College Class/Grade/Major Question

[hl0m4n]

i am a sophmore in college now and am in accounting major. the first test was graded and handed back to me and i got a 56 (please no you should studied harder, etc). i studied my ass off and yet i bombed it. the even worse news is that we only have 2 more tests and a final which i need to score a min of a 77 now to get the 72 average to pass.

for some reason accouting isn't clicking with me. the whole ledger, entries, etc is simply not clicking for me. i read the text over and over and i still don't understand which account to debit/credit, etc.

maybe i picked a wrong major. my first choice was business admin but my counsler said business admin is basically physchology of business and finance and accounting are true math subjects. i do like math but accounting isn't really math just entires, records, etc.

if i go into financing is that more math based? no entries in that right? and if i do fail the accounting class this semester and decided not to retake it next semester, does the grade still affect my gpa or is it just dropped (i can't drop the class now b/c it is too late).

i don't know what to do...advice, opinion, thoughts? thanks guys.

[ejazbmw]

im an accounting major as well and I'm sorry but if your actually studying for a accounting test and you failed this major isn't for you man, accounting is suppose to be like second nature to you if its your major i never study for my test and always get 90-95s I'm not tryong to make you feel bad but its what all my professor say. Financing is math and will probably be as equally as hard as well if you though accouting was hard. And in my college if you fail a class and don't retake it, it really fucks up your gpa in college your gpa is one thing you don't want to mess with it, I suggest you drop the class man.

[ejazbmw]

oh and if you don't understand debit and credits and stuff accounting is going to be a living hell since everything is based on those two things

[ideliver]

If you fail...the grade counts...(unless your school lets you re-take)

As far as your vocation goes...pursue whatever you are passionate about...(or at least what you are good at)...

[aznshrek88]

Just master debits and credits I'm in my senior year.

Think of debits as things you own like cash, A/R, etc.

Think of credits as things you owe A/P, interest payable, etc.

but yes, you need to work on debits and credits and if they don't come second nature to you after about a month or so of trying, you won't understand accounting...

Don't get discouraged, just keep working at it.

[hl0m4n]

thanks guys. accounting isn't what i thought it would be. i thought accounting will for example be working with numbers, how to manage money, interest, etc not record keeping.

i understand the debits go on left and credits right, i understand the trial balance, posting, footing, balance sheet, income statement, etc but i still don't understand how do i know which account i credit and debit.

the obvious ones are like you buy a machine cash $5000. so debit would be cash 5000 and credit would be equipment 5000. but when it comes down to other accounts like a/p, a/r, and now were doing inventory sales but since i don't know the accounts from before i am getting more lost now.

is finance really working with numbers and not record keeping with interest rates, managing money, etc like a financial advisor, be able to do stocks, etc?

[hl0m4n]

all my other classes im doing great in ranging from b lowest and highest a. of course im going to continue studying but honestly if i do fail the class my teacher says i have to retake next semester. now is it different in each school if you fail a class you can just drop and it doesn't affect gpa, it just gets dropped?

i can't drop the class now b/c the dropdate is way passed.

[Enjoiyourlife]

I doubled in Business Management Economics and Accounting in college.


Accounting sucked. And I'm not doing anything with it right now. Went into finance. But If I were you... I'd stick it out though... Try to get some help. Once you master the fundamentals, the latter classes are a breeze. They basically just add on to the basic concepts.. Cost accounting is a good one to take.. Also take Tax...

IF you can do well... I know the Big 4 hires directly outta college. Internship will help. Deloitte or E&Y.. PWC.. are great, I hear. good places to be. Cost accountants make $$ Alot of my friends went the Tax side and are not too happy.. A lot also went into Audit and are much happier there.

Goodluck. Dont worry. If you're not into youre upper div accounting classes you can take that C and still be okay. Just work at it and get that DR/CR crap down

[Alpine]

I say change to Pre-Med. Those classes are a breeze.

[Neurorad]

I say anyone can master anything, if you try hard enough.

For some people certain things come easy, others have to work 10 times as hard.

But it's do-able, if you have the motivation, the intensity, the drive.

