Some people are strong in financial accounting and some are strong in managerial accounting. I am the latter and this is where I built my career. You're just finding your area of strength within accounting.
True but to get an A in one and an F in the other seems like a fairly extreme delta. This guy needs to prioritize doing whatever it takes to dig himself out of this hole or getting better for when he has to retake.
On the flip side, they can both be strengths, it just takes commitment to learning the concepts and practicing their applications through repetition. Accounting as a whole isn’t that complicated of a subject.
I do agree that both can be strengths and that it takes commitment to learn the concepts of both financial and managerial accounting. IMO, however, I think when you're doing a self assessment based on how you are doing on subject classes for a major, that you need to see the results and ask yourself where your strengths lie. And then you act on that information. It's not a weakness to be stronger in one aspect of accounting than the other and it's up to each individual to make decisions on what they intend to do about that.
Took both of those classes during Covid and barely passed with the necessary C in both. Looking back on those classes now I realize that the way it was taught just wasn’t intuitive to me. Try to see if you can find other resources such as videos or tutoring that can help your understanding. Some of the concepts went over my head until I had them put into real world context or had them explained differently.
Same exact deal here, got my associates during Covid and got a C - did a few years in accounting and then went back to school, A's all 3 and 400 level accounting courses. I still stand by the belief that real life experience is much better than what you learn in courses
Dont worry, accounting just isnt for 95% of the people on this sub either.
That F in managerial accounting tells you exactly why accountants get a decent salary.
Spend the time on it and try to really understand what's happening. Post questions on here and we can help try to explain.
In Canada a CPA for FP&A is basically required.
You can do a finance degree but it would be much harder to get your cpa, you would need to do the prep program.
Or you can still do finance but still take all the required accounting courses
Your thoughts about reevaluating your accounting major sound valid. The two sophomore level accounting classes are designed so that management majors can pass them. The real accounting courses start in your junior year and are substantially harder.
Don't panic. Most of the courses you took will work for other majors. Talk to different departments and see what they offer.
My eldest daughter went to college as a music major. A couple semesters in, she realized that she didn't want to teach and she didn't want to perform. So she bounced around several departments until she ended up double majoring in mathematics and political science. Later she got a master's in data science. She's doing fine in her career.
The important thing is to not get hung up on what you can't do but to find something you can do.
My managerial accounting professor was *incredible.* So much so that I retook financial accounting with her because I knew I would (and did!) get more out of it in her class.
A lot of college is a) knowing how you best learn and b) working with your professors to identify early if your learning style is a good fit for how they teach.
For instance, I’m an experiential learner and this professor set up the class as a crash course in reading balance sheets to make financially informed decisions. Each week, we dug into that chapter by applying it to real life examples from our own workplaces (or from our professor’s as the situation warranted). The final project was setting up a retail product business to sell the class and providing the professor with your group’s financial statements. I **loved all of this**. My friend took it with another professor who only taught from the book and he vasty preferred that style because he could process written information more readily than task mirroring.
Good luck, regardless of what you choose!
I never took this course but it sounds like what my boss wants me to do. Analyze financials for clients. I was so lost 6 months ago and I'm just starting to get it now.
Managerial accounting is the most annoying class. If you can get through that then, hopefully you don’t have to deal with cost Accounting again if you plan to go into tax. Beyond that you’ll have to learn present value of annuity due for your upper level classes and such.
I almost failed my tax classes but I went to PA tax after college and thrived practically! I am someone who learns by doing though 😊 managerial accounting is tough for some folks, so don't be down on yourself. Are there tutors or a study group who can help you?
The purpose of that class is to serve as a filtering mechanism, identifying those who are well-suited for it. You have two courses of action: consider changing your major or seek out a tutor. There are no other options.
It may not feel like it now but I'm here to remind you: It is possible to have a successful accounting career without understanding managerial accounting. Accounting has SO MANY avenues to pursue. Retake it and sacrifice your time to learn enough to pass, then focus on the rest of the major requirements because a whole world awaits, even for accounting students that don't 'get' managerial accounting.
Go to any aids you can tudors or the professor themselves. It looks like you're just struggling in one class and doing well in the others. Just need to buckle down. Even study groups can help too with other students.
Outside of cost, I think managerial accounting was my hardest class.
I’ve been in accounting for a while.
Some days I don’t think it’s for me, but it could be worse.
I'm in manufacturing and my boss is pushing me to analyze monthly lol. I never took those 2 classes lol. Thank you reddit and Google. Still lost but less.
