- This topic has 170 replies, 46 voices, and was last updated 5 years ago by
.
- Posts
Generally that is true – having marked exam scripts for a professional body I know that markers want to get the jobdone as quickly as poss but to the standards required. There tends to be a bit of a tick-list for these sorts of things like referencing, so having established that the FS and graphs etc are up to date I would expect them to home in on the referencing: looking to see that they are placed in the right place in the text, that you haven’t copied & pasted long passages. They would then probably test some of them e.g see if they can locate them in the ref list and then try to retrieve the document using the URL or check via a search engine that the source exists -that type of thing. If they find this all fine then they would pass it I think.
However if the fail was for both Info gathering & referencing then they would also look at ‘breadth’ of sources to see it wasn’t all annual reports but normally this also means there was a fail for Evaluation too as the sources were too narrow to give a good adequate evaluation & analysis. As you passed E & A this is unlikely unless they mentioned ‘range of sources’ in their feedback. 🙂
So marker cannot fail me on word count 🙂 I’m not worried about any other reason :p
Well in my previous result they mentioned “Range of Sources” along with “Weak Reference” 🙁 , I am justing hoping that word count would not become a reason for failure this time, because I have adjusted my report to the best of my abilities and accordingly to the feedback. According to me the only reason for my can be this new World Count rule. 🙁
@sultanmahmood888 The word count is not in itself a cause of failure if you look at the Assessment Criteria. If it is exceeded the markers stop marking but if it is low then the E & A may not be covered adequately – that’s it! If you rectified the narrow range of sources problem and the referencing is adequate then there should be no problem 🙂
In theory the answer is yes, they could fail you based on the word count, as the minimum word count is 7,000 words for Period 28 onwards.
I have verified your query with my OBU contact and they said that your pass or fail will depend on the marker, who may have given benefit of the doubt for your resubmission.
Fingers crossed they did.
Anna
@Anna – low word count of itself is not a cause of failure -fact! It has been and still is quality of content -especially in the E&A – not quantity that counts. Too few words and the quality may be compromised.
Passing and failing always depends on the marker! but they have to apply the assessment criteria and there are none that relate just to word count. Too many words could technically be a fail for someone submitting in P28 onwards as OBU reserve the right to fail for exceeding the limit and that would most probably be on 5. Communication.
I have stated the correct position on this matter in my posts above 😀
As I stated above they failed me in references along with E&A giving the reason that I haven’t given any references in my ratio analysis due to which marker said the sources used in my analysis cannot be verified. Marker assumes that this happened because I used “Narrow Range of Sources”. In overall feedback marker said that the reason for my failure is referencing along with using few sources of information ( because I forgot to give any single reference in my entire ratio analysis, maker thinks my rch is weak) This time I have given references and Citation properly along with many new reasons for change in performance. Last time my words were 6000, this time 6500. According to me the only reason for my failure was reference, E&A section was failed because marker was unable to know which sources I used. This time marker cannot fail me on reference or Range of Sources that is something about which I am sure. Hower, on the basis of 500 words short, marker can say that my analysis is weak or not enough 🙁
These are the markers comments in my E&A
There are virtually no references in your analysis, particularly the ratio analysis (not even the annual reports) so what analysis you have provided cannot be identified to a source, and thus we cannot confirm your findings and conclusions. This also suggests that you have not researched a wider range of sources,
And this is what marker said in Reference section
Reasons for fail and advice for improvement:
As mentioned above, your referencing is very weak in large parts of the report and this must be strengthened.Hard to say then – I thought you had failed E &A first time but passed it next time round. If you have not passed E & A they will assess that section and form an opinion on the quality of your research and analysis as well as referencing – that’s how it works. But as @Anna says – fingers crossed!
@Trephena As per my answer to the student, I stated that he is NOT likely to fail, but that will all depend on the marker.
As per the OBU Project Checklist “Is your Research Report more than 7,000 words and your SLS more than 1800 words? Any submission under this word count is unlikely to pass.”
The students will just have to wait and see…hopefully the marker will be kind 🙂
Anna
@ Anna – it doesn’t actually say you will fail if your RAP is <7,000! The reason is because the quality of the E&A could still be sufficient to meet the all important Assessment Criteria. However there tends to be a correlation between word count and inadequate evaluation – but that is not always the case – hence the word ‘unlikely’ but not ‘WILL NOT PASS’
Regards
Trephena
Ok guys so now there are more chances of failure. You both know better than me but what I know is that marker will see whether I rectify my report according to the feedback given to me or not? I have done whatever marker said previously. I havent changed the organization and topic. If we change topic then our report is marked from scratch but if the topic is same then marker only checks his previous feedback and what student has done to make it right. Word count would be a problem if I would have changed the topic/ organization. I counted my words again, they were 6750( including data used in graphs/ charts). I hope marker understands that in resubmission we only have to do things told to us. 🙂
I know world count is not itself a reason of failure but with less words markers thinks that analysis is weak. In my case marker said in my E&A that I used narrow range of sources which I have corrected this time. I hpe marker pass me 🙁
@sultanmahmood888 My understanding is that the markers consult both the previous feedback sheet and your resubmission statement (and probably also refer to your previous submission). So they should be aware of the areas they need to look at. In their opinion if everything is satisfactory in those areas that were failed last time they will pass it (which is why in principle the word count is a red herring).
It is not so much a marker being ‘kind’ but more being fair and consistent (the degree is something to be earned not given just as a favour!). However if you read my FAQs you will see that every fail is reviewed and therefore anyone who is failed will be failed not just at the whim of one marker but on the decision made by both an OBU marker and an OBU moderator in accordance with the assessment criteria.
Go out have fun over the coming days and tell yourself in the worst case scenario it is not the end of the world. You could also treat yourself to something. I was convinced once that I had failed a critical exam so I bought myself a lovely dress and said it was ‘my never mind I’ve failed my exam dress’ that I would wear on the day the results came out to make myself feel good in spite of the disappointment. In the event I managed to pass so I got myself a nice dress and had a nice surprise on results day 😀
Please see the FAQs on our home page about word count – Appendices by definition do not form part of a report. For submission appendices must be loaded as a separate file(s) and provided the file size is within the upload limit you can put in whatever material is ancillary to your report.
To summarise the main point of discussion on being failed on word count:
This will only arise if you EXCEED the word count as OBU reserve the right to fail on these grounds. Normally this would be a fail on Communication but could also extend to Presentation of the project findings (you have not been concise or succinct enough) or possibly also Evaluation,Analysis & CONCLUSIONS. The reason for this is that if the word count is exceeded markers stop marking so your Conclusion section may not be marked. In effect you have not produced any Conclusions ( and you have to reach one) within the recognised word limit.
You CANNOT be failed directly for a low word count. However to do an appropriate evaluation & analysis this would normally take your report up to between 7,000 – 7,500. If your word count is less than this but your E&A meet the Assessment Criteria you would still pass but the chances are it will be inadequate. In this case you would fail on E&A and possibly also Information Gathering as those areas are likely to be insufficient in the depth required for a pass
You should be able to find them among our articles and other useful information via the link:
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.