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The clue here is that it says ‘BEFORE you start your RAP’. The idea behind this is to make you think realistically about time management before you start. The latter is something that can discuss in your SLS statement. By formulating a realistic plan for your work you will help avoid stress by realising that the work needs to be carried out regularly and that by putting effort in at the beginning you will spare yourself the experience of many – running out of time as the submission window close approaches and rushing your work.
I would suggest that you do a sort of Gantt chart so that you can schedule work and social commitments alongside any exams and study periods so that you can see exactly what time is available to do the work. This chart would then allow you to monitor your progress week by week and if necessary re-arrange your plans or defer to the next submission period.
As such the section you have cited does not feature in the report itself but is sensible guidance and additionally planning is something you could mention in your SLS
How to resubmit OBU through website. Last time I created an OBU account. Do I need to resubmit my OBU into that account or I have to create a new OBU account.
It is a case of seeing if your account works. There was a webinar a week or two ago about the submission process so if you go to the University mentoring website you may find more up to date and reliable info there as it tends to change from period to period
The Info Pack is now available on ACCA global and contains some very important changes to both some of the topic titles and the SLS
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Hello,
I am a newcomer and this is my first attempt at OBU RAP.
I have started research for Topic 8 but with a difficulty.For several industry sectors, I am struggling to find an independent Public UK company.
All companies I have looked at are part of a group, meaning their annual financial statements are consolidated, with no financial details/breakdown of the associate company I am interested in.For example; In hospitality all the main hotels are part of a Group (some with their parent company based in the U.S or Europe).
Same with the Construction industry, bookselling industry etc.a) Please how do I navigate this problem of consolidated financial statements?
b) Is there any other way I can find out the financial details / statement of an associate?
All suggestions and directives are welcome.
Thank you!With the new Information Pack ‘Old Topic 8’ has been reformulated into Topic 4,5 and 8 and Topic 15 has bern replaced. You may now find it easier to find an . Organisation that meets your requirements.
Otherwise Topic 17-20 all of which only require secondary data and offer at least as good i(f not better chances ) of passing and getting a grade higher than a C should be looked at
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@Trephena, thanks very much for the advice.
Hello,
I am a new comer who wants to do the OBU RAP however I am awaiting my final ACCA result to determine whether or not I am eligible. I wanted to know if I would have sufficient time to do the RAP for submission in November if I am only able to start in late July after ACCA results providing that I pass? Also I am studying for SBR in September as well so what do you think?Many of my students start their RAP and juggle this with exams and in actual fact, odd though it may seem, it can be advantageous to do so [research studies show that taking breaks away and alternating tasks actually improves all round performance – strange as it may seem]. I personally advise students to start as early as possible because reports done in a rush are less likely to pass.
I don’t know how other mentors operate, but I try to be flexible and so would timetable a student to start their RAP in June or July and then break off a month before their September paper to do exam study and return to it straight after the exam[s]. This may not work with some providers as they group students but it is something you should ask about when you contact them.
It is true that until you have cleared all the foundation/ skills papers [what were F4-F9] you are not eligible for the degree but that does not mean that you have to wait and can’t start – although you must be mindful that topics and titles do change from time to time. This is usually when the new Information Pack is published and as that was last month I think it is highly unlikely that there will be changes until the next one in June 2022 [so affecting P45 and P46]
Thank you for your reply and insight @GillianM much appreciated!
Hi i am currently doing my research project and can anyone please share a sample of a research project topic 8 so i can get an idea
Sharing work is against the University rules – just take a quick look at some recent posts on the Result Deferred/withheld thread and you will see the consequences of doing so. Only somebody totally naive or unscrupulous would agree to send you a sample.
Hi, I’m the first time doing OBU RAP. For P43, I’m not sure whether to take topic 8 or 18. Which topic is more easier to get the data to do for analysis or have higher passing rate? Can anyone here assist me with this?
It is difficult to say – as it is probably about the same in terms of access to info. I usually advise a student to do the topic that interests them the most as that way they will stay motivated. Some students play ‘safe’ and go with financial analysis because they have done it before [although the approach is slightly different for the RAP as they probably have never had to apply a model when doing financial analysis previously]. Some students though see the RAP as a challenge to learn new skills and broaden their horizons. I tend to encourage the latter – last session I had a student who couldn’t see the point of marketing – so decided to do Topic 18 to find out whether it was useful after all. She ended up recognising that marketing is key to an organisation’s success and did a very good report [so I look forward to see what grade she gets].
However as I say the choice should be yours…. Regarding which may get a higher grade/pass rate – this depends how well the research, analysis and evaluation is done. My initial concern now that the title of Topic 8 has changed is that if may take a bit of time for higher grades to filter through [but I could be wrong on this – it will be one way or the other – mostly Cs or mostly higher grades but we won’t know until after P43] whereas from my experience of students doing Topic 18 – most of students have done it well and have achieved above a C but it depends upon the organisation chosen [if doing this go for a very innovative company] as that is key to getting a higher grade
Hi! Gillian am almost done with my RAP but I have some concern over my references other than the financial ones which are within the 3 yrs for topic 5. Are there any rules on the sources used for non-financial statements. Also, what is the key to good evaluation and analysis in Part 3.
