To calculate WACC, work out the cost of equity (usually with CAPM) and the after-tax cost of debt, then weight each by its share of total capital and add the two together. The formula is simple. What costs students marks is the inputs feeding it — using the wrong tax treatment, mixing book and market … Read more

To calculate NPV, discount each year’s cash flow back to today using your required rate of return, sum them, and subtract the initial investment — a positive result means the project adds value. To calculate IRR, find the discount rate that makes NPV equal zero — usually by trial and interpolation. The technique most students … Read more

To do ratio analysis in a finance assignment, you calculate ratios across four families — profitability, liquidity, efficiency and gearing — and then interpret each one against a prior year and an industry benchmark. The calculation is the easy part. The marks come from comparison and connection: reading the ratios together to tell one coherent … Read more

To write a finance assignment, you need to structure it around six core sections — introduction, background, analysis and calculations, interpretation, conclusion and recommendations, and references — and present every calculation clearly enough for a marker to follow your method. The part most students get wrong is not the maths. It is the interpretation: a … Read more

The core principle: A marketing plan assignment follows a fixed sequential logic — situation analysis → objectives → strategy → tactics → control. Each section feeds the next. Students who skip steps or treat the plan as a list of marketing ideas consistently lose marks on the sections that require logical coherence between them. 6–8Sections … Read more

The honest answer: A first-class marketing assignment is not just well-written — it is structurally sound, analytically deep, evidence-heavy, and argument-led. Most students know what a first-class assignment is supposed to look like. Far fewer can produce one under time pressure. This page shows exactly what the difference looks like at the paragraph level. 70%+First-Class … Read more

The core rule: A marketing assignment introduction must do four things — state the purpose, establish the scope, signal the framework, and map the structure. It must do nothing else. Every sentence that falls outside these four functions is wasting word count that belongs in the analysis section. 4Required Elements 175–200Target Words LastWrite It 5–10%Mark … Read more

The core rule: Choose a company that satisfies your brief’s scope constraints, has enough publicly available data to support a fully evidenced situational analysis, and presents a genuine marketing challenge worth analysing. Personal interest in the company is the least important factor — and the one most students prioritise first. 3Selection Criteria 5Data Sources to … Read more

The core rule: In a marketing assignment, your introduction and conclusion together should never exceed 15% of your total word count. Your analysis and strategy sections should receive at least 50%. Most students do this the wrong way around — and wonder why they lose marks on content they worked hard to produce. 50%+Analysis Section … Read more

The core distinction: A report uses numbered sections and headings — it is designed to be navigated. An essay uses continuous analytical prose — it is designed to be read. A presentation uses slides — it is designed to be delivered. Using the wrong format for your brief is a structural error that costs marks … Read more