Sunday 22 April 2012

Well, I got my assignments back over the last few days, and I'm really happy with the outcome.

I dropped one point on the M336 TMA, which is actually rather annoying, because I just didn't copy out the whole of an answer from my rough version. It was a question asking what transformation you need to do to move one of the 'motifs' on a freize pattern, onto another. The answer, remaining as vague as feasible, was in two parts: the type of transformation and the point about which you apply it. When I copied out my answer (and I did have it on my draft, because I dug out the sheets to check and lo, the full answer was there), I seem to have stopped the sentence short without fully explaining the point where to apply it. I don't begrudge this costing a mark, because I accept it being a vital bit of information. Just annoyed at myself is all. Though what can you really expect, with the last-minute panic to finish, the all-nighters, and all the other (admittedly self-induced) obstacles. Rather, it's surprising I only dropped one point.

My tutor was very kind in her comments, and gave me some useful advice on what to put more effort into in that block, &ct. I've not met her yet, because I was too busy working on catching up with the material, that I had to skip the tutorial last month. Actually, I had to miss the tutorial for both courses as they were on the same day (they were, however, at different times, which was nice as it meant we can go to both). It was a shame to miss the tutorials, as I do like to go, even if it is a bit of a trek to Leeds, and the fact that I can never find Leeds Metropolitan University when I get there. The problem was, no matter how useful they would be, the 7 hours I spent going to them would not get me any further through the study materials, which was my main concern at the time.

As for M338, well, it was nowhere near as bad as I expected, in fact, I just about pipped into the 80s! Not quite distinction territory, but easily high enough to put me in a good mood all day after I opened the envelope (...Kim opened it actually, as I usually make her check the results, when I'm worried about it). I tend to expect the worst about most things, but this time, I really went overboard! I mean, I was even trying to work out what I needed to do, to make up for it, if I only got 50!

In his comments, my tutor said it is a really tough TMA and that I should be pleased with myself for doing as well as I did. Of course, it's his job to encourage, but regardless of motivation, it made me feel good about myself. I kind of figured, if I managed to do okay under the conditions I was in at the time, I can assume that I might have done very well otherwise. Either way, he did warn us back at the start of the course, that Block A is hardest, whereas Block B is easy, and Block C is just "hard."

For what it's worth, I'm really enjoying the surfaces unit, B1. In fact, I will hopefully get through most of the last part this afternoon/evening. It certainly is a chance to breathe after the ultra-dense Block A. In fact, I am going to go and work on it now. I've already spent enough of the day watching snooker, reading (Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke - very cool), and general pottering around on the Internet. It's time to get productive, I reckon.

By the way, for anyone that didn't catch it, Dara O'Briain's School of Hard Sums, that I mentioned last time, was fairly entertaining. Not ground-breaking TV or anything, but hey, it was worthy enough of watching again tomorrow at least. Warning though, the puzzles aren't particularly hard (and I mean, for "normal" people as well as us mathsy types), but titling inaccuracies aside, it was an enjoyable enough 40 minutes, and I have little else on at eight on a Monday.

Sunday 15 April 2012

School of Hard Sums

Hello again,

Just a quickie for anyone who's interested, and doesn't know already.
The practically ubiquitous TV panel show comedy bloke, Dara O'Briain has a new programme tomorrow night on Dave: School of Hard Sums.
http://uktv.co.uk/dave/series/tvseries/257755
I heard him being interviewed about it on Radio 4 t'other day, and it sounded quite interesting.
And look, there's half of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time maths brigade, Marcus Du Sautoy too...
Note how the set looks like it's right out of an OU video :)

Neil

Edit: Sorry, I just thought. As wrong as I no doubt am, it's wrong of me to give my answer. Deleted.

Saturday 14 April 2012

The best laid plans, eh

Hi

Sorry for being so rubbish at writing in my blog lately. Actually, this is a symptom of a much wider issue I'm going through of being rubbish at doing anything.

Whether it's been work, study, or just life in general. I've had almost zero motivation and very little capacity to stick at something for any useful period of time. Well, that's not totally true I guess, my capacity to get through Twin Peaks on DVD recently has been admirable, but that's hardly productive...

2012 has been tainted by a general malaise so far, and the worst effect it has had is on my studying. Although I've been equally unmotivated with work, I'm still meeting all my deadlines, being too responsible to do otherwise, and too courteous to refuse work when allocated to me. So despite the many times I've not even got started until 4pm, or when I've had three days to do a job but not started until the final day, work has been mostly unaffected.

