Entries Tagged 'Accounting' ↓

Yesterday was my first day of my first year of business school. I only had one class on Monday so there wasn’t much to report, but having now attended three of my four classes I can see that this is shaping up to be a gnarly module. We already have our first team assignment in managerial economics and the my accounting professor kicked off class by telling us that the workbook we were assigned to complete over the summer was only enough to prep us for the first two days of class. Super. I also appear to be the only one in my cohort to have never taken a statistics class before. Also, super. I am confident that I will do well in both classes but I am definitely behind the quantitative eight ball in comparison to my classmates.

In addition to the class work heaped upon us there is a plethora of “optional” extracurricular activities to dive into at UF. Optional is quotationalized because you are not required to attend these activities however you would be a fool not to since they are primarily: 1) Free (my managerial econ teacher would reprimand me if he read this statement) and 2) A key cog in the MBA experience that can shine a light on what to do with your degree. UF hosts three speaker series, the Alfred A. Ring Distinguished Speaker Series, the Finance Professional Speaker Series and the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series. Amongst the three series there is usually one or two speakers to hear on campus every week.

There are also career fairs and GBCSO workshops to attend. If your search for an internship and/or job hasn’t begun before the first day of class then you are already running behind. Finally, somewhere between classes, speakers, career fairs and workshops there are MBAA activities to attend, intramural games to win and tailgating festivities to be enjoyed. This module is going to pass before my eyes in a flash.

Every student admitted to the two-year program at UF is expected to bone up on his or her accounting skills prior to setting foot on campus. We’re given two options, either take an introductory accounting course at a local community college or buy the Essentials of Accounting workbook. UF strongly encourages us to take the community college class but that wasn’t a realistic option for me so I went with the workbook.

That might have been a mistake.

This book was preposterously easy to complete and its possible, err probable, that I didn’t learn anything. The questions in the book are almost entirely fill-in-the-blank questions and each blank is typically pre-filled with the first letter of the answer. Also, each question is preceded by a statement that includes the answer. Sounds easy, right? That’s because it is easy. My two-week old nephew could pass a pop quiz on the material covered in this book. Take a look at this question pulled from the chapter involving debits and credits.

In the language of accounting, the left side of an account is called the debit side, and the right side is called the credit side. Thus, instead of saying that increases in cash are recorded on the left side of the Cash account and decreases are recorded on the right side, accountants say that increases are recorded on the ________ side and decreases are recorded on the ________ side.

I blew through this Mad Libs version of accounting in a matter of days, missing only three questions along the way. I know I must have learned some accounting, it would be impossible not to have since the material is repeated ad nausem. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I only acquired a superficial knowledge of accounting and that come day two I’ll be lost.

I hope I didn’t screw up my MBA by not going to community college. Accounting can’t be this easy.