A few questions...

Some classic OU questions there, I'm not sure there is anybody here doing the Life Sciences degree but I'd say the answers for much of it are the same.

Basically, OU degrees are looked on favourably by employees, in particular due to the whole self-sufficiency aspect of studying on your own. Demonstrates how organised and motivated you are to be able to complete something as big as a degree independently. You can then go on to do a postgraduate at a "brick" uni if you so desire, loads of people have done that (I'm thinking about it myself).

120 points is equivalent to the course load of a year at other unis. I'm in my second year of doing 120 points and at the moment I am fairly busy, but I work 20 hours a week as well quite comfortably. As long as you are organised then you shouldn't have a problem with it.

Reply 2

lincs_b

http://www.embo.org/publications/careers.pdf
http://www.aibs.org/careers/
They are quite interesting and a degree with the OU is no different to any other uni.
I've also done 120 points in a year and was fine with it this year I'm only doing 90 plus a 10 point residential.

Reply 3

Lunarsea

OP

2

SunburnedCactus

Some classic OU questions there, I'm not sure there is anybody here doing the Life Sciences degree but I'd say the answers for much of it are the same.

Basically, OU degrees are looked on favourably by employees, in particular due to the whole self-sufficiency aspect of studying on your own. Demonstrates how organised and motivated you are to be able to complete something as big as a degree independently. You can then go on to do a postgraduate at a "brick" uni if you so desire, loads of people have done that (I'm thinking about it myself).

120 points is equivalent to the course load of a year at other unis. I'm in my second year of doing 120 points and at the moment I am fairly busy, but I work 20 hours a week as well quite comfortably. As long as you are organised then you shouldn't have a problem with it.

Thank you for the reply. I'd hoped it might be the case. I was going to go with the OU anyway as it is the best option for me as an individual.

Was going to start back up again with a couple of short courses this year before going on to do my degree. It's been a while since I was with the OU (did 4 of their science short courses when I was 15 - 16) and need to get back into the swing of things.

The fact that you can comfortably fit in 20 hours of work as well is very comforting for me. I should be able to stay on top of everything with a bit of organisation. :smile:

Thanks again. :hugs:

Edit:

lincs_b

http://www.embo.org/publications/careers.pdf
http://www.aibs.org/careers/
They are quite interesting and a degree with the OU is no different to any other uni.
I've also done 120 points in a year and was fine with it this year I'm only doing 90 plus a 10 point residential.

Thanks for the links, interesting reading :smile:

and thanks for the further info on coping with with the 120 points. :biggrin:

Really grateful for the information.

Reply 4

dg2008

I'm doing Molecular Science with the OU at the moment :smile:

Reply 5

°lemontree°

Hey all! Great to see a thread on the BSc Life Science! I'm thinking about doing that as well. I'm attending a 'normal residential' uni right now in a completely unrelated subject but always thought about studying for a science degree afterwards. I've no prior experience with the OU, but might take one or two short courses (the human genetics one looks great!) and maybe a math course before committing to a full fledged degree.

dg2008

I'm doing Molecular Science with the OU at the moment :smile:

Cool! Did you have any prior experience in the area? Also, having read that full-time study and 20 hours of work per week is possible, would it be reasonable to work even more? Doing both full time?

Thanks a lot!

Reply 6

dg2008

they say no more than 120 credits a year, but you can enquire about more. Do you want to do it in under 3 years? 120x3 = 360

I'm taking 4.5 ish years due to full time work and other commitment (mainly can't afford more lol)

I did science AS levels but did bad in them, not uni science experience.

I started with 'Maths for science' & 'Science starts here'

Reply 7

Lunarsea

OP

2

°lemontree°

Hey all! Great to see a thread on the BSc Life Science! I'm thinking about doing that as well. I'm attending a 'normal residential' uni right now in a completely unrelated subject but always thought about studying for a science degree afterwards. I've no prior experience with the OU, but might take one or two short courses (the human genetics one looks great!) and maybe a math course before committing to a full fledged degree.

I'm going to take a maths course with them before I start too, as my maths is, um, let's say "below adverage". :tongue:

I'm also going to take one about writing essays as my essay writing skills have never been great (passable for BTEC but I doubt for university standard) although I don't know how much essay writing is involved with Life Science but I'd imagine it'll be helpful to me at some point anyway.

And since I haven't been doing any science for a while I thought I might do Science Starts Here or Introducing Environment but I haven't decided which yet. :smile:

Reply 8

The level one courses generally include development of skills for the degree work, for example essay writing, planning and scheduling and so on. If you've done A levels already you could jump in at level one with ease.

Reply 9

°lemontree°

SunburnedCactus

The level one courses generally include development of skills for the degree work, for example essay writing, planning and scheduling and so on. If you've done A levels already you could jump in at level one with ease.

Would you say that they're less work than? I.e. does that mean that having study skills equivalent to a 'normal' undergraduate degree means that one could finish the level 1 courses in less time? (I read 10 Points courses are 100 hours somewhere)

Thanks!

Reply 10

Well I mean they say 8 hours per week for a 30 point course, but certainly if you've studied before you'd most likely find you don't need to do quite that much a week. You still finish them over the same period because they follow a schedule with set dates for starting and finishing. If that makes sense...

Reply 11

Lunarsea

OP

2

SunburnedCactus

The level one courses generally include development of skills for the degree work, for example essay writing, planning and scheduling and so on. If you've done A levels already you could jump in at level one with ease.

Ah I did BTEC personally (which I got on to using the OU), didn't get the oppurtunity to do GCSE as I was home educated so I've never had to deal with exams as such so I'm rather terrified at the prospects of the level 2 and 3 exams! :s-smilie:

That's why I'm going to do a few short courses to brush up on some of my skills.

On another note, it turns out that I may eligable for financial support. But I'm a bit confused about how it works. On the finance calculator, the box where it says: "I will be studying undergraduate courses totalling" when you select the points, is that the points for the courses you will be doing over a year, the number at a time or what? Also any money they give you towards your courses is per year rather than per course?

Reply 12

That is the number that you are doing simultaneously. On the second point it's a bit less clear, because the system in Scotland seems a little different to that in England. Up here the money is per course, whereas in England/Wales it seems to be per year (at least going from someone's app I saw recently), however hopefully a helpful person on here can fill in the gap in my brain.

Reply 13

°lemontree°

SunburnedCactus

Well I mean they say 8 hours per week for a 30 point course, but certainly if you've studied before you'd most likely find you don't need to do quite that much a week. You still finish them over the same period because they follow a schedule with set dates for starting and finishing. If that makes sense...

Thanks for the reply! 8 hours per week and possibly less for a 30 point course sounds really managable.

Reply 14

dg2008