‘OBU Marker-Speak’ - What the Marker Feedback really meant…

@LearningLuminarium: Thank a lot for the advice, I have successfully insert harvard style into my ms word. And i might need to change company, but i don wish to because i have spent a lot of time on it, haiz, slides, chart ,etc... I will try to research more info but those bloomberg as you said, the information is simply limited, seriously, there are chart , and figures mainly, no big events happening. I truly understand choosing a famous company is important and also why students use their company even more preferably. I was tempted to sign up to the resubmission package u offered to avoid second failure but i don't think i can still use this company i think, and also not worth it because next submission is coming soon which is May1-25, any suggestions?

@learningluminarium my RR was on topic 20. here is the marker’s feedback. 1. understanding of accountancy model……pass 2. application of accountancy/business model….fail i used Gray, Owen & Adams seven position on CSR, and also used Johnson &Scholes ethical stance. REASONS FOR FAIL AND ADVISE FOR IMPROVEMENT: you hav focused too much on questionnaire (which is not very useful in this topic) and need to consider an analysis of the company’s actions in relation to appropriate models of ethical behaviour and CSR. you wud do well to use mendelow’s matrix and refer to Global Reporting Initiative as a framework to improve ur analysis of company actions and reporting. 3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions……….fail REASONS FOR FAIL the views of variety of informant does not tell us the impact of company CSR activities. u shd gather much more information abt the company’s activities in relation to stakeholder groups. given the company sector, what are key ethical and social issues they shd pay attention to? who is affected by these? what are the companies stated policies, and do their actions seem to accord with these? 1. does this mean i shd discard the questionnaire and all the analysis i did on it? 2. should i continue to use Gray, Owen & Adams seven position on CSR, and Johnson &Scholes ethical stance. then add mendelow’s matrix to it? Or shd i use only mendelow’s matrix? 3. how will i use Global Reporting Initiative? is it as a guide to see if the company’s actions are right? please give all the details here because i have no clue especially on number 3. pls reply

@unyimeedem Your fail sheet is very meaningful and the marker is trying his best to give you points on how to pass. Here are our suggestions. 1. does this mean i shd discard the questionnaire and all the analysis i did on it? As I am not exactly sure what questionnaire you did, I shall answer generally. You have two options. (1) Discard it. (2) Keep it but find a way to make it valuable and relevant to the report. For topic 20, I generally agree with the marker that it is not too useful. I would suggest discarding it. 2. should i continue to use Gray, Owen & Adams seven position on CSR, and Johnson &Scholes ethical stance. then add mendelow’s matrix to it? Or shd i use only mendelow’s matrix? Yes, you have to keep all the models and include Mendelow's Matrix (MM). The point to emphasize is how a company has a myriad of stakeholders. Afterall, anyone with an interest immediately becomes a stakeholder. However, you cant possibly comment on all of them. MM is a great tool for you to categorize the stakeholders and make a case on which stakeholders you should focus on. 3. how will i use Global Reporting Initiative? is it as a guide to see if the company’s actions are right? Yes. The Global Reporting Initiative provides high quality standards and best practices that companies should aspire to. It thus serves as a benchmark. By comparing your company against this benchmark, you are evaluating the company's quality of CSR. I trust these comments will be helpful to you. All the best, The Learning Luminarium Team

