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”Your analysis section is weak. You do address some of the changes in an attempt to explain them but neither in enough detail or in a coherent manner. You would be advised to start with an analysis of revenue and then look at profitability – even if this means removing some of the Balance sheet ratios. Even better would be to carry out your business analysis first as this will help inform your financial analysis. There are numerous examples of where improvements could be made but for instance p14Electricity tariff for industrial sector has had a massive boost between 25%-94.42% depending on their category and various slabs so there is 0% subsidy for the industrial sector. All electric supply companies are due to witness cut downs as subsidy initially approved was revoked, cut down PKR.396 billion in subsidy, and raised the tariff as well (Kiani, 2013). I really cannot follow what you have written or the meaning it has on profitability of GSK. You also need to utilise external sources better – much of your analysis relies upon GSK own accounts which are unlikely to be wholly objective. You need to use 3rd parties to corroborate your statements. You also need to make sure that you don’t repeat in your text what is shown in graphs, or simply rely on representing the various components of a ratio in different ways. e.g. changes in ROCE simply explained by % change in capital vs change in margin – try and look a little further even if explaining why liabilities have increased. On a positive note your business models are better (except again you rely on annual report, so the analysis is narrowly based) and your conclusion is also good ”
this was my part 3 markers feedback. I have understood my mistake in financial analysis, and that i have less third party information sources. i just want to know about the business analysis part.
I wanted some advice on my RAP.
I have failed RR only and passed SLS.
The marker’s concerns related to over emphasis in your work on the Value Chain Analysis and the work tends towards being ‘descriptive’.
Markers feedback –
To be successful for Topic 8 you may find it useful to commence Part 3 with your models (in particular I would recommend a SWOT and PEST(LE) analysis). This is because these models more obviously impact on the results and influence management strategic decisions. You are expected to comment on a number of significant financial ratios in your financial analysis including profitability and investor ratios (plus some examination of the company’s liquidity position and gearing and possibly ROCE and or ROA). By focusing on the models and reading the CEO and /or Directors’ reports in the financial statements you may be able to see how the SWOT and PEST factors have guided their decisions and the company’s direction and this then makes it easier to be able to comment on the significance of the actual financial results. Analysis goes beyond just commenting that one company has outperformed the other, it is about advancing reasons why this should be so and these reasons are normally tied to the management strategies. So by focusing on this aspect you are more likely to be able to produce a RAP containing the quality of evaluation required to fulfil the assessment criteria for a pass. An additional piece of advice is to spend time constructing graphs to illustrate the ratio trends and rather than merely talk about increases and decreases in the movements spend your time on the sort of analysis that I have outlined above. Graphs and appropriate charts are extremely useful in communicating information as the reader can absorb visual data far more readily than copious numbers in a table (or text). Some of the work that you have done (e.g. on revenue analysis) may be useful to supplement the above analysis but the explanations based on business performance are critical forapass. Ifyouhavesufficientwordswithinthewordcountlimitthenbyallmeansbringin your value chain analysis.Any suggestions on how can i bring it to a pass
Please what are the sort of things i am likely to read in the chairman statements to enable me to use my PEST and SWOT model.
@vatsalverma and @kedoskill – I suggest you read my article on Evaluation and Analysis on our homepage http://www.opentuition.com/obu
Although I couldn’t go into a great deal of detail I have tried to show how you you link strategies and factors from the business environment when evaluating performance.
Work that is ‘descriptive’ tends to merely describe the movements in trends e.g. the net profit has increased by 3% in 2015…. the current ratio has gone down to 1.03. Such comments do not EXPLAIN anything the marker couldn’t see for them selves from the graphs and other statements of ‘the obvious’ such as the gross profit margin has increased because sales have risen (or because costs have decreased) are likely to lead to a fai.
