A bit of a Tetris month. Everything raining down from on high. Saw off the final M250 Object-oriented Java Programming TMA earlier this month. For some of us, including me, it is not a myth, they do seem to get tougher every time.
Just submitted the second part of the TT284 Web Technologies EMA. The big project. Not to give too much away but, as with previous TMAs, you have a mixture of practical and essay writing. It’s roughly fifty-fifty. Using what you have learnt during the module, you must create part of a website and then write a series of short essays about certain aspects. All in the guise of a report to a client.
If you have completed the first three TMAs, you have nothing to fear. Do not take it for granted, however. The EMA is not to be underestimated, it has been said. I quite agree. It is a beast.
I am glad it is over. If only, so I can focus fully on the M250 exam.
Speaking of the M250 exam, I am still not 100% sure of what to expect. I know it is a remote exam but, depending upon which tutor you speak to and which tutorial you attend, the expected format differs. One theory is that you must write your answers in a Word document and then upload it. Another is that it is more like an ICMA where you type your answers straight into a box on the website.
Nevertheless, I assume the exam will bear at least a passing resemblance to the specimen exam on the website. This combines the multiple-choice features of a typical iCMA from earlier modules, such as TM111 and TM112, with the coding questions in the module materials. In the latter, you type your Java code into a box on the website and can test to see whether your code compiles.
Only, apparently, we will not have the facility to check our code during the exam. Ostensibly, the module team do not want students to waste time trying to correct minor errors in their code. They are looking for understanding of the main principles.
The most worrying aspect of the specimen exam is that, on these coding questions, if you make one tiny mistake, such as forgetting to put a semi-colon at the end of a line, then you receive zero for the whole question. A problem when a rough calculation is that 65% of the total marks pertain to this type of question.
Not surprisingly, this has been causing a lot of panic in the module forums. Some students attempting the specimen exam have received scores under the 30% required to pass the exam component.
The module team explained that the specimen exam is computer-marked. They promise that a human (tutor) will mark the real exam.
Hopefully, it will all be alright on the morning . . .
Now, back to revision.