[bencollier49]

I think your quote of 40% isn't right. From elsewhere on the net:

"Former students of the OU appying for a Masters at Cambridge have a 23% chance of getting of an offer. That's a bit below average but shows it is more than possible."

The level 1 courses are less complex than first-year regular uni because they'll take anyone and they have to get them up to par. But it quickly scales up.

[arshadtskur]

In my experience Level 1 and 2 courses are not a match for normal Undergrad courses, but certainly the Level 3 courses are.

At level 2 maths I covered all the core subjects (i.e. differential equations, multi-variable calculus, fourier analysis, etc.) But each of these was just a chapter in the course (approx. 2 weeks of study). Whereas in normal undergrad they would be perhaps 8-10 weeks worth of lectures each.

But level 3 were certainly really great. The Quantum Mechanics covered everything up to perturbation theory, and the Cosmology module was very comprehensive and the Pure Maths courses covered Group Theory up to Sylow Theorems and Metric Spaces.

So, certainly if someone is considering a Maths course I would recommend the OU. But the cost is way too high for what you get.