I'm signed up for the January start of S104 and got my parcel of materials yesterday.
I haven't gone through it properly yet, I'm planning on doing that tomorrow, but I thought I should record my thoughts about studying with the OU, at this point in time.
First of all, I should explain that I am physically disabled. I have a medical condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. To explain very briefly, this means I have hypermobility, which means my joints dislocate easily.
There are a lot of other things with EDS, but that's the short basics.
I also have BiPolar disorder.
I didn't complete my A-Levels because my Dad was very seriously ill and I spent most of my time by his bedside in hospital. After that, I was really a mess and looking back on it I'm pretty certain I had my first breakdown - I spent three months in bed and that was school done for me.
Many years later (2006), I decided to go for a foundation year leading to a degree at Reading University.
Unfortunately my physical health was bad and getting worse (got an electric wheelchair 2007) and I just couldn't cope with attending lectures. I was so tired and sore after a day of lectures that I couldn't study in the evenings and just had to sleep.
So I'm going with the OU because I don't have to attend lectures, and I can study when I feel well, and try to keep ahead a bit, so if I'm having a bad day I don't need to panic about not being up to studying.
Also, I actively enjoy studying, and love science, so even if I'm bed-bound I'll be able to read the text books and do some work and it'll be a good distraction from the pain.
So; having said all that as background - I am really excited about studying with the OU, but also rather scared.
First off - I'm worried I won't cope with it, and I'll be ill and not be able to study.
I know that not going to lectures is a huge weight off my mind, and I know that the OU will support me and I can talk to people and get help if I'm ill. I also know that I should be able to get the books in PDF format so I can read them on my kindle in hospital if need be.
Secondly - studying... well.. I never had to study at school. GCSE's were just easy for me. I got great grades without studying at all. The only academic things I did outside of school were playing with equations in physics, and reading up on post-grad level physics and astrophysics.
At Reading Uni I was so exhausted, and in so much pain, that I barely got to study outside of the lectures.
So... I don't really know how to study.
I'm also dyspraxic and there's a very high probability that I have Asperger's Syndrome, and years of being ill and having to distract myself from pain has left me with concentration problems and I find it rather difficult focusing on things.
So I'm rather worried about that.
I think the latter will be helped enourmously if I can sort out a proper study area. Currently I don't have anywhere to study as such - normally I do stuff like that on my bed, but that's a really bad idea.
My computer desk doesn't have enough room for me to study at.
I'm also wondering if I can get a height adjustable desk so when I have to use my wheelchair indoors (I try to walk around inside my little house as much as is possible), I don't have to worry about not being able to fit my knees under the desk.
I have a thing about BIG desks though.
I remember the huge desks in the central reading room in Manchester's Central Library. I used to live there - spread my books out all around me and have space for everything.
I also spent a lot of time on the fourth floor and the desks there were pretty large.
I'm not really a fan of smaller desks and love having lots of space to spread notes out.
There are only really a couple of places in my house that such a desk could go - the living room (after a furniture rearrangement which is needed anyway) or the bedroom.
I'm very torn between the two.
I've read that it's good to keep studying things out of the bedroom so you don't get tired because the bed is there tempting you. Also I could use the tv and my computer for playing the DVDs that come with the course, and any visual media related to it.
But, there's also the problem of the tv and the computer being there and just being very tempting as a distraction.
Also, if I want the living room to be available for having people over, another desk in here won't help - I have a very tiny house and perhaps the space in the bedroom would be better so that other people don't have to cram into a smaller space.
Anyway.
Tomorrow I need to go through the parcel from the OU and check that everything is there and open up the books.
I will clear a shelf on the bookcase in the hallway so that I can put them all there.
And then I might just skim through them all, see what the material is like, and check bits that I might know already, and bits that are totally new to me.
Also I need to grab some software and start to learn it - I'll see if there's a trial version of MathCad, and I need to get LaTex and try out Mathematica and probably play with Octave some more.
It's certainly exciting, and I'm looking forward to the course starting a lot!
No comments:
Post a Comment