PPE -OpenUniversity- Need Help!

I am a newbie in Student room.
I am considering to start studying at the Open Univerisity Politics, Philosophy & Economics, but I hesitate because I have some questions unanswered. I would be much obliged if someone help me!
So here we go!
1 :
What are the job prospects after graduation besides working as a Politician or a Journalist?
I have searched over the Internet and I found this : http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/majors/ppe.php
can a list from this instituion be reliable? Can someone with this degree do so many jobs?'
2:
What options are there for post graduation study? For example are you eligible to do a Master's in Political Science and Political economy? if so, what you MUST do during the three years of studying?
AND NOW some more vital questions....
3:
It's been a long time since I studied (actually never did) and I don't know nothing about this field.
HOW can I do some preparatory work? Which introductury books should I read?
4:
Is there a way to find PPE past students online?
I have asked over the phone the OU to give me the titles of each course book name but they couldn't. I need to know this in order to find some similar books to study.
5 : What is the level of Maths required? The have told me over the phone that I will need some BASIC maths. Is that true for all of the stages?

Excuse me for asking so many questions!
I am really anxious!

Reply 1

Juno

20

I've done economics with the OU (and probs a bit of the others). I'll reply better when I'm on my laptop.

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Reply 2

Juno

20

Original post by Yannakes

I am a newbie in Student room.
Firstly, I started this degree in 2008. Some of the modules that I have done will have changed - they usually get replaced by similar modules, but it's possible that they have been removed completely. I'm also doing social sciences, rather than PPE, so some things you might not study at all.

I did DD131 - Introducing the social sciences (part 1). This is the first half of the DD102 module that you will be doing, but yours will be updated slightly. This is an overall introduction to the social sciences, so you study bits of everything.
I did this in 2010, so can't remember much about it. However, it's supposed to be done as an "early" module and I'd done a few by then, so I didn't get as much out of it as someone who did it earlier would do.
You'll then get 60 free credits to use for level 1 modules. I did MST121 which is a maths module - if you can fit it in with your options I'd recommend it, especially if you're worried about your maths ability. This course is roughly equivalent to A Level, and I would estimate that this is the highest level of maths you'd need - anything you do use gets explained as and when you need it anyway.
I also did DB123 which is personal finance and so sort of economics related, and B120 which is business studies.

At level 2, you'd be doing DD203 which I didn't do anything similar to.
I did DD202 Economics and economic change, which I would imagine will be similar to any economics module that you will take - yours will have course code DD209 Running The Economy.

For level 3, I started DD309 but dropped it, so I don't really know much about this course.

You don't really need to do any preparatory work. If you're worried about your maths you could brush up on GCSE maths - any online resources for GCSE, such as BiteSize, would be fine. You could read something like this book to learn about good essay writing - it's not an essential read, but might be helpful if you wanted to.

You'll probably want to figure out when you can study and start making time for this. The OU recommend that 60 credits takes up around 18 hours of study a week. I found it to be less than this in the early modules, but if you start by freeing up around 10-20 hours you can adjust from there.

Reply 3

Juno

20

The OU has some free online courses available to everyone, so something like this introduction to philosophy might be interesting to work through. If you read the summary, it tells you how long the course should take, and also what level it is (this one is introductory), so you could then look here for all the introductory ones that interest you. It's not essential to work through these, but they will give you a better idea of what you'll be studying and you can practise your study skills. There are a few maths courses that might interest you, too.

Reply 4

Jojosmith

Hi Juno,
Sorry to gatecrash here! I'm starting DD309 in October and am looking for the textbooks, if you live in the UK, would you be interested in selling them?
Kind regards
Jo

Reply 5

Juno

20

Original post by Jojosmith

Hi Juno,
Sorry to gatecrash here! I'm starting DD309 in October and am looking for the textbooks, if you live in the UK, would you be interested in selling them?
Kind regards
Jo

I don't think I've got them any more, but I'll have a look for you

Reply 6

KieranWinterburn

1

Original post by Yannakes

I am a newbie in Student room.
I am considering to start studying at the Open Univerisity Politics, Philosophy & Economics, but I hesitate because I have some questions unanswered. I would be much obliged if someone help me!
So here we go!
1 :
What are the job prospects after graduation besides working as a Politician or a Journalist?
I have searched over the Internet and I found this : http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/undergrad/majors/ppe.php
can a list from this instituion be reliable? Can someone with this degree do so many jobs?'
2:
What options are there for post graduation study? For example are you eligible to do a Master's in Political Science and Political economy? if so, what you MUST do during the three years of studying?
AND NOW some more vital questions....
3:
It's been a long time since I studied (actually never did) and I don't know nothing about this field.
HOW can I do some preparatory work? Which introductury books should I read?
4:
Is there a way to find PPE past students online?
I have asked over the phone the OU to give me the titles of each course book name but they couldn't. I need to know this in order to find some similar books to study.
5 : What is the level of Maths required? The have told me over the phone that I will need some BASIC maths. Is that true for all of the stages?