Could you please help me understand what i should do to pass my RR and SLS! Technical and Professional Skills 1. Understanding of accountancy/business models Pass 2. Application of accountancy/business models Pass 3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Even though you have put good effort in the project, there is still work to be done to achieve the pass standard in the following areas: Your profitability ratios are good enough to pass but other accounting ratios were often just largely descriptive, rather than analytical., by this I mean that you often described the changes without too much analysis to explain the changes. What is expected from the RAP for analysis is an exploration of the business decisions and strategies that have led to the change in ratios over the period under review and how these have been affected by competitors, the market, the economy and government policies. You need to focus on ratios that are specific to banking i.e. CAMELS. 4. Presentation of project findings Pass Overall Technical and Professional Skills Fail Graduate Skills 5. Communication Pass 6. Information gathering and Referencing Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: You have made a good start but you are let down somewhat by the tendency to patch together materials from other sources - when resubmitting make sure that you write the project in your own words rather than relying on cutting and pasting text from the internet: whilst I have interpreted this as very poor referencing in the current submission please be mindful that it could be likened to plagiarism which is a serious academic conduct issue. You must also make sure that the most up to date financial statements are used when resubmitting your work. You will need to undertake more information research in order to be in a position to undertake more in-depth analysis of the company. You need to expand your information sources and make sure that you reference these sources. 7. Information Technology Pass Overall Graduate Skills Fail Overall Research Report Assessment F Skills & Learning Statement Graduate Skills 8. Self Reflection Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Q3 is particularly weak on self-reflection: consider all the types of communication used- verbal, written, non-verbal and the different media, interpersonal opportunities and any setbacks. 9. Communication Skills (inc Presentation) Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: I really need to see more information in the presentation that clearly illustrates the key issues that you are going to address in the RAP. The presentation should provide the audience with an understanding of the outcomes and key findings of the investigation, it is not sufficient to merely present the graphs and charts with no commentary. On the slides for the SWOT you have too much information for the audience to digest effectively. You need to find a balance with graphs and bullet points to convey the main points and then you can expand on this verbally when you deliver the presentation. Skills and Learning Statement assessment Fail Would appreciate your help on this. I’m planning on resubmitting for the May 2015 session.

Dear Exnihil, We covered what description and analysis of ratios should look like. You could scroll upwards for that. It's fairly long and could benefit any individual who has comments on their analysis being "descriptive" rather than "analytical". As for ratios specific to banks, industries often have ratios that matter and are specific. Instead of using the usual generic ratios that ACCA has taught, you need to spend some times understanding what banking ratios are and how to analyse those. OBU generally frowns on direct quotations, and you should always attempt to write the ideas in your own words, while citing the appropriate sources you extracted the ideas from. Try to diversify your sources, and not rely solely on the annual reports for your reasons. The comments on your SLS and PPT appear fairly straight forward. I hope this helps you!

@LearningLuminarium ur response is very helpful. thanks

Hello there, i need some help with my OBU submission. Here are the details 1. Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Your previous marker advised you to look into the reasons why Honda were not performing as well as Indus. you have only added a little in this respect. For example 'The main reason for the gross loss of Honda Atlas in 2012 was due to a reduction in sales accompanied by increased cost of sales (HACPL Financial statements, 2013).' As below Analysis requires you to explore the reasons behind the change in the figures. 2. Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Even though you have put good effort in the resubmission and implemented marker suggestion, I have to fail you in this area. I agreed that your business analysis areas are good enough to pass. However apart from profitability ratios, your accounting ratios were often just largely descriptive, rather than analytical, by this I mean that you often described the changes without too much analysis to explain the changes. What is expected from the RAP for analysis is an exploration of the business decisions and strategies that have led to the change in ratios over the period under review and how these have been affected by competitors, the market, the economy and government policies.You have painted a broad picture with your business analysis, although your sources here could have been more extensive here, however your financial analysis is too insular and looking at changes in other aspects of the accounts to explain changes in ratios. You need to look outside the annual reports and see how the company is viewed in the wider world. 3. Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: You have passed SLS but I still think 27 slides is too much for the 15 minutes presentation. You should have summarised key points in business analysis areas slides to make it condense. And there are charts/graphs without including the commentary and I do not think it looked professional. Add bullet points to your graphs which you can expand on verbally when you deliver your presentation. Consider the audience and include information most relevant to them, this may mean that you do not include all of your business models

