OU - full time - doing MU123 and MTS124 together

I want to start an open degree in physics in October, doing it full time (I won't be working). I wanted to do 120 credits a year.

Year one:

S111: Questions in science. 60 credits
MU123: Discovering mathematics. 30 credits
MST124: Essential mathematics 1. 30 credits

The one thing I'm not sure about is the two maths modules. I would want to do MU123 first followed by MTS124. Is that possible or do they all run simultaneously?

I am not sure It would work doing them at the same time.

Thanks,

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Reply 1

Juno

Original post by hububalli

Whe i did it (which admittedly was a few years ago, and was mst123) they sent an introductory dvd which said that doing both together was possible.

You cant do them one after the other as both courses start in october.

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

Davidswift9

Original post by hububalli

I done 120 credits in a year at level 1. Its very doable, skim read S111 and do not take any short cuts on MST124, its gives you a good mathematical groundwork to move into future modules.

However, I thought MST124 + MST125 + S111 was the correct pathway for physics? MST124 literally starts at the most basic level, you do not need to go to lower level maths modules.

Reply 3

hububalli

Nice to hear someone had done this before. I am going to contact OU tomorrow and see if that's still the case.

You are right about the modules choices but I don't think it'd quite as basic as you make out. From my understanding and the "Are you ready?" Quiz I did. MST124 does rely on a reasonable amount of prior knowledge and is at uni level. MU123 is more A level which is where I need to start. I was OK at school in Maths but had a string of bad teachers so gave up after GCSE. I don't think I quite have the background to jump straight into MST124

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

Davidswift9

Original post by hububalli

Get hold of the MST124 PDF's, you will see it literally starts at the most basic level - the number line, the entire first book is algebra and I believe the last chapter introducing the basic idea of calculus. Or perhaps the last chapter of book 2 introduces this.

If you do get hold of the PDF's it can be quite intimidating looking at the content at first, but trust that you build your skill by taking small steps chapter by chapter, exercise by exercise. MST124 is not to the general standard level of year 1 university physics, its a crash course in Alevel+GCSE and goes ever so slightly beyond A level to smooth the transition to MST224.

The level 1, 2 and 3 modules cannot be directly compared to university years for science degrees, its hard to describe perfectly but a good comparison is level 3 OU modules are university year 3 plus some chapters from year 2 and likewise between level 1 and level 2. It all evens out in the end.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

hububalli

Thanks for all that information. I will see about downloading them this evening. It would be good if it is as easy to approach as you say.

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