(Archive) Mentors and Mentoring

Take a look at the results forums as students sometimes mention their mentors there. The OBU Period 32 Results is currently available on this page and by using our search facility you can also find this for OBU Period 31 Results and Period 30 Results. Our recommended mentors for Period 33 based on proven past results is The Learning Luminarium.

Note: Whilst mentors may post answers to normal queries on our forum we do not allow mentors to use our forum for self-promotion and come on here just to solicit students. I will remove all posts from individuals who seek use Open Tuition as free platform to advertise their services. Legitimate mentors who supply their ACCA registration number and a copy of their OBU online mentoring certificate to us will be given the designation ‘mentor’ (instead of ‘participant’) but this does not imply an endorsement from us but simply means they are a listed mentor.

We reserve the right to check claims made by individuals regarding pass rates and grades.

The key to success is not who is mentoring you rather it is whether you are willing to give time to your desired topic and conduct thorough research.

trephena My ACCA Reg. No. is 2420376 and I am a registered mentor please could you tell me how to send you my certificate of course completion so that my designation is changed from participant to mentor?

@jamesstudent – a difficult one really as I do not like to recommend particular mentors (as you will see from the above post I refer students to the various OBU Results forums where students sometimes praise their mentors).

Depending on your budget you might consider The Learning Luminarium as they offer different packages to suit different student requirements and achieve good results. If you specifically want a UK mentor Kaplan and various ACCA tuition colleges offer mentoring services but they tend to be about the GBP 500. Anna Lishman is slightly cheaper, reputable and has a decent track record. If in Pakistan or you have a tighter budget try the Virtual Mentoring Network. These are suggestions and not intended to be an inclusive list asthere are others. Contact severa, l try to talk to them over Skype and then choose who you feel you could work with would be my recommendation.

Certainly I agree that to get a good grade it all comes down to the effort you put in. However for many students there is a basic lack of understanding of the overall requirements in producing a report that meets the assessment criteria and this is where a decent mentor comes in.

There is a huge difference between studying for exams and producing a coherent well presented report. Some students could help themselves by standing back from their work and reading it (or attempting to read it)objectively and applying a bit of common sense but unfortunately fail to realise this. If they recognised that there are so many figuress and percentages in their text that no-one could possibly assimilate and keep up with it, that it is a boring and going to be hard work to read and follow they could then do something about it. Instead the marker is faced with ‘death by numbers’ and the student is left with ‘F’ for fail and having to shell out a resubmission fee. If nothing else a decent mentor could save both the marker and the student this torment!

The arrangements and terms and conditions are something you agree with your mentor so it depends what you agreed with them whether you can get your money back. However it would be unreasonable for them to not return most of it. Sometimes they retain a small percentage to cover admin but more than 20% I would deem ‘unreasonable’

Getting an A grade is a big ask. Not impossible but not easy and no mentor can guarantee it It comes down to presenting your work well. If doing T8 you need to do an excellent business analysis which is used when analysing the financial results and focusing on just material figures (and not putting in lots of percentages in every sentence just for the sake of it). I keep telling students to let clear well labelled graphs do the basic talking – markers much prefer this. Also do your graphs so the trends read from left to right (earliest year on the left) as this accords with the way English is read so makes it easier for the marker to assimilate the information.

Read through our Top tips for the RAP forum topic and my articles on Evaluation + the OT Ultimate Guide to Referencing to avoid common pitfalls. See http://www.opentuition.com/obu for our articles and FAQs. If you are not doing T8 let me know which topic you have chosen and I can tailor some advice accordingly.

PS Yes marks will be rounded up for the average and the table in the Info Pack shows the matrix for the degree classifications.

The OBU Info Pack has nothing in it about changing mentor as the actual terms and conditions are a matter that are sorted out privately between mentor and student. Hopefully if you had a decent mentor they will understand your position and want the best for you.

One of the main issues with references particularly for the RAP is that the Uni needs to ascertain that you are not making up the data etc…. and yes each session apparently some students are referred to the ACO for doing precisely that.

If your employer would agree to letting you have some of the less sensitive documentation then this might overcome that problem and yes you do have to submit a consent form (again to help show your company is not fictitious as apparently markers check this and that’s how they work out that some are bogus – although it has been known for students to try to forge these letters too!). The University staff are bound by confidentiality agreements which means they must not divulge any company information and can only use it for marking purposes.

What you may be able to do is consult the staff at acca@brookes.ac.uk first who may then allow you to submit the work under an anonymous company name e.g. XYZ company and then you could supply documents with the name blanked out.

If none of this is possible then as you say you might need to choose a different topic. This probably narrows you down to one where you don’t need primary company data: usually Topics 8, 15, 17, 18 and 20. The good thing is that you are allowing yourself plenty of time as there is probably a correlation between the actual amount of planning, thought and work that goes into the RAP and the consequent grade.

Hitherto I have always recommended T17 (and have produced a forum topic especially on this) but my marker friend has said that this topic is being tightened up as too many people are taking a ‘tick-box approach’ to it so now few get an A. However they are about to change the T17 title to make it more dependent on a student looking at a company that has been affected by a major Corporate Governance scandals and include discussions on the issues and implications on stakeholders of this. It may be possible by adopting this sort of angle and introducing how the company approaches risk assessment to push the grade up I feel.