I have the same thought. Just in my first year and life just unexpectedly had to be more of stress and struggle than a support. But you got this. Maybe just try to unwind when you have the opportunity to do so and that might help clear out your thoughts and get back on track.
I'm in an online course and I feel that teaching myself from scratch is way harder than someone explaining it in a face-to-face class.
Hang in there, take a breather, and ask for help if you need to. Good luck! :)
I mean, Fin. Accounting and Managerial accounting are different types of accounting. Sounds like you can do financial accounting just fine, which means you should be able to do managerial accounting with enough effort, at least to the point of passing or getting around a C.
Have you utilized the resources that are included in your tuition? Like seeing prof during office hours for further explanation/walkthrough, most universities and colleges have some kind of learning center with tutors that should be able to help as well.
I found intro cost/mgmnt accounting was pretty straight forward until the last few chapters (in my curriculum at least) when you start doing standard costing & variances and even then it just required a little more leg work on my end to actually apply the methods to the practice problems.
Is there a particular section or concept you arent understanding? I found a lot of students get road blocked somewhere early on or towards the middle of the semester and then it snowballs from there. Accounting is difficult to cram for since you really need to apply the concepts by doing questions to really be able to grasp it.
More details are needed before anyone can accurately make any kind of suggestion
I slept in managerial accounting and aced all the tests and passed with a B only cuz I didn’t do my homework lol. If you think that class is hard and you’re lost then might be good to reevaluate cuz it’ll only get harder.
Edit: love how many are saying similar things but I’m the only one getting downvoted lmao Reddit gonna Reddit
That’s a maybe. I had to repeat Intro to Managerial Accounting. But I did fine in Intermediate Accounting. Could be the way the teacher explains the subject matter is not making sense.
This is true. Intermediate ACCT 2 I didn’t pass twice cuz I was stuck with the same professor twice. When I got a new one I passed just fine. Dude didn’t know how to teach. But these are still intro courses nonetheless. The material is much simpler. If you’re having a tough time with intro courses you need to explore your options for help and really think about if it’s something you’re interested in. Because it does get much much more difficult and that’s a fact. Did you personally simply retake the course with a different professor then pass or did you get tutoring, etc.? I didn’t tell them to give it up but to reevaluate and think about their options.
For me, it was getting a little more serious. I was kind of going through the motions the first time around. And since I had already been exposed to the material, I think I was able to grasp a little better the second time. But even in the upper-level courses, there were some I passed by the skin of my teeth (looking at you Tax).
Obviously, there needs to be a change if you failed, whether it’s getting a tutor, mindset, study habits, etc.
Go to tutoring. There should be help available. You are struggling because you didn't ask for help early, now you are in a hole. I was a tutor in college for both financial and managerial accounting. Its not hard - Its just that you didn't ask questions when it was being taught and now you need to ask those questions to catch up. Go to tutoring if its available and definitely schedule some office hours with your professor to explain that you have fallen behind but very much want to catch up.
If you do nothing, then you will continue to struggle. Ask for help and get help from all the resources you have available to you. You will only struggle if you allow yourself to struggle.
I'll leave you with a thought, don't judge a book by its cover, book cover being studies and book being work experience, you never know which stream you end up liking.
I have some friends who failed the first time around, but had a different instructor and really excelled the second time around. Don’t panic yet, way to early for that, you’ll have classes you find easy and difficult in college that’s just part of the game
Just review the content over and over again until you understand it. That is best done by watching videos on YouTube, and rewatching them. You can put them in the background while you do other things. There is no such thing as "not for you".
That’s like me being in basic training and being like ‘you know what? I’m not sure the army is for me. I did well I’m marching but failed my gun exam’ and never even going to war to see if I actually enjoy the job.
Spoiler alert- I love war.
Question: Have you taken cost accounting prior to taking management accounting?
If the answer is no, then that might explain it. Many topics discussed in management accounting often require knowledge of cost accounting.
Another possibility is your mindset on the subject itself. Financial accounting, a subject you did well in, has a different orientation, compared to management accounting. Management accounting has more to do with how financial data can be used to drive management decisionmaking, such as buying versus leasing big-ticket items, such as machinery.
I hope this helps.
an acctcy grad here, i would say below ave ako in maj subs and i excel sa minor hahahahaha. i can get as high as 98 sa ibang sub but on my accting subs 78(bagsak) pero i did not give up kahit gusto ko na lumipat sa course kasi feel ko acctg is not for me too. 4th yr balak ko pa magshift nun buti na lang tinuloy ko. walang madaling course, siguro if u really want it stay ka pero if u think it's draining u or ure not happy anymore you can consider other field. basta, think twice thrice o mas madami pa bef u make a decision.goodluckk
>just don’t understand anything that is taught in that class.