The comments from the marker are as follows: Research Report Technical and Professional Skills 1. Understanding of accountancy/business models (Fail) Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Your project is of an extremely good standard. It is interesting and very professionally written and presented. Well done. However, there is an absence of referencing within your financial and business analysis. As a result, I am unable to tell where your information has come from, and as such establish whether you have provided an unbiased piece of work using a well balanced range of sources. This is a real shame, but I cannot establish whether your project is heavily dependent on the annual report of the company as you simply have not provided enough company specific references within your report. Without referencing there is no evidence of research which has been conducted, and as such you cannot get credit for that research. 2. Application of accountancy/business models (Pass) 3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions (Fail) Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: As above, without referencing it is not possible to verify the standard of your research, and therefore evaluation. Please note that if your project is heavily reliant on the annual report of the company, it will fail again on this basis. You need to ensure that you have used other sources external to company produced documentation. 4. Presentation of project findings (Pass) Overall Technical and Professional Skills(Fail) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Graduate Skills 5. Communication (Pass) 6. Information gathering and Referencing (Fail) Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: As above, referencing is an issue. There are a huge number of examples I could give, but I will name a few in order to hopefully set you on the right track. On page 11, you show various sources of revenue. Where have these figures come from? Page 12, you state; "Because the company seized the full-services development opportunities through adopting the 3G smart-phone-led strategy, placing equal emphasis on core single products and integrated products, and accelerating the promotion of emerging businesses and applications." Where does this information come from? Page 13, you state; "The increase in 2012 was mainly attributable to the corresponding increase in CDMA network capacity lease fee and operating and maintenance expenses along with the business development, while the decrease in 2013 was resulting from the CDMA network acquisition took place in 2012." Again, what information source have you used here? 7. Information Technology (Pass) Overall Graduate Skills (Fail) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall Research Report Assessment (F) Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Please do not feel too disheartened. Other than referencing, your project is of a passable standard (assuming you have used a reasonable range of sources for your analysis). Please follow the guidance as above and I am confident that resubmission will be successful. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions: 1. I wonder whether I have to update the financial statements within my paper (I used 2011, 2012, 2013 annual financial reports)? or what I have to do now is only to give more specific referencing? 2. If I have to update the financial statements and 2014 annual financial report has not been released except 2014 interim report, what are the most recent financial statements that can be used in re-submission? (201206, 201306, 201406)??? Thanks a lot for your help! Will

@will1982 - The marker has given you some good feedback there and it looks to me as if they would have liked to have passed your report but without adequate referencing that was just not possible. With referencing you have to remember that the statements you make must show a reference to prove validity (e.g. without this you could have made the whole thing up - hypothetically!) So although it may not come naturally to you when you write reports for work, when you write anything academic you MUST show where you have acquired the information. Remember though that you should use your own words to explain things as it is not good academic practice to copy and paste chunks of someone's work and use their words EVEN if you are showing where it has come from (I suspect that is why they failed you on understanding e.g. you did not demonstrate that you understood what you were writing as you used someone else's words - and make no mistake the electronic checking system will identify sources for the marker so they know when they aren't the student's original words). To answer your questions: 1. You need to spend time going through your work thoroughly and inserting intext references and listing these fully in your reference list (see the Harvard Referencing forum as I really cannot repeat all the requirements here) 2. You have to use the latest audited annual report and the rules on this are on p.39 of the Information Pack. If you don't you can be failed but you are not expected to use interim statements so the reports you have listed are the correct ones for P30.

@zoraiz - what the marker is telling you is that they want researched reasons that go beyond just stating obvious differences in the companies' performances. So what you need to do is integrate your SWOT and PESTLE into your financial analysis much better e.g. how have the companies' managers built on the identified strengths and seized opportunities? Also read the CEO and Directors reports for the last few years and consider the strategies and decisions they have taken and how these have impacted on the results. Particularly try to look at the 3 years as a continuous cycle rather than 3 separate years as decisions are not made on the first day of each financial year and their impact ends on the last day - they overlap years, there are time lags etc. Read my article on Evaluation as I demonstrate this strategic decision and SWOT approach https://opentuition.com/obu/tackle-evaluation-analysis-rap-part-1/ Also go to page 3 of this forum and scroll up to the reply by The Learning Luminarium dated 25 March 2015 to @Sartl as that also gives some excellent advice

Dear @trephena My marker's overall Research Report Assessment comments were as follows: Research Report Assessment F Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: You are close to a pass standard - in your re-submission if you improve your referencing (and update your RAP with the latest accounts if available) you have a very good chance of success. I have been failed on the 'Information gathering and Referencing' and 'Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions' parts both due to 'poor referencing', 'many claims and facts given that are not attributed' as suggested by the marker. I understand why I failed the Information gathering and referencing part. But I failed the 'Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions' part too and this has been only because the marker could not ascertain if it was my work which was assessed due to the poor referencing. According to the marker's comments, does this mean that my analysis and evaluation was lacking in content or simply it was poorly referenced? Do I have to change the content or simply I reference the sources properly? I do not intend to alter the content because the annual reports for the next financial period has not yet been published. Thank you

