Module Review: ACC1701X (AY 17/18 Semester 1)

ACC1701X Accounting for Decision Makers (Under School of Business, obviously) teaches basic and foundational accounting standards. I took this module as an unrestricted elective (since it ends with an X) since I have thoughts of minoring in management. 

Assessment

10% Class Participation

10% Class Presentation

30% Mid Term Test (30 MCQs, Closed Book)

50% Final Examination (35 MCQs and one structured question, Closed Book)

Lecturer: Ms Tan Sok Jee, Elaine (First half of semester)

Ms Tan Wee Szu (Second half of semester)

Tutor: Mr Philip Toh

Comments

First and foremost, I took this module because a lot (AND I MEAN A LOT) of my chem eng batch mates took this module too. It was a good module, a little content heavy, but overall not too tough. 

I would recommend getting the textbook: 'Financial Accounting: Information for Decisions 3rd Ed.' since the tutorial questions are all taken from the textbook. It'll be good to read the textbook first before attending lectures as it'll be less confusing that way (For me, it was the first time dealing with accounting, so I felt the need to refer to the textbook). 

Lecture

The lectures are held every Wednesday from 12 pm - 2 pm. There are 2 other lecture slots too. There are 12 lectures in total. The lectures are not webcasted, and since accounting is a new thing to me, I attended all 12 lectures. The lecture notes were pretty useful as they summarize the key points well. However, the lectures are pretty content heavy and can get quite boring sometimes. Towards the end of the semester (especially when going through income and equity and cash flow), the lectures were actually 1 hour 45 minutes long (the standard is about 1 hour 20 minutes, with a break in between of course). The lecturers explained all the points pretty well but both lecturers can be a little boring due to their rather monotonous voices. This was the only lecture in this semester that I had tendencies of falling asleep. Comparing the 2 lecturers, I would say the second lecturer is better in explaining the concepts as I was able to understand her explanations more easily. 

Tutorial

The tutorial is only 1 hour long, and is held once a week (all the way till week 13). We were pre-assigned into groups of 4 and we even have assigned places to sit in the tutorial room (just like secondary school, lol). For every tutorial, the tutor will first give a brief summary regarding the topic, then one group will present their tutorial solutions (which is done on Excel or PowerPoint) and then, the tutor will present his own solutions. The group that will be presenting for each tutorial is already decided on the first tutorial. We got to present for 2 tutorials since there are only like 5-6 groups in total. My group did all the tutorial solutions on Excel since excel has the ability to calculate all the values needed for us and it's easier to present financial statements on Excel. 

Mid Term Test

The mid term test was held on week 8. It was one hour long, consisted of 30 MCQs and was a closed book examination. One hour was sufficient to complete the questions. The questions are a little tricky and we had to read very closely. Other than that, it was pretty manageable. 

Final Exam

The final exam consisted of 35 MCQs and 1 structured question. I spend about 1 hour on the MCQs and another hour on the structured question since the whole paper was 2 hours long. The MCQs were again pretty tricky and close reading was required. The structured question wasn't a huge problem either. 

The module has quite a number of formulas that we are required to remember as well since a cheat sheet is not allowed during the exam. But, for the final exam, they only tested like about 3-4 formulas, so it isn't really a huge problem.

Expected Grade: A-

Actual Grade: A

I guess this module wasn't too tough for me as it had a lot of math involved in it (and as an engineer, I'm totally fine with having math in such a module).

All in all, I would recommend this module for anyone wanting to take it as an unrestricted elective as it is not a tough module. But if you hate math (for art students), then maybe this module shouldn't be considered. 

Stay tuned for more updates.

- Alan