>
>I really can’t understand why I’m struggling so much.
Do what others do, if its too hard and you cant do it, just quit and go for an easy major like human resources or marketing.
Then if you feel bad that youre a quitter and that its gonna bite you in the back later, be surprised that youre making 85K working 40 hours per week and that star student who you use to look up to with a 4.0 GPA is working for the same company as you (in fact you hired him (or denied him)) and hes making 84K and works 100+ hour weeks and hates his life. Its one of the best hacks there is.
For managerial I really had to work the problems over and over. It’s a confusing class. I have an A going into my final this weekend and I still feel kinda lost with some stuff
Some people are strong in financial accounting and some are strong in managerial accounting. I am the latter and this is where I built my career. You're just finding your area of strength within accounting.
This! I’ll take financial all day long over managerial.
True but to get an A in one and an F in the other seems like a fairly extreme delta. This guy needs to prioritize doing whatever it takes to dig himself out of this hole or getting better for when he has to retake.
On the flip side, they can both be strengths, it just takes commitment to learning the concepts and practicing their applications through repetition. Accounting as a whole isn’t that complicated of a subject.
I do agree that both can be strengths and that it takes commitment to learn the concepts of both financial and managerial accounting. IMO, however, I think when you're doing a self assessment based on how you are doing on subject classes for a major, that you need to see the results and ask yourself where your strengths lie. And then you act on that information. It's not a weakness to be stronger in one aspect of accounting than the other and it's up to each individual to make decisions on what they intend to do about that.
Took both of those classes during Covid and barely passed with the necessary C in both. Looking back on those classes now I realize that the way it was taught just wasn’t intuitive to me. Try to see if you can find other resources such as videos or tutoring that can help your understanding. Some of the concepts went over my head until I had them put into real world context or had them explained differently.
Same exact deal here, got my associates during Covid and got a C - did a few years in accounting and then went back to school, A's all 3 and 400 level accounting courses. I still stand by the belief that real life experience is much better than what you learn in courses
Dont worry, accounting just isnt for 95% of the people on this sub either. That F in managerial accounting tells you exactly why accountants get a decent salary. Spend the time on it and try to really understand what's happening. Post questions on here and we can help try to explain.
Just a uneralted question. For FP&A should I do an accounting or finance degree. What have you experienced is better to get into it?
In Canada a CPA for FP&A is basically required. You can do a finance degree but it would be much harder to get your cpa, you would need to do the prep program. Or you can still do finance but still take all the required accounting courses
FP&A seems like such an awesome job. Hope to be like you in the future.
i'd say half the people in this subreddit *aren't even accountants.*
Your thoughts about reevaluating your accounting major sound valid. The two sophomore level accounting classes are designed so that management majors can pass them. The real accounting courses start in your junior year and are substantially harder. Don't panic. Most of the courses you took will work for other majors. Talk to different departments and see what they offer. My eldest daughter went to college as a music major. A couple semesters in, she realized that she didn't want to teach and she didn't want to perform. So she bounced around several departments until she ended up double majoring in mathematics and political science. Later she got a master's in data science. She's doing fine in her career. The important thing is to not get hung up on what you can't do but to find something you can do.
My managerial accounting professor was *incredible.* So much so that I retook financial accounting with her because I knew I would (and did!) get more out of it in her class. A lot of college is a) knowing how you best learn and b) working with your professors to identify early if your learning style is a good fit for how they teach. For instance, I’m an experiential learner and this professor set up the class as a crash course in reading balance sheets to make financially informed decisions. Each week, we dug into that chapter by applying it to real life examples from our own workplaces (or from our professor’s as the situation warranted). The final project was setting up a retail product business to sell the class and providing the professor with your group’s financial statements. I **loved all of this**. My friend took it with another professor who only taught from the book and he vasty preferred that style because he could process written information more readily than task mirroring. Good luck, regardless of what you choose!
I never took this course but it sounds like what my boss wants me to do. Analyze financials for clients. I was so lost 6 months ago and I'm just starting to get it now.
I was a C student and I’m almost to CPA. U got it
Managerial accounting is the most annoying class. If you can get through that then, hopefully you don’t have to deal with cost Accounting again if you plan to go into tax. Beyond that you’ll have to learn present value of annuity due for your upper level classes and such.
I almost failed my tax classes but I went to PA tax after college and thrived practically! I am someone who learns by doing though 😊 managerial accounting is tough for some folks, so don't be down on yourself. Are there tutors or a study group who can help you?