Until the end of the semester, partying, playing on the internetz, TV, movies, hanging out - all a waste of your precious time.

And there will be plenty of time for sleep when you're dead.

"you get what you settle for"

[oldaccount]

I just got my bachelors in Finance.

I imagine it is more math based than business admin, yes.

I doubt you can major in finance without passing basic core classes like principles of accounting, managerial accounting, etc. And it really only gets harder from there.

If you really want to stick with this major or move to a more numbers-oriented major I would join a study group if there are any formally set up, or form your own by getting together with some people from your class. Im sure your school offers tutoring.

[jaiman]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

is finance really working with numbers and not record keeping with interest rates, managing money, etc like a financial advisor, be able to do stocks, etc?

A finance degree would put you on this path more than an accounting degree, yes. Finance will teach company and security valuation, portfolio construction etc. That said, you will still need to have a base in accounting.

[Brunotheboxer]

Originally Posted by Alpine

I say change to Pre-Med. Those classes are a breeze.

[bigslickak]

Regardless of the current grade situation...IS THIS THE MAJOR YOU WANT TO BE IN?

If it is, then don't worry. There are setbacks for most in college. I failed a couple classes myself (Electrical Engineering major). A lot of schools will let you override the F's if you take the classes over (up to a certain number of classes - I think it was 2 or 3 at my school). The F's still show up in your transcript but they are not calculated in your GPA. Check with your registrar's office on this.

The point is...despite what your intuition may tell you....college gets easier as you progress. Your study skills, etc. improve and you also mature as a person. Stick with it!

If this is not the major you really want to be in....I suggest talking to your advisor and other advisors in the other major(s) that you are interested in.

[Couch]

Originally Posted by ejazbmw

im an accounting major as well and I'm sorry but if your actually studying for a accounting test and you failed this major isn't for you man, accounting is suppose to be like second nature to you if its your major i never study for my test and always get 90-95s I'm not tryong to make you feel bad but its what all my professor say. Financing is math and will probably be as equally as hard as well if you though accouting was hard. And in my college if you fail a class and don't retake it, it really fucks up your gpa in college your gpa is one thing you don't want to mess with it, I suggest you drop the class man.

Tutoring.

[aznshrek88]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

thanks guys. accounting isn't what i thought it would be. i thought accounting will for example be working with numbers, how to manage money, interest, etc not record keeping.

i understand the debits go on left and credits right, i understand the trial balance, posting, footing, balance sheet, income statement, etc but i still don't understand how do i know which account i credit and debit.

the obvious ones are like you buy a machine cash $5000. so debit would be cash 5000 and credit would be equipment 5000. but when it comes down to other accounts like a/p, a/r, and now were doing inventory sales but since i don't know the accounts from before i am getting more lost now.

is finance really working with numbers and not record keeping with interest rates, managing money, etc like a financial advisor, be able to do stocks, etc?

Did this bother anyone else??????? REALLY NO ONE?!?!?!!?

Buying a machine
So you OWE cash and you OWN the machine (like i said right?)

Db Equipment/Fixed Asset/Machine (whatever) 5000
Cr Cash/AP/Notes Payable (whatever) 5000


Inventory depends if your on periodic or perpetual, but the entries are virtually the same...its purchases or inventory, but then if your on perpetual you need to add in the COGS account on top of your regular entries... (correct me here if I'm wrong)


If you can't get journal entries down, your fucked man YOU ARE F U C K...yea get your journal entries down first. Nothing a little tutoring can't fix...


And yes Accounting is record keeping, but tax is a lot of tax planning, there are a lot of fields in accounting, but basic accounting is record keeping.

I think you want to be a finance major; that kinda stuff is financial analysis, projections, etc.

[aznshrek88]

Originally Posted by Neurorad

I say anyone can master anything, if you try hard enough.

For some people certain things come easy, others have to work 10 times as hard.

But it's do-able, if you have the motivation, the intensity, the drive.

Until the end of the semester, partying, playing on the internetz, TV, movies, hanging out - all a waste of your precious time.

And there will be plenty of time for sleep when you're dead.

