On Monday I finally received the notification letter telling me that I’d passed this course. I’d seen the results page on the OCA site, but due to a crisis of confidence, hadn’t wanted my student number published and so didn’t know which mark was actually mine.
Anyway, all of the hard work ultimately paid off and my mark was 67/100, which is the equivalent of a high 2:1. I really that I’d blown TAOP by trying to make it harder than it actually was. I thought that instead of trying to follow my own path and link my interests in photography up with TAOP, I should have followed a more basic path, and kept it simple.
How glad I am now that I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and tried to think outside the box. For anyone who has had a course assessed with the OCA, then you know that you don’t get a great deal of feedback after assessment, and in my case, the assessors comments were:
“There is a lot of very good work here. The accompanying documents show a very good level of engagement with the subject and a high level of contextualisation and critical thinking.”
All the hours I put into this course were worth it. The many, many hours I put into writing the background reports I submitted with the digital assessment were worth it. The many e-mails between Mike and myself where he hinted at things and encouraged me to be creative instead of simply ticking boxes were worth it. Not to mention the times when I’m sure I drove Catherine and Vicki mad with negative thoughts. It all paid off.
Honestly, I was so stunned when I saw my mark. I’d already convinced myself that my mark would be awful. I checked the name on the letter several times to make sure that OCA hadn’d made a mistake and sent me another student’s results.
There were times when I considered packing the course in, as I’m sure there are for all students at times, but this had gone so far with me that after the motorbike crash, in my mind I actually had quit. I couldn’t see how I could ever compare to the other students when you look at the quality of their work.
Now I know that I can work my way up to their level. This result has given me the motivation, and more importantly, confidence boost I needed to continue my studies.
I guess that this will be the last post on the blog then, and I’m so glad that it’s a happy one. You can see my new course blog for People and Place at:
http://bmhanapeopleandplace.wordpress.com
Please stop by and have a look at that, and thanks for reading this one and for all the support. Good luck to you all!!
My OCA Learning Log 