Excuse me for asking so many questions!
I am really anxious!

I'm starting this degree in October! Really interested to hear the answers to your questions, I've thought them all myself at one moment or another :smile:

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Reply 7

Juno

20

Original post by KieranWinterburn

I'm starting this degree in October! Really interested to hear the answers to your questions, I've thought them all myself at one moment or another :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

You've hopefully read my earlier posts in the thread already.

The degree doesn't lead to a particular job, so potentially you can do anything. Personally, I'm going to be a paramedic. My sister did a history degree and became an estate agent. Many jobs now just want "a degree" rather than a specific subject.

Again, with Masters they're not subject specific. You can concentrate on most subjects. It's more important to get a good grade, so you'll need to look at the modules that most interest you as then you'll stand the best chance.

Google is amazing. Just googllng course codes will bring up many helpful websites. There are also loads of facebook groups, so if you use FB then search for a course code and find appropriate groups - or there are official OU pages you could post on.

Reply 8

KieranWinterburn

1

Original post by Juno

You've hopefully read my earlier posts in the thread already.

The degree doesn't lead to a particular job, so potentially you can do anything. Personally, I'm going to be a paramedic. My sister did a history degree and became an estate agent. Many jobs now just want "a degree" rather than a specific subject.

Again, with Masters they're not subject specific. You can concentrate on most subjects. It's more important to get a good grade, so you'll need to look at the modules that most interest you as then you'll stand the best chance.

Google is amazing. Just googllng course codes will bring up many helpful websites. There are also loads of facebook groups, so if you use FB then search for a course code and find appropriate groups - or there are official OU pages you could post on.

Yeah it's all very informative, great to have insight from someone who's been through the process!

May I ask why you chose such a different degree from your desired career?

How have you found your OU experience on the whole? And if you've looked in to jobs already how has the response from employers been in comparison to what you'd expect of a brick uni degree?

I know everyone says they're equal but I still worry, especially as I won't have any a levels.

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Reply 9

Jojosmith

Original post by Juno

I don't think I've got them any more, but I'll have a look for you

Thank you for looking, you're a star! I can't seem to find a set for sale anywhere. It will be my final module for my degree and I'm hoping to get ahead.

Reply 10

Juno

20

Original post by Jojosmith

Thank you for looking, you're a star! I can't seem to find a set for sale anywhere. It will be my final module for my degree and I'm hoping to get ahead.

It's not looking good. I've looked in the most obvious places they could be, and all I found is half of dd131. I do remember sending a lot of books to charity shop a few months ago but cannot remember which specific ones they were. So it's possible that DD309 were amongst those (I dictated this to my phone, and it thought I wanted "where the monkey tattoos").

I will check if the charity shop still has them but I think that's probably unlikely. I don't know how long ago I took them but it was definitely earlier than February and they tend to only keep things a few weeks before passing them on to other shops.

Reply 11

Jojosmith

Original post by Juno

It's not looking good. I've looked in the most obvious places they could be, and all I found is half of dd131. I do remember sending a lot of books to charity shop a few months ago but cannot remember which specific ones they were. So it's possible that DD309 were amongst those (I dictated this to my phone, and it thought I wanted "where the monkey tattoos" :wink:

.

I will check if the charity shop still has them but I think that's probably unlikely. I don't know how long ago I took them but it was definitely earlier than February and they tend to only keep things a few weeks before passing them on to other shops.

Thank you so much for looking, hopefully people will start selling theirs once their final projects go in. I've never had a problem finding the ou books but DD309 is a nightmare to track down!

Thanks again

Reply 12

Snufkin

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by Jojosmith

Thank you so much for looking, hopefully people will start selling theirs once their final projects go in. I've never had a problem finding the ou books but DD309 is a nightmare to track down!

Thanks again

Why don't you join a DD309 Facebook group (there must be one) and ask people there?

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