Well, contrary to everything I have said before about not continuing on with my OU studies, I have had a change of heart and have decided to see if I can finish my BSc honours maths degree that I signed up for in 2009. Why this change? Well, I realise that I do have a hankering to do something in maths and I may regret it in the future if I don't try and see how far I can get. I also realise that getting ends to meet from my current work in photography is getting harder and harder and so eventually I am going to have to do something else anyway. Coming back from a week in Berlin, I realised that I just have to give it a go, regardless of the potential difficulties of approaching the time of life when most people are thinking of retirement! Still, the government wants us all to work after retirement age, so I will be trying this out. I just hope the brain cells don't wear out before I get to the point where I can contribute something to this subject.
So having made the decision, it's all kind of exciting and daunting at the same time. The first thing is to concentrate on this degree which, due to the reorganisation of these qualifications, I now have to finish by the 31/12/17. This gives me four years and, at 60 points a year, I hope to get the additional 240 points I need to pass (I already have 120 points from MST121, MS221 and M208). There are now two routes a student can follow in this degree. Route A means following what was originally prescribed and, for me, at level 2 that would mean doing the 60 point 'Mathematical methods and models' (MST209) and the 10 point summer school 'Mathematical modelling' (MSXR209). For a number of reasons, I am going to plump for route B, which means doing the new 60 point 'Mathematical methods and models' (MST210) which does not require the summer school any more. However, this does mean that I will have to wait until October 2014 to start this course and it will also mean that I will have to do the new 30 point level 1 course 'Introducing statistics' (M140).
In the mean time I need to get another 60 points under my belt starting this October and I think the best option for me having only done M208 so far, is to do the level 3 30 point courses 'Groups and Geometry' (M336) and 'Number theory and mathematical logic' (M381). This is the final presentation of these two courses before they are replaced by 'Further pure mathematics' (M303). This new course will be available from 2014 and will be an amalgamated version of M336, M381 and the now extinct 'Topology' course (M338). I think I will be pursuing a more pure maths direction in my further studies and number theory is already something I think would like to specialise in, so it all makes good sense.
As for the remaining 90 points, I have only to do 60 more points at level 3 and 30 points from a free choice of OU modules. However, I agree with Chris that I want to squeeze in the level 3 30 point 'Complex Analysis' (M337) and at the moment this is presented on alternate years (I believe), though this could change. I expect I want to get a good grounding in both pure and applied maths in case this comes in useful, so a couple of level 3 30 point applied courses may be an option.
In the mean time it is eyes down again and time to start getting ahead to alleviate future stresses of workload. So I have already got hold of some of the books for the 'Number theory and mathematical logic' course and have started on the first book. It looks like some of this will already be covered by my reading of John Stillwell's book, which I am still making some progress on, so that's all well and good.