Instead research a bit deeper -what plans have the management outlined in their reports or highlighted on the investor relations website presentations? Maybe they mentioned new models and products, entering new markets or targeted marketing -all of these may account for increased sales. Inflation, currency rates and economic factors may have influenced costs and strategic decisions (which products to drop, which to push) and which markets to focus on. Liquidity is often linked to repayment of loans and new share issues and in turn raising capital may be linked to expansion plans. Commenting on these types of factors so that the marker feels you have thought about what lies behind the numbers is more likely to be passed as it adds value.
@kedoskill said:
Please where can I find the data to use for my pestle factors for topic 8research, this is the assignment.
Just look around, what political, economic, social etc factors effects the company
My RAP is passed but failed SLS with the follow comments:
Reasons for fail and advice for improvement:
Your emphasis in the Skills and Learning Statement is too descriptive of events, and shows too little evaluation of your self-development during the course of constructing your Research Report. You should consider your Strengths and Weaknesses which became apparent during the Research Project. Which parts of the Project came naturally to you? Why did you find these easy to accomplish – prior learning, practice, advice from teachers, colleagues, friends, relatives etc? Which parts did you find difficult? How did you manage to overcome these difficulties – internet research, text books, advice from teachers, colleagues, friends, relatives etc? Discussion based around your strengths and weaknesses should allow you to demonstrate evidence of self-reflection.Do i need mentor again?
hi,
can any1 please guide me what i need to do know, do i have to prepare whole report or just spread sheet, i have pass my all elements of rap except IT.marker comments
Reasons for fail and advice for improvement.
You have prepared a nicely written and well researched report. Well done for this. Please include a spreadsheet showing all your workings on resubmission and I am confident resubmission will be successful. Please note that you are currently over the word limit of 7,500. The word limit includes all words within the graphs and charts in your project. Please address this on resubmission as this could lead to another fail. Please also note that the annual report for 2015 is now available and you will need to update your report for these results on resubmission.You have do precisely what the marker has highlighted. You will need to update your report to ensure that it complies with the rule on the latest financial statements and also ensure that your Conclusion falls within the 7,500 word limit as well as uploading a spreadsheet. I suspect from the marker comments you have a few diagrams / tables that have been embedded as images (which the MS word count does not pick up) and the marker is warning you here to edit your work.
Although it would appear that you have only marginally failed, when you resubmit the next marker reads the previous feedback and if it has not been complied with fully, will be instructed to fail it again, so just do what they have told you to do if you want to pass!
thats mean i have to recalculate ratio and explain them again in my rap.
new spread sheet with full explaination from start again. Is that right?thats mean i have to recalculate ratio and explain them again in my rap.
new spread sheet with full explaination from start again. Is that right? or just ratio calculation with working on spread sheet.@Yulim have you submitted an excel sheet with financial statement extract and excel formulae?
according to my knowledge for T18 appendices is really not required, but a submitted excel sheet is a must, as it is stated in the info pack
@trephena said:
STUDENTS ARE ADVISED NOT TO SHARE WORK. You could find that someone else uses it, attempts to sell it, reproduces it and ultimately you could find yourself under investigation from the OBU Academic Conduct OfficeYOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
Is there any provision in the academic regulation of OBU that I can’t give my work to a friend for reference purposes?
Collusion.
Every session about one in 10 students end up as ACO cases. OBU produces lots of advice in the Information Pack and if you register as a mentee on their mentoring website (which is free of charge) there are a lot of resources there (as well as advice on here of course) so there should be no need to share work.
Not only is the student who uses the work of another student guilty of collusion so is the original student. I have heard of several retrospective investigations by the ACO – i.e. students who had passed previously can have the pass (and even the degree) withdrawn. So only a total fool would share their work.
hi,
> can you please explain me what i need to do for my Rap re submission as i failed my information technology question only, now they saying to show spread sheet working etc. Do i need to complete my RAP from zero i.e. explaining ratio in details or just spread sheet recalculation of ratio and working on spread sheet etc will do.
