What to do when your TMA comes back

In the Open University TMAs are not only designed for assessment, although most of them are graded and count towards your final continuous assessment score, working on an assignment or writing an essay is an active learning process from which you can gain a great deal.  It is important to maximise the value of this.

You are more likely to understand and retain material which you have used in an essay or in answering a question, and you may choose to re-use this material in the exam.

When tutors receive your TMAs we don’t just grade them, we are expected to give you feedback and advice which will help you to improve your performance.

To get full benefit from your TMA you’ll need to engage with my comments and respond to them.  If you get in the habit of doing this with all your TMAs you’ll learn far more from the whole exercise.

Tips for when you get your TMA back

• You’ll probably look first at the grade – most people do – and this may arouse some feelings;
• If you’ve done better than you expected, you’ll feel relieved.
• If it’s worse that you expected, you’ll feel disappointed.
• If it’s much lower than you anticipated, you might feel angry or insulted.

There’s nothing wrong with these feelings but they will affect your learning, so  put the TMA away until your next study session.

• Then allow yourself about 20 to 30 minutes to work on it.  Do this even if you’re now ready to move on to new work.
• Read the PT3 to check the main points I’ve made.
• Make yourself read through your assignment, stopping to read my comments.  Often I put these on a separate sheet at the back so you can refer to it as you read.
• Mark (in a different coloured pen) your responses to what I’ve written, anything you agree or disagree with, anything you don’t understand.
• When you’ve finished re-reading, think about the grade again.  If you’re still unhappy, make a note to ask me about it.
• Go back to the PT3 and re-read that.  Can you understand what I’m saying?
• On a separate sheet of paper write down one or two main points – pieces of advice, mistakes you see you made, things to remember – points which you need to bear in mind when you write your next TMA.
• Make a note of anything that still puzzles you, comments which confuse you, criticisms which you feel are unjustified etc.
• Contact me by email or telephone – but remember I no longer have a copy of your TMA to refer to, so it is better to email and include your essay as an attachment.

At the end of every TMA you should be able to identify at least one thing which will help you to improve your performance on future TMAs.  Then file your notes away ready for revision.

D.McGregor 2007