@rs504 - It would appear that really you failed on poor referencing. The reason this has impacted on Evaluation is that the marker wanted to know what you had worked out for yourself through research and what you were citing from other people's work. Through lack of referencing they could not distinguish what were your ideas and what was being cited. The solution to this problem is to ensure that every fact is accompanied by a reference to give it validity (e.g. to show it is not made-up) and that all sources are shown in the text (do not put references at the end of the paragraph - a common student mistake) - you need to identify exactly what is being referenced. It is important that you acknowledge all authors and sources including where the information in any graphs and charts has come from. Read Apppendix 3 on referencing. (One other thing to avoid is too many instances of direct citation even if they are all referenced - markers want you to paraphrase rather than repeat things like a parrot!) So it may not be necessary to amend the content itself - just show where it has come from (note though of course if you are doing Topic 8, ensure that you have used the latest financial statements available and updated your comments accordingly - see p.39 of the Information Pack). If you do this adequately to the satisfaction of the next marker you should pass. Good luck! :-D

@hannah0725 1. First please read my reply to rs504 as the problem appears to be similar in principle. It is a bit of problem when you 'know something' and are not really citing anyone. In this instance you could perhaps include your name as the reference e.g.(Fernandez, n.d.) and in the Reference list put Fernandez Maria (n.d.) - Author's own knowledge based on x years working for the XYZ. If you are citing your boss you could put e.g. Di Rossini (n.d.) and Di Rossini Marco - Chief Operating Officer XYZ 2012-2015 BUT try to keep these references to the minimum as they are not verifiable and therefore if used to excess, compromise the objectivity of your RAP. As many external sources as possible should be included to compensate for this weakness. 2. I included this in our FAQs which can be found if you go to our homepage: www.opentuition.com/obu I think @bassaniobroke and I went into this sometime back in Top Tips for the RAP so read through that forum topic. The rule of thumb is if something can be presented visually in a graph or chart then this is far, far better than using figures in the text. Remember a good chart shows the position so you don't need to tell the reader something they can already see for themselves (and besides lots of figures are so boring and very difficult to assimilate). You asked for my recommendation - then here it is - ditch all those dreadful unnecessary figures and give the marker nice clear graphs instead!!! 3. I suspect it is lack of referencing rather than the actual quality of them. Remember the marker is in a difficult position - in the RAP students are making statements and expecting them to be believed. Where there are references the marker can check these by tracking down the documents. You are asking the marker to take your comments on trust and although they will accept to a point that you are not making the whole thing up, if there are few external references in the world of academia this is considered to be poor academic practice..... In a nutshell markers feel happier if there is plenty of 'independent' referencing and they love graphs and charts PS Read my article on Evaluation on our homepage as your Evaluation should not be just about figures and movements in the trends!

@trephena Thank you very much for your valuable advice. Indeed, I didn't reference any graph and chart. Now, I understand how to do it as I went through the forums. I had done my RAP based on financial statements of year ended 31 December 2011, 2012 and 2013. By now, the one for 2014 has not yet been published and is expected to be published only at the end of April, this month, so I do not intend to use it as I am willing to submit next month, in May. I have another question please concerning my marker's comment on the presentation part of the SLS: 9. Communication Skills (inc Presentation) Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Your PowerPoint presentation is too long - at 32 slides this could not be delivered in the required 15 minutes., You need to summarise and edit the information presented. Your presentation style is very good - it is just too long. I am now aware by reading through your forums that the slides should be around 15. I am currently trying to summarise it. But should the presentation be delivered again to my mentor and other students?