I've been looking forward to M338 since before I even started MST121, so it's quite upsetting to be so far behind so soon. I even bought the first three units back in December so I could get started... only I didn't. So where exactly am I? Well, I finished my first TMA, more or less on time, and got 90-odd. I was not expecting there to be a TMA based on the first unit of the course only, so it was lucky that my tutor who, coincidentally is not only from Portsmouth as I am, but did his undergraduate degree at Sheffield Uni, like me... (I wonder if it was at the same time because he looks fairly young; I should ask!), emailed to remind us. The comments on it were very encouraging. However, I had to then switch to M336 to catch up for a while, and somewhere along the way I got to last week, at which point the situation was thus:

M336 TMA due 12th April - relevant units complete
M338 TMA due 13th April - only Unit A2 complete (with the TMA based on A2 - A4)

Well, I got a good start on the M336 TMA over the weekend, but had to put it aside for a bit to finish a big job (it was legal, a contract, and a right pain to complete - involving an all-nighter from Monday, until the deadline at 9am Tuesday). I finally finished the work itself on that TMA sometime Tuesday afternoon/evening. But as I was so knackered from the all-nighter right before, I opted to quit for the day and go to bed early, at ten. Wednesday morning, after driving Kim to uni (it's the holidays but she wanted to go in and do some work), I wrote up the M336 TMA in neat. Of course that took hours, as it always does for me, and I got it to the Post Office at about 2.45 on the 11th. Pretty sure it arrived on time though; it usually does.

So then I found myself faced with M338 TMA02, at around 3pm the day before I had to send it, and only a third of the material covered. Not good! Rather than just dive into it head first, I thought I'd speed read those two units before starting. So from 4 to 6, I blitzed my way through A3 on Topological Spaces, and after dinner, from about 7 to 9 on A4, Closed Sets. I can't deny that I took very little of it in... but I was up for a challenge.

It took me from 9.30 until about 12.30 to do the stuff on A2, Metric Spaces, but I'm fairly confident of that part. In fact, I was pretty pleased with myself over how I cracked the question on proving the third metric space axiom is satisfied by the "vine-picker's metric", though I suspect I went the long way round. By now, putting aside the prospect of another all-nighter so soon, I was feeling pretty good. I figured, well it took me three hours to do the part I knew. Maybe it'll only take twice that to do the rest, so six hours on A3 and six on A4. Actually, fast forward a bit and I found myself only 15 points from the end (though with a 9-pointer skipped), at 5.30am. So I actually went to bed for two hours! Finished those fifteen points by about 10am. Took me just over four hours to write up. Leaving me at 2.30 with the question I'd skipped left to try and do, and hopefully get to the Post Office at 4-ish.

Unfortunately, by this point, I could barely hold a pen and write, let alone be capable of abstract thought. A few false starts, then I just decided to get it to sent.

I'm not expecting a very good result. But, I think, perhaps, that this might have been the kick up the bum I needed. I actually came this close to picking up my text books again later that evening, despite the epic burn-out of the week so far. I talked myself out if it and opted to just lay on the sofa that evening with B'elanna our dog, watching Vinnie Jones as a butcher killing people on the underground (in Midnight Meat Train, based on a Clive Barker short story). Not bad actually, but the makers need to realise that CGI gore looks silly; the flying eyeball put me in mind of the health meter on the first few series of the (excellent) kid's show Knightmare.

My aim for catching up is to continue working through the material from where I actually should be by now, and working on getting through the previous stuff at the same time. I do not think it's in my interests to catch up first, as from experience, I know I'll just end up a unit or two behind throughout. Meanwhile, I think I'm still on schedule with M336, and with some luck, I reckon I can keep it that way.

I'm sure either you've given up reading by now, or would like me to finish soon. So I shall.
Hopefully, by the next time I post, I'll be up-to-date on everything, getting great results back, and just generally having a good time. I doubt things will change quite that quickly, but I reckon I'm over the hill now and will start sorting out, whatever it is that's been going wrong... watch this space!

Neil

Edit: Mentioning Knightmare above made me think.... do you guys remember The Adventure Game in the early 80s, set on the planet Arg? That must've been the highlight of my week when I was little....

Edit 2: The attentive will note that I've been discussing M336, not S282 Astronomy. Well spotted. Actually, I changed my choice within a week or so, due to concerns over the transitional fee rules.