Accounting Student Success Skills
Learning accounting isn’t the easiest thing in the world, and it is only made more difficult when students are lacking in the core skills that their major tests and rewards. As an accounting instructor myself, I’ve noticed some distinct patterns between my successful students and my struggling students in terms of their grades and core skills. Today, I’m going to share with you the three key skills that disproportionately affect your success as an accounting student.
Key Skill #1 - Microsoft Excel
While this is probably obvious to most young professionals, I’ve met plenty of accounting students who haven’t realized how helpful Microsoft Excel can be for their academic success. Many instructors utilize online learning platforms to help their students learn the material for their courses like Pearson’s MyAccountingLab or McGraw Hill’s Connect. While these can be great tools when used correctly, I find that they are even more effective when paired with a separate Excel document. By taking the time to prepare an Excel spreadsheet template for accounting problems, you will:
Familiarize yourself with the program that is a fundamental part of working as an accounting professional, and
Create a spreadsheet that serves as a walkthrough and answer key for the problem you’re working on!
When I was in school, using Excel felt like a cheat code because it was so powerful once I understood how to use the program and format my work, it was like the work was being done for me!
Key Skill #2 - MCQ
Let’s face it, many students will derive some of their enjoyment and fulfillment from getting good grades, which makes test taking skills an important part of their development as an accounting major. In the classes that I teach, multiple choice question (MCQ) test taking skills are usually lacking in a good number of students. Here’s a quick summary of the common preventable errors I see the most:
Not Using the “Plug and Chug” Method - A good amount of MCQ problems that have solutions that are numbers can be solved through trial and error by just testing the answers given. While this does require the student to at least roughly know how to solve the problem, it should be a useful way to get the correct answer with less stress.
Not Using the Rest of the Test - It is often the case that a student may not remember everything that is tested on an assessment, but it is often forgotten that MCQs can provide insight into other MCQs. Vigilant students can use this to their advantage to check their work and cover areas they may have forgotten.
General MCQ Skills - Without going through every MCQ strategy in detail, the remaining few that stand out relate to reading comprehension and answer analysis. Things like reading the entire questions and answers, recognizing words like “always” and “never”, and realizing that one of the answers isn't like the others.
Getting better at taking multiple choice tests isn’t just something that is valuable to student life, it’s also a critical part of passing the CPA exam. So the earlier you learn test taking strategies for MCQ assessments, the better!
Key Skill #3 - Communication Skills
As an instructor I can personally tell you that most students do not communicate enough, and the ones that do communicate enough are not often communicating well. If you can learn how to communicate clearly, proactively, and professionally, I can almost guarantee that you will have an easier time in school. Many instructors are lenient with deadlines if the student is being proactive in communication and doing their best to stay on track. Additionally, communicating with your instructors opens up opportunities for additional learning and networking opportunities that are hard to beat.
If you’re a current or prospective accounting major, do your best to develop these skills! It will save you a ton of time in the long run!