@rd504 - Good as recognising and identifying your own errors is important so that you can go about rectifying them. I suggest that you read my article on the Resubmission Statement - which can be found via our homepage www.opentuition.com/obu - and set out yours as students seem to overlook just how useful in terms of passing it is to appreciate what they did wrong in the first place. There is this 'myth' that the Presentation should consist of 15 slides (see the comments made by John Playle, the OBU Chief Moderator in the Information Pack). This is a fallacy - the marker has told you that your Presentation is too long. A pass depends on content, the appropriateness of this, whether the Information is clear and whether it can all be presented EFFECTIVELY in the 15 mins.alllotted. 15 slides may or may not be appropriate. However if slides contain lots of text rather than bullet points, the emphasis is on Parts 1 & 2 rather than Part 3 (the actual findings), too many graphs are crammed on to them rather than using separate slides then it would still be likely to fail. Whereas a Presentation that used 20 slides but had clear concise text and good meaningful charts/graphs that focused on delivering the key points of the findings would be almost certain to pass. You should re-present your Presentation to your mentor but try it out first on a family member or friend. If they start yawning then it is a clear sign you are not making an effective Presentation. Remember you do not have to discuss each and every ratio - you should be reporting on the important things you found out about the company's performance - the exciting parts relating to management decisions and how SWOT/PEST factors influenced the results not sending someone to sleep by telling them that debtor days has changed from 63 to 64 days etc.

Hi Trephena, I failed the RAP with the following feedback for referencing: "As above, referencing needs to be improved. All information, both financial and non financial, needs to be referenced. For example, on page 15 you state; "During 2011, GPM had decreased compared to the previous year (50.06%), which was due to the quick rise of imported raw materials’ price whereas finished product’s price cannot increase accordingly. " Where has this information come from? " So I don't know if it means my number (50.06%) or the explanation (quick rise of imported raw materials' price) must the referenced here. The number was calculated due to financial statements of the company and submited as an excel sheet along with my report. And as you said, all the graphs and charts must be referenced. So if I draw a graph and say "source: annual report .." I'm good to use the numbers on that graph in my writing below or do I have to reference them again? Thank you. I really appreciate your answer.

@Ha - The marker would have been referring to your explanation - they want to know how you know this. Normally as long as the graphs and charts are referenced and it is clear that the appendices come from the annual report, figures in themselves from the annual reports do not need to be referenced again in the text

esearch Report Technical and Professional Skills 1. Understanding of accountancy/business models Pass 2. Application of accountancy/business models Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Your SWOT analysis is reasonable however your 5 forces analysis needs some evidence of wider reading with referencing of the statements you are making 3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Your financial analysis is weak as you are not exploring the business decisions and strategies of the company that have led to the results and changes in ratios. You are either making unreferenced statements or providing a statement that is describing the change rather than explaining the change. For instance you say "One reason for increasing Turnover is that Lucky Cement Ltd exports its products from Pakistan to different countries and value of Pakistan Rupees is depreciating, that’s why sales are increasing" You offer two reasons for the increase in sales, you must have sourced this from somewhere yet you are not providing referenced evidence of the sources you are using. There is no need to explore the change in individual costs and you need to focus on sources for this analysis for a greater extent outside the annual report. 4. Presentation of project findings Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: You need to look at your ethics section as the way it reads at the moment does not make sense. You need more focus on analysis and less on description. Room for this can be got by using your full 7500 word analysis and cutting down on the description of the calculation of each individual ratio. Such knowledge is given at this level what is needed is focus on ratio analysis as a model. Your research questions are too many at the moment, you need to focus on three or four and then address these in your conclusion and from your conclusion your recommendations should fall out. There is no such link with your recommendations at the moment. It would also be worthwhile to get your RAP proofread before submission so that it reads in a cohesive manner. Overall Technical and Professional Skills Fail Graduate Skills 5. Communication Pass 6. Information gathering and Referencing Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: As pointed out above you need more sources to improve your 5 Forces analysis and your financial analysis. The sources need to extend beyond the annual report to offer an outside focus to performance. Your parts 1 and 2 also need to be referenced more widely to evidence the reading that you have done 7. Information Technology Pass Overall Graduate Skills Fail Overall Research Report Assessment F Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: You have done a lot of work on your RAP however there are weaknesses there that you need to correct if you are going to pass. I would advise consult the RAP information pack for guidance before you resubmit and do remember any further submission must be updated for the latest published results Skills & Learning Statement Graduate Skills 8. Self Reflection Pass 9. Communication Skills (inc Presentation) Pass Skills and Learning Statement assessment Pass Overall Overall RAP Result F Moderator Comments Moderator agrees with marker comments. You have made a good start and there is much to commend here. In addition to the comments raised above please ensure that the most up to date financial statements are used when resubmitting your work.

