Intermediate Accounting Books

<p>Most of the people I know who ended up failing Intermediate Accounting 1 and 2 and switching majors were those who had no interest in Accounting whatsoever, they were just in it for the job availability and the fact that Accounting was “recession-proof”
Suckers.</p>

<p>I don’t know if I’m interested in Accounting specifically, but I am interested in Business & Financial matters. And most of the topics covered in Accounting are very Business- or Financially-related.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t know if doing it just for the “job” is a bad thing or not. As long as you don’t hate the subject of Accounting, I think it’s ok to go into Accounting just for the paycheck.</p>

<p>Well that’s just the 3-4 people I know who happened to fail it or switch to different majors.</p>

<p>And just doing it for the paycheck is absolutely ridiculous.</p>

<p>sp1212,</p>

<p>What do you recommend it takes to go into Accounting? I would like to make it a career, and I’d like to know what it would take to make it a successful one.</p>

<p>I’d like to think that good preparation, hardwork and determination are acceptable qualities to have in order to succeed in Accounting.</p>

<p>Obtain an Accounting degree with a good GPA, participate in clubs and organizations, intern, volunteer, be social as well, etc.</p>

<p>As for making your career a success…I couldn’t tell you as I am not quite there yet.</p>

<p>Intermediate Accounting 1 & 2 are the weed out classes. If you can get through it, you should be fine.<br>
From what I can tell, you will get through it, you seem pro-active.</p>

<p>When I took Intermediate in the Dark Ages, it was a 5 hour class. Now it is two semesters at most schools and I have heard many faculty at professional meetings discuss the need for three semesters to really cover the material. I have no idea how they split up the material these days. It has been way, way too long for me to say what the hardest topics are, but when I do get to speak with former students and colleagues at our regional school, they say that the real weeding out comes in the second semester class. Good luck!</p>

<p>2VU0609,</p>

<p>I personally wouldn’t mind a three semester schedule for Intermediate Accounting. Anything to make it just a bit easier is fine with me.</p>

<p>Oh yeah? Well try intermediate accounting 1 and 2 in only 1 semester.</p>

<p>sp1212,</p>

<p>I would prefer to pass the classes, so I’ll take the 2 semester route, thanks.</p>

<p>2VU069,</p>

<p>They are doing that in my school, switching to a three semester thing. Fortunately it won’t affect me(I’m doing fine in Intermediate already).</p>

<p>The reason our professor said they were doing it(and he favored the change and has been teaching for 30 years) is because the Principles of Accounting classes have been dumbed downed or turned into factory-like processes in order to shove hordes of business majors through. Intermediate I is supposed to be the weed-out course for accounting majors while Principles of Accounting I is NOT supposed to be the weed-out course for Marketing majors. If they made it hard enough to be good preparation for Intermediate I it would become that. The result is a sort of new “Principles III” or whatever class. </p>

<p>As far as being interested in accounting, nobody knows until they take it I think. If you do well in Intermediate and don’t hate it but don’t love it, you should probably hold off on more accounting classes and finish the rest of your BBA(assuming that’s your goal) requirements. For me that means a Finance Intro course, management intro, marketing, even supply chain management. Once you’ve taken all of those, if you don’t like them any more than accounting and you are good at accounting, you should probably stick with it. In other words, if you don’t have any preference in terms of what you think is funnest(particularly when Audit and Tax are both supposedly very different on a day to day basis than what you do in Intermediate), you should go with what you are good at, pays well, and is reliable.</p>

<p>ingeg, I am not telling you to do anything. That’s what my school requires. </p>

<p>We don’t prefer to pass our classes? What are you trying to say?</p>

<p>sp1212,</p>

<p>I’m not saying anything. =) I’m just trying to hope for the best, that’s all.</p>

<p>Bumping this thread because I’m thinking about taking a similar approach (going over the material in advance before actually taking Intermediate I and II).</p>

<p>Would, say, the Spiceland 4th edition still be a viable option to prepare from seeing at the text was published in '07?</p>

<p>paragon,
Accounting textbook publishers are following the lead of the AICPA by incorporating IFRS content since the CPA exam has a well established schedule for integrating it into the CPA exam. I’m sure that Sir David Tweedie and the IASB wish that the US would follow that lead on the schedule, btw. Intermediate textbooks are changing to incorporate this coverage. I would get the book your school uses in the edition that will likely be utilized in your class, if you can predict that since most accounting textbooks are on two year revision cycles now. I just did a focus group with a leading accounting publisher in March and part of our discussion was on the changing focus in textbook pricing. It’s the technology now that’s driving the profits since each student has to buy the access code which can’t be resold like the textbook. Textbooks can be acquired relatively inexpensively if you really work on searching out low prices online (don’t hate me for that comment - I said relatively).</p>