door, which said it was alarmed. However we decided after a bit of discussion to try this. We pressed the release button, and nothing happened. We tried a few other things, but it wasn't going to open.
So, we turned back and made our way to as near as reception as we could get, and tried banging on the door, but in vain. Finally my colleague had a mobile phone, so she phoned directory enquiries, and after a few attempts managed to get them to put us through to the college, and got through to reception where she asked them to come and let us out!
The next day I tried to contact my tutor to see if we'd got the wrong place or the wrong day or something, but I didn't get a reply. So later in the week I contacted the regional center, who moved swiftly to sort things out. It seems my tutor had been taken into hospital and with Christmas and the new year things had got a little confused.
Anyway, the centre found us a new substitute tutor, and arranged for our TMAs to picked up and marked by alternate tutors, and everything was soon back on track.
Friday, 20 October 2006
S103: First Tutorial
Its the first tutorial date, and I, after a little time with multimap, google maps, microsoft live, and an A-Z, am fairly sure I can find my way across the city to the secret location.
I've got a full tank of gas, a battered A-Z, its dark, but I'm not wearing sun glasses - hit it!
I roar off down the road, the radio is blasting out "Quote/Unquote" - anarchy has nothing on me, and the adventure has begun.
15 or 20 minutes later, and I've found the entrance to the school. Further more, I've found the car park, and wonder of wonder, a lit entrance with signs of life. Things are looking up!
I enter the building and approach the person on reception. I see a big sign saying something like DD123 tutorials in room 17. This looks encouraging. I say I'm here for the S103 tutorial.
"Oh yes" says the man, "That'll be room 101 - through the double doors and straight on".
"Thanks!"
Hmmm - room 101 has an ominous ring about it, positively Orwellian, not to say Merton-esque...
Through the double doors and past a lot of other doors - none of them with numbers on them. The lighting is not the best, and if this were a film, something bad would be about to happen, with the music rising to a creepy crescendo about now. I've come to the end of the passage, and it turns left - maybe I've missed a room or something...
WAIT - I'm sure someone following me! I consider my options, what would Jackie Chan do?
It turns out to be a fellow student and he's on the same search, so we pool our resources. The corridor makes another sharp turn, have we come too far? I see a number 47 finally - there is hope. We find a room 54, and a few others, but nothing approaching the 100s.
We are just wondering whether to make bivouac here for the night, when someone emerges from a nearby room, and lets us know that this is the S103 room - number 44. Ah, Ok.... Whatever...
I sit down and unpack a few notes and folders. There are 4 of us and the tutor, and we do a bit of idle chatter while waiting to see if anyone else finds us (unlikely I think!). Its at this point that the most useful bit of information of the entire tutorial is reveal. The purpose of that funny black plastic bit in the front of the study file.
You can insert the back cover of the current block book into it and it keeps everything together. I'm deeply impressed, and am still playing with it to this day. What WILL they think of next!
Our tutor decides to make a formal start, and introduces herself, and we begin the introductions. Then the door opens, and a security man shows in another 6 people, presumably lost souls who had been stalking the corridors like we had. We start again. What our background is, what we are looking forward to, and what we're not looking forward to.
In approximate order, the general trend for the not looking forward to subjects are Maths, Writing English, and Time management. No real surprises there.
One more person joins a few minutes later, having probably been directed to the basement somewhere.
Our tutor tells us a bit about herself, her role, what we can expect, some of the rules for TMA's and so on.
Some of us have had our materials for a while, others are still unwrapping theirs, and some are still awaiting arrival.
We have a brief break, but all refreshment machines have been switched off apparently, and on investigation the toilets are locked! A brave party decides to venture back to reception hoping to find an unlocked toilet, we never hear from them again... until the start of the next half.
The second half of the tutorial we do an exercise. We have a packet of liquorice allsorts, and we have to come up with a classification scheme.
After some discussion we decide to avoid the more obvious eaten and non-eaten category.
We categorise on shape, size and colour. Then we eat them.
A few more questions and answers and then its the end, we huddle together for support down the dark corridors but succeed in finding the exit without too much problem. I make my way home, picking the wrong road twice, but hey:
I survived tutorial 1 - Mission Acomplished!
I've got a full tank of gas, a battered A-Z, its dark, but I'm not wearing sun glasses - hit it!
I roar off down the road, the radio is blasting out "Quote/Unquote" - anarchy has nothing on me, and the adventure has begun.
15 or 20 minutes later, and I've found the entrance to the school. Further more, I've found the car park, and wonder of wonder, a lit entrance with signs of life. Things are looking up!
I enter the building and approach the person on reception. I see a big sign saying something like DD123 tutorials in room 17. This looks encouraging. I say I'm here for the S103 tutorial.
"Oh yes" says the man, "That'll be room 101 - through the double doors and straight on".
"Thanks!"
Hmmm - room 101 has an ominous ring about it, positively Orwellian, not to say Merton-esque...
Through the double doors and past a lot of other doors - none of them with numbers on them. The lighting is not the best, and if this were a film, something bad would be about to happen, with the music rising to a creepy crescendo about now. I've come to the end of the passage, and it turns left - maybe I've missed a room or something...
WAIT - I'm sure someone following me! I consider my options, what would Jackie Chan do?
It turns out to be a fellow student and he's on the same search, so we pool our resources. The corridor makes another sharp turn, have we come too far? I see a number 47 finally - there is hope. We find a room 54, and a few others, but nothing approaching the 100s.
We are just wondering whether to make bivouac here for the night, when someone emerges from a nearby room, and lets us know that this is the S103 room - number 44. Ah, Ok.... Whatever...
I sit down and unpack a few notes and folders. There are 4 of us and the tutor, and we do a bit of idle chatter while waiting to see if anyone else finds us (unlikely I think!). Its at this point that the most useful bit of information of the entire tutorial is reveal. The purpose of that funny black plastic bit in the front of the study file.
You can insert the back cover of the current block book into it and it keeps everything together. I'm deeply impressed, and am still playing with it to this day. What WILL they think of next!
Our tutor decides to make a formal start, and introduces herself, and we begin the introductions. Then the door opens, and a security man shows in another 6 people, presumably lost souls who had been stalking the corridors like we had. We start again. What our background is, what we are looking forward to, and what we're not looking forward to.
In approximate order, the general trend for the not looking forward to subjects are Maths, Writing English, and Time management. No real surprises there.
One more person joins a few minutes later, having probably been directed to the basement somewhere.
Our tutor tells us a bit about herself, her role, what we can expect, some of the rules for TMA's and so on.
Some of us have had our materials for a while, others are still unwrapping theirs, and some are still awaiting arrival.
We have a brief break, but all refreshment machines have been switched off apparently, and on investigation the toilets are locked! A brave party decides to venture back to reception hoping to find an unlocked toilet, we never hear from them again... until the start of the next half.
The second half of the tutorial we do an exercise. We have a packet of liquorice allsorts, and we have to come up with a classification scheme.
After some discussion we decide to avoid the more obvious eaten and non-eaten category.
We categorise on shape, size and colour. Then we eat them.
A few more questions and answers and then its the end, we huddle together for support down the dark corridors but succeed in finding the exit without too much problem. I make my way home, picking the wrong road twice, but hey:
I survived tutorial 1 - Mission Acomplished!
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