@Mohsin (2) Porters 5 F is not the best of models to use for T8. I think you would be better advised to do a PEST(LE) Analysis. However whatever you choose it needs to be referenced and applied to your company (3) I suggest that you read my article on Evaluation & Analysis which can be found via our homepage www.opentuition.com/obu where you will also find an article on the Resubmission statement - both will be useful to you. One of your main problems is lack of referencing. If you do not reference adequately or appropriately then there is no validity to your comments (i.e. they could have all been made up!). Another reason you failed is because you seem to have mostly talked about the differences in the trends rather than explaining what had caused those trends in the first place. As the marker says the solution is to do wider reading - trade journals and articles from the business press. Regarding management decisions it is crucial that you read the CEO and directors reports then you can see how the SWOT and PESTLE have affected the direction of the company (4) It sounds as though your RAP did not 'hang together' very well and did not come over as a coherent piece of work. I was once told by a senior examiner that if she struggled to make sense of something then this must be a fail as obviously the work wasn't clear in the first place.... I suppose what she was saying was that a student shouldn't frustrate the marker. The comment about the statement not making sense is interesting. British universities have a problem with foreign students rewording others' work using a thesaurus or dictionary and then submitting it as their own. I don't know if this is what you did but you need to appreciate that unless you are a native speaker some rewording like this can produce very strange results and often is obvious to lecturers (a) because it results in nonsense and/or pompous statements and (b) the electronic checking system (Turnitin) will often still pick out the rest of the text and show the actual words that have been changed (so the only one being fooled is the student!). Turnitin is extremely powerful and I understand that where the work was previously submitted to the same university the marker can even call up the original work electronically and compare the two!!!! (I suspect that is what has happened to some of the students on here whose work has been referred to the ACO). If the ethics statement itself has been plagiarised/reworded then the marker would not have been impressed :-( (6) As the marker says you need to research and read wider and REFERENCE. You cannot pass T8 by using the annual reports alone. Evaluation is about balance so you need to demonstrate that you have consulted other business sources PS I am female!!!!

Hi All, I need help understanding the below feedback from examiner. Can someone please help ' it is inappropriate to include web addresses as a reference please refer to the RAP guidelines and use Harvard referencing consistently'

@dayojaiye - What the marker was saying is that you should not include URLs and website addresses in the body of your report they do not want to see things like e.g. www.telegraph.co.uk/ or https://.thecorporatescandalreader.com/forms/04d%20windsor.pdf in the body of your text instead what they want to see is (Telegraph, 2014) or (Windsor, 2004) in your text and then the full details including the website address in the Reference list. So with Windsor above this would appear in the list as: Windsor D (2004). Business Ethics at The ‘‘Crooked E." Enron, Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications, pp 659-687, New York Foundation Press. available at https://thecorporatescandalreader.com/forms/04d%20windsor.pdf

@trephena - thank you very much.

I failed No.3:Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions. Marker's comments: "The standard of your work is on the right lines to be successful, but you need to put right certain things to enjoy full success. The analysis would improve if your looked at something rather than just Company and their competitors Annual Reports. This is a good start, but you need to gain a full picture by gathering additional viewpoints on the performance of the two companies to further underline the analysis. Your conclusion would also benefit from picking up your original stated Project Objectives and saying whether they were fully or partially achieved. " My project used Porter's 5 forces and benchmarking as business analysis tools. Can anyone help to explain the marker's comment more precisely? I planning to use one more model -PESTEL to re-submit my project. Do i need to amend the Part 1 and Part 2 of my RAP to reflect the PESTEL inclusion? eg. Business models used...

