<p>I'm a sophmore and now I'm declaring my major as accounting (I took economics and loved it, plus my dad was an accountant). I had a really hard teacher for economics and got a 3.5 in the course will the other courses be comparable in difficulty?</p>
<p>Like is taxes, and intermediate accounting much harder? What are the hardest courses?</p>
<p>Also I hate public speaking (already took a public speaking course) are there any courses in accounting where you have to give presentations? (Like for a marketing course for example)</p>
<p>Also any tips you may have on how to prepare mentally. Like should I hone my reading skills, or just try to chill for the upcomming semester?</p>
<p>I know a lot of people say intermediate accounting is the killer.
I think the public speaking depends on the professor, because in business they expect you to be articulate and a good public speaker.</p>
<p>Probably depends on the school. For us, it’s probably STAT because there’s only one person who teaches it and evidently she doesn’t do a very good job and surprises on the tests. I haven’t taken it so don’t really know. The business law class is also evidently sort of a rip off because it’s mostly writing and the TA’s major aren’t English majors(or law school students I think). So the grading is very capricious. The Accounting Information Systems class is just lots and lots of work with the guy that teaches 90% of the students for it. </p>
<p>So it depends on what you think is hard. I don’t have to struggle to much to understand LCM or whatever in Intermediate…but I dread having to write nonsense legalese to please some foreign TA that probably can’t write and doesn’t know anything about business either. As long as the top 10% hardest working and smartest students get A’s in a class I’m happy. When A’s are distributed randomly according to who gets the generous TA’s or who happens to be from the same continent of the TA’s…that’s when I get worried.</p>
<p>The difficulty of your accounting classes doesn’t really compare to your economics class that you took. They are two completely different subjects areas. Have you taken financial or managerial accounting yet? If you like these intro classes and are able to understand and grasp the central concepts of accounting, then the rest of the major is not too bad.</p>
<p>It depends on your school and professor. I have taken Financial Reporting 1, 2, 3 at my school, which is the same as Intermediate Accounting 1 and 2 at semester system schools. I would have to say in my opinion, 2, was the most challenging because the professor really emphasized CPA style questions on the midterm and final. It isn’t the easiest subject, but if you can make it through the intermediate classes you should should be fine. </p>
<p>Our school requires us to take Advanced Financial Accounting for our major, but I am not sure about other schools. However, if yours offer it and you are planning to sit for the CPA examination, I would recommend taking it because it will help you prepare for it.</p>
<p>After intermediate accounting you usually take courses in tax and auditing. I’m taking these courses this year, so I’m not sure about the group presentations.</p>
<p>I took intermediate 2 last semester. As I told my professor, at that point this was the hardest course that I had ever encountered. I studied my butt off and it ended up paying off as I ended up doing very very well in the course. Now this semester I’m taking audit and tax. As difficult as audit is, TAX is what I have nightmares about. There’s just so much information and so much specifics. It probably will be considered (when I finish the semester) either the hardest course I’ve taken, or tied with intermediate 2 for hardest. Unfortunately, theres no bypassing it if you want the degree, and a CPA one day.</p>
<p>Accounting is nothing like econ. Econ is conceptual and mathematically challenging. Accounting is just reams of information.</p>
<p>Tax is hardest because the tax code is so random–there is no strong conceptual framework you can apply to justify its idiosyncrasies. Probably because there are so many public interest groups that have tweaked and altered the specific rules. </p>
<p>That’s what makes econ and accounting so different–econ is based on a few simple assumptions and derives more complex models logically. Accounting just tries to solve problems using real, unsimplified laws or regulations from the start.</p>