>
> marker comments are;> You have prepared a nicely written and well researched report. Well done for this. Please include a spreadsheet showing all your workings on resubmission and I am confident resubmission will be successful. Please note that you are currently over the word limit of 7,500. The word limit includes all words within the graphs and charts in your project. Please address this on resubmission as this could lead to another fail. Please also note that the annual report for 2015 is now available and you will need to update your report for these results on resubmission.
do i need to do whole rap again or just work sheet. please if any1 can help.Why are you asking this again when I answered it previously? (please see above)
Sorry for leaving comment in wrong topic! I was seeking advice for this issue. but It seems that I was misguided by my mentor because I realised that the uploading excel spreadsheet is compulsory for all the topics….OMG
Those are the only marker’s feedback that I’ve got now. Can I prepare the excel spreadsheet only and upload same rap with no change? I passed all the elements except those two criteria. (i passed sls&ppt also)-Hi, I failed my first attempt :(…….I have passed all 4 criteria of techinical and professional skills as well as 1 of the graduate skills which is ‘communication’.
I failed in IT skills and information gathering&reference criteria in graduation skills. The marker commented that “Please include extract of the financial statement in your appendices” as a feedback for info gathering&reference and also commented “You have not included a spreadsheet as required by the RAP guidelines. I would suggest that you take the financial information convert it into a spreadsheet and show the results and formulae used to calculate them” as the reason of failure in IT skills.
However I chose topic 18 which is marketing related and also I was guided by mentor that no appendices will be required to this kind of topic. Besides, I also provided sufficient tables and graphs in my analysis itself with full reference…..
Is it possible to appeal? If it is possible how can I appeal to obu? I’m seeking your kind advice. Thank you.
No you can’t just load a spreadsheet unless you want another fail. You have failed information gathering and referencing so you need to ensure that you have referenced correctly.
I can’t tell from the feedback but either this is rushed marking and the marker needed to elaborate further but didn’t, or the marker is being a nit-picker and instead of just failing you on IT decided to extend it. Either way you need to do everything you can to ensure you pass next time to avoid yet another resubmission fee (which will be GBP 250 for Period 34).
I would have expected for T18 that you would need to have some up to date information about trends in market share and possibly marketing costs to revenue (or as a percentage of profit) in your report. So you could produce these as graphs and upload the spreadsheet. This might require a little updating in the RAP where you comment on the significance of the latest figures. Upload the relevant financial information as a separate file. As a separate exercise I would also check the referencing to be on the safe side.
As well as checking plagiarism Turnitin also matches student work to the previous submission so a marker would be able to see immediately exactly how much new work you have added!!!
Hi Rizhawk,
Did the examiner really say that? What was the context? Some markers are known to make wry comments.
The Learning Luminarium
@learningluminarium said:
Hi Rizhawk,Did the examiner really say that? What was the context? Some markers are known to make wry comments.
The Learning Luminarium
Kind of that He mentioned my research was interesting and contained a range of high level of analysis but he couldn’t understand because it was too difficult and it took much time to understand for him/her so he/she didn’t bother to understand wasting his/her time. So he/she failed me.
Have anyone heard about successful academic appeal against failed grade in RAP?
Please also reply to my question..
I have passed SLS presentation but not the other part (Self reflection) i do not agree with examiner comments at all (i have posted on page number 7, please read) He said i have not mentioned my weakness, where i did mentioned like i was not aware about “reference, quantum of work,knowledge gather etc”
I am not sure that what I am going to write again in my SLS report as it is perfect ( i know i failed it but its just perfect)
My question is, do i need to pay mentor again and see him again when i will submit the new copy of SLS in November?
I am also planning for appeal, do you think it will help like i will submit my SLS and highlight the area which examiner says have not reflected in my SLS?
@rizhawk- On our end, we have not heard of any. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
What you have said about the examiner comments does seem quirky. Unless he means that you have unnecessarily complicated the report.
1) you can speak about other personal weaknesses like a lack of industry exposure, lack of work experience, lack of analytical skill set etc
2) no, you do not need to pay a mentor to see him again. But you do need him to sign off the report. Many do it for free for their students who submitted and failed.
3) yes, if you can, you should highlight in your appeal on the points that you would like to emphasize.
All the best,
The Learning Luminarium
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