@milan204452 - In a nutshell your report lacked balance - you did not use sufficient sources that were outside the company. To get a pass you have to demonstrate 'critical thought' in your evaluation and this involves researching beyond the company accounts. I have written a brief article on Evaluation & Analysis on our homepage so take a look www.opentuition.com/obu I have also suggest that you read 'The Resubmission Statement - how a good one is your key to success' (a link to this is also on the homepage) Regarding Porter's 5 Fs - as regulars to these forums will know I am not a great fan as I don't think it really helps in the context of T8 - a good SWOT and PESTLE are far more useful (and you will see how I suggest these are used in your work in the E & A article) Conclusions need to summarise your principal findings which in turn should be linked to your initial objectives.

3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: You have made a good start to your project. You have performed some interesting research on the company and industry. However, your financial analysis, particularly looking at your profitability ratios, feels rushed. There is some good research here, but a lack of explanation to how this research fits with the movements in ratios and balances. For example, looking on page 21, you analyse gross profit margin. You state reasons as to why there has been a fall between 2013 and 2014. What about the increase between 2012 to 2013? Then, looking at net profit margin on the next page, your analysis is extremely brief. I can see that the major reason for the changes in net profit margin are the impairment charges. Firstly, these appear significant and need more explanation. Secondly, what about other reasons? What happens to the results if the impairment is removed? There are good elements of your business models, but I would suggest cutting down on the number of models you have used, and expanding on what you have done using one or two models. Your report would be significantly improved with the inclusion of a discussion of limitations of financial and business models. You introduce a swot analysis for BHP yet have not used one for RT, nor have you explained how it concept behind it. 4. Presentation of project findings Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Please avoid putting "extracts" from financial statements, and ratio calculations in your report. They are already in the appendix. You only need to show the ratios (preferably in graphical form) in the report. Your analysis from p22 to p27 is very difficult to follow as it is in essence a string of data changes. This you should be illustrating in a graph and leaving the text to properly explain what has occurred. 6. Information gathering and Referencing Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Please ensure the annual report is included in your list of references, plus cited within your report as appropriate (rather than referencing to appendix). All sources of information, both financial and non financial, should be referenced. Research Report Assessment F Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Please do not feel too disheartened. You have made a good start on your project and you do not need to make significant changes in order to achieve a pass mark. Please update for latest financial statements if these are available on resubmission. Questions: I think i know what to do for item 3 & 4 as its clear cut enough.but any inputs will be greatly appreciated. Item 6 is where i need someone to give me an insight on this comment.I was advised that the pdf of the FS/AR is not needed (i got bad advice i think) but I did extract out information from the AR.Could the marker be referring to including the AR and also to cite within the report,i.e copy and paste a paragraph?? or did he mean something else? Overall it seems that my RAP lacks depth,details and relevancy in some ares.Shouldn't be too hard to make the amendments, but i prefer to be sure. Many thanks for your contributions!

Hi @Hahn, Usually the AR/FS are presented in an Excel sheet, with the number transferred onto a spreadsheet. This therefore means that any PDF attachment or snippets of the FS isn't necessary wtihin the RR. Any presentation of ratios is done via a graph, and not in a tabular format, or worse still, a screenshot of the PDF page. You need not demonstrate how your ratios are calculated. That can be seen in your Spreadsheet in your Appendix. I do agree that your failsheet looks fine actually. It shouldn't be too difficult to obtain the depth the marker wants. Just remember: 1) Are the factors given SIGNIFICANT enough to explain the trends? 2) Are these factors one-off or persistent? Why? 3) If they are one-off, how would the underlying performance be when these one-off impacts have been adjusted? (What we are trying to do here is to find out if the underlying business operations are stable)

"You fail in this section as your RAP is mostly narrative in nature. For example on page 28 you state “The CAR of the banks had been higher than the statutory requirement, throughout the three year period. “The capital adequacy ratios of the sector remained above the required minimum levels although they decreased due to the growth of risk weighted assets.” You do not however explain why there was a growth in risk weighted assets. You must go further than simply state that a ratio or financial measure has changed. You must look at the financial and business reasons behind that change and then discuss their implications on the business. On p29 you state that you cannot analyse ratios due to insufficiency of information. This i am surprised about as the bank is a quoted company. If it is really true then you need to reassess whether it is a suitable subject for your report." This was the marker comment I received for failing the RAP. Could you please clarify as to what does he mean by "Change the subject"? Does he require me to change the company under consideration or just that particular ratio? P.S- The ratio he is refering to is Non performing loan ratio (Bank) where such information are confidential for the Bank

