I just thought that, since this seems to be an ongoing thread, I would throw in my two pennyworth.
I started the IHGS course a couple of years ago when I was working full time and in good health. I completed the first few lectures and found them interesting, relevant but demanding - the amount of work required would be, in my opinion, incompatible with a busy social life or undertaking other studies. At the time, the lecture notes were rather dated but Richard has said that they have been re-written. Personally, I didn't feel that the limited feedback that I received for my assignments was tremendously helpful but that's just my view. One just has to get on with it on one's own, read a lot reference material and try and find other individuals to chat with at a similar point in their studies. The study weekend in Canterbury was fun.
I actually found that doing things the hard way, like drawing your tree by hand was invaluable - I would equate it to learning to drive a car with manual gears rather than starting with an automatic! However, one of my reservations about the course was that there are modules which hold no interest for me personally, for example I don't have any ancestors or interest in Irish genealogy - I think I would have struggled to maintain my efforts there. The course is really designed as a high level qualification for the aspiring professional genealogist, which I had no pretensions about - being an academic, I wanted to learn the 'science' of genealogy thoroughly but I supposed I also wanted to pick and choose the subject areas, rather than do the whole lot.
Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with cancer a few months into the course and simply had to give it up. I wish that I had been able to continue as I am now (hopefully!) well again and, moreover, have retired. This course requires, determination, dedication, a great deal of time and passion. If you don't have these then it's probably not worth starting something that you might not finish!
Regards, Karen
