Not so smart

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 02:12:19 GMT

So, every now and again I entertain the idea of going back to uni to get an astronomy/astrophysics degree. It's insanity, because there's no way I could justify the cost for what would essentially be a very expensive hobby. I'd have to start from the very beginning because none of my MA in English would be transferable. And let's face it, last time I did semi-serious math was thirty years ago (I did college level algebra and calculus in high school, because I went to specialised STEM class, but that won't help me now).

I've been doing EdX courses for a while, and they range from okay to great [1] but each time I start a new one, I go through the same introductory stuff--and when we do eventually get to the meaty stuff, it's too little to really stay in my brain for any length of time. As a regular student I'd be doing more of the good stuff until I was comfortable with it, and then move in to more good stuff, etc. That's the advantage of structured education vs. the tasters I'm getting now.

Anyway, I've been thinking of the uni thing again, as EdX now offers some college credit courses--and you don't need to pay the full fee until you finish the course (the only initial fee is $50 to verify identity and set you up for two proctored tests). I decided this was a good way to test the idea, and I signed up. Yay! Except... the course has a very strict schedule with assignments due at the end of each week.

And the course started last week.

I wasn't going to let go (especially after I paid up), so I spent the entire day yesterday going through unit one to complete all due tasks by the deadline. I finished at 2 am, when I required a calculator to tell me what was 2+3...

So far, so good--but I have a friend coming over to stay this week, and the week after I'm going to see my parents... So guess what I've been doing today? If you answered: "unit 2" you score a point!

Took me six hours to finish the unit, which isn't too bad as they estimate each week to require 20-25 hours of work (hahaha, no way). At this stage, I'm still not learning anything new, but it's a good refresher of Kepler's laws and orbital mechanics. I'd go faster if my math weren't so bad... I type out all the formulas in Excel spreadsheets, and it's really just basic algebra but I need to double check everything or I make mistakes. I still failed two questions (out of 57) so wasn't too happy about it (it's really basic stuff).

I still have the first review-test to do (open-book, but one try per question), but I'm too brain dead to do it now. Hope to finish tomorrow -- and then do another marathon after my friend leaves and before I go to see my parents.

Needless to say, word-count for the last two days was zero. I really should have planned this better...

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Dwelling in Possibility

Not so smart