Hi @maathangi, Basically you MUST provide some brief explanation as to why NPL rose or fell. In this instance, the broad economic conditions, the change in interest rates, the strength of the property resale market (for example) are all good reasons as to why NPL rose or fell. These are also commonly presented in articles detailing the impact on banking balance sheets and non-performing loans. You must provide some explanation as to the general trend of these ratios. Stating that you could not obtain the information is in general, a very bad idea. By the "subject", he did mean that you should consider changing the company under consideration if the lack of information is pervasive.

Hi, I failed the Rap at criteria No. 3 and 6, could you please help, thank you so much. 3. Evaluation of information, analysis and conclusions Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: I thought your work was very good as far as it went but it didn't quite cover everything - especially when it came to the second half of the topic title. Current Assets have grown by 20m from 2013 to 2014 however Current Liabilities have increased by less than 8m. The remainder of this difference appears to have come from retentions of profit and other reserves. This would seem to be a significant funding policy by the company to fund current assets and working capital from shareholder equity and you should explore this and its impact on shareholders. You mention that shareholders have been complaining about dividend policy in your Conclusion but really needed to develop and comment on this more fully in your analysis. Perhaps this was something that you could have brought up in your interview questions? Include the references and interview questions in appendices and this will give over 300 words to focus on improving this aspect of your analysis. Please ensure that your analysis is properly referenced, including references to corporate materials. 6. Information gathering and Referencing Fail Reasons for fail and advice for improvement: Please read Appendix 3 of the Information Pack as your work needs to be referenced more thoroughly. You need to identify all sources in the body of your text where you are using the work, ideas and thoughts of others (including where the information in the graphs and tables has come from). Every statement made as a fact needs to be supported by a reference to show its validity. Your reference list needs to list the details of all sources (including the annual report) and the identifying designator in both needs to be the same to allow the reader to find the items referenced quickly. Where the source was personal information given to you via the interviews you need to identify this. Overall RAP Result F Moderator Comments Moderator agrees with marker comments. You have made a good start. The marker has provided clear feedback in terms of how to improve your project so please ensure that you go through these systematically to avoid disappointment in the future. Please also ensure that the most up to date financial statements are used when re-submitting your work.

@rong219 - There are some positives in your feedback – they liked how you had approached your topic and presented your work but seems they felt that you just weren’t ‘digging’ quite deep enough into what was going on especially with regard to cash flows and investment policies and strategies. The key to passing is not just to state the obvious - the marker expects you to research to fill the gaps from what they can see for themselves. Just bringing up something new in the Conclusion is not a good idea as it left them with questions that are unanswered in your work. I think your marker is telling you to look at the funding policies in greater deal. They obviously felt that the growth in current assets was highly significant and the difference between that and the current liabilities (effectively the working capital) had not been explored adequately. In essence they seem to be curious about this and some comment you included about dividend policy. Possibly they wondered if cash reserves and liquid investments were being accumulated in readiness for expansion or whether the company was holding levels of current assets that were too high and not using its working capital effectively and current assets effectively. In your RAP you have to present information that goes beyond what the markers can see for themselves, you have to explain anomalies like this. So you need to investigate this so that you can explain what is going on. I suggest that you use business articles and the like from business pages of the press and reliable websites and analyst type reports that show what the company plans are or read the CEO/directors’ reports that may state what they intend to do in terms of funding and ‘growing’ the business. Also follow up on the shareholders attitudes and opinions. A fail in Section 6 and the marker’s comments show they were very unhappy with the standard of your referencing. I have written a 3 part article on this, so I advise you to look at our homepage www.opentuition.com/obu to find it and read it all. Apply the Golden Rules I set out and consult our Referencing forum to find hints and tips on problem areas and then you should be better equipped to do adequate referencing. You will also have to include details of the personal interviews in your appendices and reference your interviews to these. Good luck :-)