The results for my second semester subject (Astronomy Instrumentation) came out this morning -- another Distinction. Considering I was ill for a month in the middle of the semester it's about as good as I could reasonably expect. On the one hand I need to start earning some High Distinction grades if I'm to have any chance of getting a university medal, so I was hoping I might somehow still have done well enough on the final exam to get an HD. At the same time I was worried I might wind up with only a credit, as I had been too busy finishing off my assignment tasks at the end of the semester to put in enough time revising for the exam.
While I'm waiting for my textbook order to arrive from Amazon.com I've started reading through some of my old technical writing and research project management textbooks in preparation for the Literature Review and Pilot Research Project subjects I'll be taking in the final year of the MoA course. The last time I did a literature review and project (for a GradDip in Applied Chemistry more than a decade ago) I was woefully disorganised and just dived straight into reading papers and "doing the lab work" without spending any time defining specific goals or planning the overall project. I'm also re-reading the posts in the 'Study Hacks' blog (calnewport.com) as it seems to have some good pointers on how to narrow ones focus (and underload) in order to achieve excellence. This is the exact opposite of my previous approach (attempting to do too many things simultaneously - such as enrolling in two different post-grad courses at the same time!).
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1 comment:
I found the grading of AIN at James Cook to be a bit arbitrary when I took it, so I wouldn't take a grade of HD too badly. At times, a prereq of advanced telepathy seemed to be required.
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