"you get what you settle for"

One thing I'll tell you about accounting is if you try hard enough I'll get it. Like I spent over 5 hrs sometimes when I first started working out those B/S problems and I/S, because me RE wouldn't be right or whatever...but after you keep working at it you'll get it.

So what I was trying to say is that accounting isn't hard, but it takes a lot of work to understand sometimes, but once you get it, your golden. So if your smart it might take 2-3 times the effort, but it's not all that complicated.

[Tony717]

Originally Posted by Neurorad

I say anyone can master anything, if you try hard enough.

But it's do-able, if you have the motivation, the intensity, the drive.

That what my accounting professor tells us.

Originally Posted by aznshrek88

One thing I'll tell you about accounting is if you try hard enough I'll get it. Like I spent over 5 hrs sometimes when I first started working out those B/S problems and I/S, because me RE wouldn't be right or whatever...but after you keep working at it you'll get it.

So what I was trying to say is that accounting isn't hard, but it takes a lot of work to understand sometimes, but once you get it, your golden. So if your smart it might take 2-3 times the effort, but it's not all that complicated.

+1 Keep on trying

[mithiral67]

Originally Posted by aznshrek88

Did this bother anyone else??????? REALLY NO ONE?!?!?!!?

Yea, i was laughing at this one, I pray there wasnt too many accountants that read that and missed it was off.

OP, I am a public accountant and a cpa (was the second to last group to take it in written form and all four parts in two straight days, averaged around 91 on all four parts), finished up school about 5 years ago.

The whole debits and credits thing didnt come easy to me right off the bat either. However, once it did click (during a sophmore intermediate accounting) class, it was like a light bulb. So it shows that even though I struggled with them off the bat, with some hard work even I was able to knock out the cpa in one try. If you stick at it and work hard, you will pick it up.

Just make sure accounting is what you want to do. Once I got the mechanics of the accounting down, the theory was a breeze for me and knew I liked it.

[nissan]

I did a double degree (accounting & finance) back in ugrad and I felt the same way as you in the first few exams. I hated accounting after a while b/c it never did really click and, trust me, it only gets worse. Cost accounting is a little easier to understand, but I found it to be even harder than intermediate accounting. Tax is unquestionably the easiest accounting course. I ended up getting B+'s for most of my accounting courses after the 1st year, but I hated every second of it. Finance is a great major if you like math, but don't want to deal w/too much accounting. You still have to do well in the core accounting classes, but you get to skip the harder ones like cost.

My advice to you would be to cut your losses and just change majors. Yes, nothing is impossible, but do you really want to risk your GPA given how important that has become for employers? If you do decide to let go of accounting as a major and take on finance major, I *highly* recommend you taking on a math/stat/or physics major to ensure you have better job prospects than the thousands of other kids out there who'll grad w/finance majors. Having quant skills is ESSENTIAL nowadays -- just a finance major won't get you much out of ugrad anymore, unfortunately.

[TiAg335i]

Accounting sucks man. If you don't like it, CHANGE YOUR MAJOR immediately.

Just THINK of what you will do with an accounting major after graduating...no, living at moms house doesn't count.

And the grades part, it just may be your professor who makes up really hard tests. I don't know how difficult accounting is academically..but I'm sure its not as difficult as say Physics or Organic Chemistry.

[Couch]

Originally Posted by TiAg335i

Accounting sucks man. If you don't like it, CHANGE YOUR MAJOR immediately.

Just THINK of what you will do with an accounting major after graduating...no, living at moms house doesn't count.

And the grades part, it just may be your professor who makes up really hard tests. I don't know how difficult accounting is academically..but I'm sure its not as difficult as say Physics or Organic Chemistry.

His professor sounds really tough. And grades tough.

My prof for Tax Accounting was a former IRS Auditor. And he was seriously nuts. Off the wall balls of energy at 8am in the morning. Had a guaranteed B going into the final. He screwed everyone on the final. EVERYONE dropped a letter grade. My roommate had a High A average and he dropped to a B.

This prof could be different. He could make all tests hard and then go easy on the final, you never know.