Adv Seminar in Accounting Ending, Review and Grade

I took this class in the Summer of 2011, this is an Accounting Elective.

This class was my third to date with Debby Turner, after Financial and Managerial Accounting and International Accounting. I have a great idea of what to expect from her courses. Let me say that this wasn’t a typical accounting class, there weren’t debits and credits or really any sort of basic math. Finally in the MBA program we talked about some of the recent (past couple decades) of “accounting failures”. We analyzed if these were indeed accounting failures or if they were actually ethical dilemmas and legal issues. Hint: They weren’t accounting failures. The format was pretty simple, there were only about 20 students in the class so Class Participation was expected and represented a portion of the final grade. There were weekly assignments that needed to be turned in for a grade and a final exam that tied the course together. All that was really required was to read in advanced and answer the questions assigned as homework, and participate in the class.

We spent about four weeks on Enron and what exactly happened and how they failed; really interesting stuff honestly. We analyzed the legal ramifications of mark to market accounting and what exactly happened at Enron leading up to the resignation of Jeff Skilling and the eventual “death” of Ken Lay. We read and discussed WorldCom and HealthSouth, exactly what happened to each company. We hit on the causes and legal ramifications of the failures in congress.

We learned more about Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank acts and exactly what they mean to companies around the United States. There was so much information in this course that really bridged the gap for those of us who don’t really know all the details of these frauds and company failures. I highly recommend this class, whether you are accounting or finance savvy or not. I learned quite a bit about the world of accounting, and little about how to detect the possible frauds just by looking at the financials. I give the class information and format as well as the professor a solid “A”. I got an “A”.

International Accounting Grade, Ending and Review

This is an elective for an Accounting Concentration, I took this class in Spring 2011.

I decided that I would do my best to focus all of my electives in Accounting, so upon completion of the program I could of satisfied the legal credit requirement to sit for the CPA exams. If I make every elective Accounting I would be pretty close to satisfying the requirements legally from an education point of view. I believe I would have 27 of the 30 required just by making that designation. So accounting electives would have to be the only electives I would take, if hearing about accounting classes bores you, I am sorry, I will do my best to entertain.

International accounting is great because it is a specifically designed Independent study, it is an accounting elective, and it satisfies the International elective criteria that is required in the program. Talk about knocking out three birds with one stone. I sat down with Debby Turner and got the information and approval to register for the class – a policy of all independent studies. We rented text books from Debby and she gave us a list of multiple questions that corresponded to each chapter, the answers to the questions, and the rules for a small paper that was to be written prior to completion.

I woke up on Saturdays read the chapter and answered the questions, without looking at the book or the answers, graded myself and if I got 90% or greater I moved on. If I didn’t, I would look at the questions I answered incorrectly and revisited the topics. I would retry the exam, there was some sure fire human error and bias in the process though, since I already saw the answers, it helped me learn. I repeated the efforts until I scored over 90% and then moved to the next chapter the following week.

I learned a lot through the process about the international side of accounting, the different rules, the most likely future of accounting, the way things are done in other countries and how they change their accounting to trade on different stock exchanges, and the tax related rules from working and producing products or owning land overseas. Ultimately, I was able to put together what I believe was an articulate paper that answered some of the questions I had when I started the course.

I have stated before that I like to know what I don’t know about a topic, this independent study allowed me to learn everything that I could in the time allotted. I very much like Debby Turners approach to accounting and the learning process matches mine almost perfectly. I recommend this class to anyone and everyone that has any interest in Accounting and needs their International elective satisfied still. The material was perfectly presented so I give Debby an “A” , and the material an “A” as well. I got an “A”.

Accounting Review, Ending and Grades

Let me tell you a little about this last seven months. I started school at Georgia Tech, I took two classes in my first semester. I believe that Accounting is extremely important, this class was a combination of Financial Accounting (first half of the semester) and Managerial Accounting (the second half of the semester).

***Firstly, the book was an absolute waste of time; the professor just went off of her own notes… Don’t buy the book; it is of no value to the course.

The Financial Accounting information as taught was awesome. The material taught me the ability to look at a company’s financial statements as a means to find “red flags” that would indicate trouble in the future. Since I was laid off in February and actively looking for employment, I focused on applying my knowledge to find a large successful company that I wanted to work for. So, for me, the application of the material was almost immediate and extremely useful.

The Managerial Accounting portion was a little easier to apply. Since the class was focused on how to react and record transactions from an inside the corporation view point, the material wass a little more intuitive, falling in line with my personal background.

The material for both courses was covered in traditional lecture, small group projects (2 people), and exams.

Ultimately, I ended up with a “B” in the class. It wasn’t the grade I wanted, but with the personal distraction of being laid off mid semester, the week the second exam was due, really distracted me from performing my best. I learned a large amount of information and believe that all of the material is applicable (almost immediately) when transferred to the business world.

On a more financial based grade scale, I would say that I would give the course and instructor, Debbie Turner, a solid grade of “A”. Sometimes in education, I would say that although my grade was not, ultimately what I wanted from the class, I left with the belief that my knowledge taken from the class is more on par with an “A”. In all reality, it was what I learned and can apply that is directly related to how I feel about the course. I would say that I am very happy with my first MBA class at Georgia Tech.

First Project Eyeopening Results

I see no reason to lie about my first project. It wasn’t pretty…

I described the project here and I came into the room with some decent confidence about my income statement and my journal entries. I left the room feeling pretty good about the journal entries and the T-Accounts. Here is the big problem, my Income Statement had the correct net income amount... not really a problem unless... (as in my case) I was all over the place to get to that number, just random coincidence, I guess.

Anyway, we went over the entire project in class, which took a while with so many people petitioning the professor to justify the way they labeled their accounts. When she specifically mentioned that the account names weren’t really that important as long as they were consistent from transaction to transaction. Though she was adamant that Inventory was not Supplies, as Inventory was directly involved in the creation of the final product, so I feel like that is important to remember.

All in all, it was an eye opening project, slapping me in the face with how much more information I need to learn before the first test next week. I don’t feel great about it at all. Thankfully we went over the project in class and got a chance to make changes prior to turning it in, pretty much ensuring a very good grade.

Sometimes doing a project, like this, and going over it in class to correct it definitely helps in learning and retention.