Thank youThere is a referencing guide on our homepage https://opentuition.com/obu/referencing-the-open-tuition-ultimate-guide-to-referencing-your-rap/ [see all 3 parts]
Also consult the June 2021 Information Pack pp.38-40 which explains how to set out references.
The key to good evaluation is using the models to help you understand the management decisions and strategies and avoiding being ‘descriptive’ – which means just stating that there have been increases and decreases [e.g. just ‘describing the trends] without providing explanations. The factors that underlie performance are influenced by management decisions and the strategies that are pursued both of which will be based on the PEST and SWOT. There should therefore be links between your commentary when using the results from ratio analysis to the models.
Hi everyone,
In P42, my Topic 18 RR was a pass but my SLS was under ACO Investigation and the outcome was not on my side. Feedback by ACO is as follows:
[8. Self-reflection Fail
ACO Feedback: Examples of previous student’s work were provided to guide on the style of writing and not to be used as a template. The guidance in the Oxford Brookes Information Pack provides some examples of the kind of questioning you should apply to your practice. You can use the mentor meeting template to prompt recollections of your thoughts and feelings as you progressed through this Project but do not look at any other examples to avoid accidental plagiarism. Write in your own words.]Hence, I chose to resubmit in P43 but I am stuck on how to write my SLS differently than what I had wrote as I truly felt like I had already poured my original thoughts and work into the SLS I submitted, and the similarities arises due to depending on the template etc. I truly regret what I did 🙁 Any advice and criticism as well as tips for Resubmission statement is more than welcomed!!
As in the feedback was provided only on 1 element (out of 9) of the RAP, I’m not sure how to elaborate it even further in the Resubmission statement.
I suggest that you look at the latest Info Pack – June 2021.
The SLS questions have changed so by answering those it avoids any problem. They are also easier to answer than the old questions too !
You should submit a brief statement that addresses the marker feedback and says what improvements you have made
It certainly won’t take 500 words!
Hi,
Thank you so much for your previous response!!!
So I just reconfirmed with the school in regards to my resubmission in P43 (failed in P41).“We have checked and the ACO decision was Academic Malpractice, so you were given a zero letter for your RAP. This means that you have not yet passed anything. You will therefore need to resubmit ALL of the elements of the Research and Analysis project including the Research Report, Excel spreadsheet, references, SLS and presentation slides.
You can resubmit the same Research Report, but may need to update the financial information, if applicable. You need to rewrite the SLS as instructed by the ACO.”
I would love to reconfirm if:
1) I can upload the exact same documents (Research Report, Excel spreadsheet, references & presentation slides) I submitted in P41 except for the SLS?
2) I do not have to update my RR to the latest financial information as I do not exceed 4 submission period yet from P41? Hence I can remain the 2017-2018-2019 financial statement in my RR? (My RAP Topic is 18 Marketing)
Please help, it’s so hard to balance work with OBU and my mentor is not responsive either 🙁 I’m so grateful for OpenTuition!!!
Hi, Im currently doing topic 18 and is planning to do revenue growth analysis and sales per marketing cost spent. But because of covid-19, the revenue actually gone down, how should I carry out the analysis on this?
Thank you.
You should be looking at the trends over a period of time – so make most of your comments based on the 3-5 years prior to 2020. In the limitations of your findings [which the June 2021 now suggests you include in your report after your findings], you can highlight that the results fo 2020 were atypical because….. etc.
I don’t think that any particular stipulation is made however you should always consider the reader/marker and make your work as easy to read as possible. Do this by using a sensible font size for the Report and SLS. Some fonts tend to look more ‘reader-friendly’ than others – personally I tend to use Calibri, Tahoma or Verdana but as I say, this is a personal preference.
A couple of things I would say:
1. Try to make your text look good by avoiding it being too ‘dense’ as it psychologically makes it look like a hard read – have sensible size margins and use 1.5 line spacing
2. Make graphs, diagrams and charts a reasonable size and ensure they are all well labelled and given titles.Apart from the cover sheet [where you have a bit more licence] have white as the background page colour and use a black font so that it stands out and is easy to read. If you want to try out artistic effects and experiment then normally the best place to do that is in your slides for the presentation. There are few restrictions for the PPT Presentation apart from the number of slides and not overloading them with too much information – the reader should not have to read too much and work too hard – you are supposed to be delivering the information in bite-size bits and adding interesting content [sometimes the occasional illustration, graph or chart]
Thank you, Gillan for reply.
I have got one more question: On page 24 Info Pack they have asked for ”declaration of authenticity”. Where do we have to state them, in which document. Is it in RAP ?. If we don’t state them in any document, will it be an issue?
Once again thanks for quick reply.
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