The OU have now provided a breakdown of the exam part of the course result, so I can compare how I did against the other students taking the exam on the questions I chose. There were 863 of us who sat the exam, and all of us were required to complete 5 short answer questions (worth 25% of the total), and 3 long answer questions (each worth 25%) – 2 from part 2 and 1 from part 3.

Looking at the breakdown across all students, of the 863 who sat the exam, 3 people didn’t complete part 1 – the short answer questions where 8 words from a pre-set list were given and you had to write on 5 of them. I came down in the 70-84% grade, along with 166 other students.

For the long answer questions I chose a question on the behaviourist perspective to learning, one on the study of attention and perception, and one on how teaching language to apes has increased (or not) the understanding of its evolutionary basis.

The behaviourist perspective question was popular, with 590 students attempting it. It was a straightforward discussion of its contribution, which might explain its popularity. I got a 70-84% grade along with 211 other students.

The attention and perception question was less popular with only 335 students giving that a bash. I got another 70-84% grade, as did 83 other students.

The question on the evolutionary basis of language was the least popular of all with only 192 of us having a go. This one I got an 85-100% grade on, along with 13 other students, even though I had a minor panic with my pen running out of ink and not liking the new cartridge until I remembered the tweezers I had included in my pencil case for just such an eventuality (of the cartridge not being broken open properly).

Looking at the numbers, 10 students didn’t complete a question from the 3rd part of the exam, which is 25% gone right there. Time management presumably being an issue there.