How do you feel about marketing? The trick here is to do a lot of background reading into marketing concepts and get a good grasp of those first and choose a high profile company. Am I right in thinking that from your standard of English you live in the UK? In which case you could go for a company well known in the UK. Segmentation of the market and diversification of the product portfolio is important (as it allows you to explore and discuss the issues and critical thought is crucial for an A). One possibility that springs to mind is SKY. It competes on several levels in a diversified market and has different revenue streams (subscribers and advertisers) so has to try to satisfy them while competing with other entertainment companies, internet providers and media channels with its various offerings – films, TV, news and sports channels and internet services. The main problem would probably be confining yourself to 7,500 words!

To get an A for Topic 8 it has to be exceptional and stand out from the ‘crowd’ – not impossible but it does mean that choice of company and planning are important.

Hi, can anybody tell me if there is a mentor who provide either free basic mentoring or under $150. I could only find a mentor with lowest charges of $350 and can’t afford it.

Your help is highly appreciated. Thank you.

i would also really appreciate if someone who has passed the RAP already can share some helping materials and guidance with me on topic 8. I am with a tight budget and would be obliged if someone could share some helpful information and insights.

Thank you.

Thank you for your response.

Well I will be submitting in Period 35 and am waiting for information pack release.

I have previous thesis writing experience so I only need helping material to guide me to success as I want to pass in the first attempt, due to sensitivity of funds. I am not asking for samples but materials that many mentors offer in their paid packages.

Will surely look into T17 forum to get help from fellow students and hope I will be able to find a mentor who is able to provide me with basic mentoring required to by the OBU for at least a cheap cost, if not free.

The thing is everyone has started charging more. learningluminarium is charging around GBP 460 for their basic package which was less than half about a year ago. Given that OBU might also increase their fee for period 35, I am not in a situation where I can choose from such luxurious services.

So if any mentor gets to read it, I will be obliged to hear from them. If someone knows about a mentor who charge within USD 100 for their basic services, kindly let me know.

I just don’t want to give up on this degree opportunity just because of funds. I hope someone will share some valuable information.

Thank you.

People may have posted complementary comments about their mentors on the results forum. Register as a student on the OBU mentoring website to find names of mentors you may email. Our recommended mentors based on all round value and experience are the Learning Luminarium (see our forum) that is not to say other mentors are not suitable and qualifies.

However ensure you choose wisely and beware anyone who offers to write the RAP for you. OBU will impose a a fail in every section and a penalty resubmission fee for anyone found guilty of Misconduct and even takes steps to have the degree withdrawn if they subsequently discover it was not your work. This can come as a nasty surprise and cause a lot of stress especially if employers check the degree credentials with the University and uncover this.

@TrephenaI – believe it is faster to reply you here. The two main mentors in OBUTraining is

Adeyemi Timothy

Obadina Adewunmi

I will like to know please if making such recommendations is not welcome as this was to give an awnser to @rajausama007

Thank you

REPLY FROM TREPHENA: Thank you for your information

The OT rules prohibit direct solicitation of students by anyone (including our recommended mentors, The Learning Luminarium). We welcome informed posts by legitimate good mentors at any time but students are recommended to approach the mentor about potential mentoring via the OBU BSc mentoring website in the first instance (which students may now do as you have now provided names). We offer a mentor on production of their OBU mentoring certificate (to my email address), the ‘Badge’ of mentor appended to the name of the mentor in place of ‘participant’ so this appears against their names in every post they make.

However as a website with its own costs we cannot provide free advertising space for people and the correct place for students to place recommendations is normally on our results forums (so the student post has been reposted there)

We reserve the right to verify pass rates claims made for any mentor
with OBU. This is because we are aware that false claims have been made in the past by unscrupulous individuals seeking to exploit students and we want to protect students from this. We will also check ACO records as recently we have heard of 6 students in Pakistan having degrees taken back as a consequence of the mentor providing templates /writing the RAPs and a similar number of students in Africa (whose mentor wrote work for them on fictitious companies) who now face a GBP 550 resubmission fee. In addition ACCA is informed about all these cases. As student futures are affected Opentuition takes its responsibilities to ensure that everyone can rely on high standards and ethics in our forum very seriously

@rajausama007/ – regarding your query about a suitable mentor for someone needing minimal support at a low fee -you could try Hamad Ahmed Quereshi who has posted answers on this forum previously as a mentor and operates under the umbrella of the Virtual Mentoring Network. When I last checked he had a reasonable pass rate and was reputable (the latter is very important as if you end up using a disreputable one then it might lead to an ACO referral and extra stress and cost for you).

Being on the OBU mentor list is no guarantee of expertise or integrity as OBU cannot monitor every mentor however it will remove those who have low pass rates and high Academic Conduct Office referral rates. Each session many mentors and their students are investigated by the ACO for breaching the University regulations.

In fact a few of the UK markers also may sometimes act as mentors for about GBP350 -400. They tend not to advertise their services and although for professional reasons they can never guarantee a pass (work will be marked anonymously a different marker) they obviously understand the assessment criteria inside out and therefore are the best mentor anyone could have.

It depends on your budget. Have you tried the Learning Luminarium? (After the student above asked for the OBU specific mentor details and I put him in touch with an OBU marker who mentors he messed them around so am reluctant to waste their and my time again….)