Maths and Statistics: Open University

I looking at doing a Bsc Maths and Statistics degree with the OU.
My only concern however, is that there does not seem to be any modules relating to computational statistics or any programming languages compared to the courses offered at brick Universities.
Am I just being a bit daft and perhaps missing something in OU’s prospectus. Or are these modules just not as important as I thought they were ?
Any advice or info would be much appreciated. Thanks

Reply 1

Anonymous #1

Also, has anyone else done this course. What was your experience of this course.

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

JollyCynic

The Open University is launching course R38: BSc (Hons) Data Science this year. There may be modules for that which cross-over with Maths & Statistics that you could take, but as it's new this year, I can't offer any specific advice.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

I had thought that something like that could be an option. Thanks for clarifying that for me. Ill havexa look.

Original post by JollyCynic

Reply 4

sputum

I did pure maths but from a quick squizz:

M140 has Minitab
M249 uses SPSS
I did think some module introduced R but could be wrong and it's tricky to search for.

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

Thanks for the info, I will take a look. See, Im actually really stuck between Bsc Maths, or Maths and Statistics. I just feel that if there is no programming language I should maybe just do the maths. How did you find pure Maths........and the OU overall ???

Original post by sputum

I did pure maths but from a quick squizz:

M140 has Minitab
M249 uses SPSS
I did think some module introduced R but could be wrong and it's tricky to search for.

Reply 6

sputum

I don't think you have to choose between them (or you can change your mind at least) until year 2 but am not 100%. You also have the option of picking and choosing modules you want under the Open degree or Combined STEM.

I loved it. I started the OU with two Java modules that eventually fitted into the 50 points of free choice we used to get, then ran screaming from studying IT after the database module turned into a boreathon. Didn't fall in love with the maths until M208 took over my life.

I guess it depends what you want from the OU particularly. I rarely bothered my (good to awesome) tutors outside assessments, just studied the books , posted the assignments and prepared for the exams. The exam papers were pretty formulaic (pun intended) with pass 1 rates generally over 20% of those that made it to the end.

I am seriously considering starting the data science degree in October if I can get funding, to pick up some stats in addition to R and Python. I studied zero stats in my maths degree :smile:

but that's no longer possible. If that degree interests you please bear in mind some L3 courses are as yet unwritten and I would advise thinking hard before taking them in their first presentation. If you'd do it part time this shouldn't be an issue.

Reply 7

Anonymous #1

Thanks for all the info. That was great.
Before you decided on your course were you able to talk to an OU advisor with regards to your choices ???
I do like Statistics, but I'm just a bit worried about how tricky it would be online.
I'll defo take a look at the combined STEM degree though. Might be a good option actually. Thanks again for all your help.

Reply 8

sputum

Original post by Anonymous

It was a very different OU world before 2012. I didn't even intend to do a degree when I started, I just felt that finding out why my self-taught coding sucked was worth ~£400 regardless of my module result and back then you could pick (almost) any module at any level and go for it. All an advisor might have done is dissuade me :smile:

. With the newer rules getting advice beforehand might be a much better idea.

If the things you want to study aren't all in a single degree path a pick-n-mix strategy might serve you well. My inglorious final IT course really hammered home that I couldn't motivate myself to study stuff I wasn't interested in just to fit a syllabus or get a 'named' degree.

Reply 9

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

You'll learn how to use LaTeX for typesetting, and relevant software (such as computer algebra systems, the aforementioned statistics packages) for each module as appropriate. You don't normally do that much programming beyond that in a maths degree elsewhere; just a touch of MATLAB (which I assume the OU doesn't use due to the licensing costs).

There's always the option of taking one or two CS modules which includes more formal programming.