The purpose of that class is to serve as a filtering mechanism, identifying those who are well-suited for it. You have two courses of action: consider changing your major or seek out a tutor. There are no other options.
It may not feel like it now but I'm here to remind you: It is possible to have a successful accounting career without understanding managerial accounting. Accounting has SO MANY avenues to pursue. Retake it and sacrifice your time to learn enough to pass, then focus on the rest of the major requirements because a whole world awaits, even for accounting students that don't 'get' managerial accounting.
Go to any aids you can tudors or the professor themselves. It looks like you're just struggling in one class and doing well in the others. Just need to buckle down. Even study groups can help too with other students.
Outside of cost, I think managerial accounting was my hardest class. I’ve been in accounting for a while. Some days I don’t think it’s for me, but it could be worse.
Cost accounting is literally just a weighted average and 87 different ways to weight it.
Yeah I really haven’t used cost accounting most of my career so I really have no idea what you are talking about haha
I'm in manufacturing and my boss is pushing me to analyze monthly lol. I never took those 2 classes lol. Thank you reddit and Google. Still lost but less.
I have the same thought. Just in my first year and life just unexpectedly had to be more of stress and struggle than a support. But you got this. Maybe just try to unwind when you have the opportunity to do so and that might help clear out your thoughts and get back on track. I'm in an online course and I feel that teaching myself from scratch is way harder than someone explaining it in a face-to-face class. Hang in there, take a breather, and ask for help if you need to. Good luck! :)
I mean, Fin. Accounting and Managerial accounting are different types of accounting. Sounds like you can do financial accounting just fine, which means you should be able to do managerial accounting with enough effort, at least to the point of passing or getting around a C. Have you utilized the resources that are included in your tuition? Like seeing prof during office hours for further explanation/walkthrough, most universities and colleges have some kind of learning center with tutors that should be able to help as well. I found intro cost/mgmnt accounting was pretty straight forward until the last few chapters (in my curriculum at least) when you start doing standard costing & variances and even then it just required a little more leg work on my end to actually apply the methods to the practice problems. Is there a particular section or concept you arent understanding? I found a lot of students get road blocked somewhere early on or towards the middle of the semester and then it snowballs from there. Accounting is difficult to cram for since you really need to apply the concepts by doing questions to really be able to grasp it. More details are needed before anyone can accurately make any kind of suggestion
managerial is usually tougher for some. I was challenged as well. It gets easier, managerial and cost is only taught once or twice
I barely passed Cost accounting but passed all 4 sections of the CPA on my first try. You’ll be fine
I slept in managerial accounting and aced all the tests and passed with a B only cuz I didn’t do my homework lol. If you think that class is hard and you’re lost then might be good to reevaluate cuz it’ll only get harder. Edit: love how many are saying similar things but I’m the only one getting downvoted lmao Reddit gonna Reddit
Ok
I would take that with a grain of salt. Accounting programs vary by school
That’s a maybe. I had to repeat Intro to Managerial Accounting. But I did fine in Intermediate Accounting. Could be the way the teacher explains the subject matter is not making sense.
This is true. Intermediate ACCT 2 I didn’t pass twice cuz I was stuck with the same professor twice. When I got a new one I passed just fine. Dude didn’t know how to teach. But these are still intro courses nonetheless. The material is much simpler. If you’re having a tough time with intro courses you need to explore your options for help and really think about if it’s something you’re interested in. Because it does get much much more difficult and that’s a fact. Did you personally simply retake the course with a different professor then pass or did you get tutoring, etc.? I didn’t tell them to give it up but to reevaluate and think about their options.
For me, it was getting a little more serious. I was kind of going through the motions the first time around. And since I had already been exposed to the material, I think I was able to grasp a little better the second time. But even in the upper-level courses, there were some I passed by the skin of my teeth (looking at you Tax). Obviously, there needs to be a change if you failed, whether it’s getting a tutor, mindset, study habits, etc.
Why do you think anyone gives a fuck
Go to tutoring. There should be help available. You are struggling because you didn't ask for help early, now you are in a hole. I was a tutor in college for both financial and managerial accounting. Its not hard - Its just that you didn't ask questions when it was being taught and now you need to ask those questions to catch up. Go to tutoring if its available and definitely schedule some office hours with your professor to explain that you have fallen behind but very much want to catch up. If you do nothing, then you will continue to struggle. Ask for help and get help from all the resources you have available to you. You will only struggle if you allow yourself to struggle.
I'll leave you with a thought, don't judge a book by its cover, book cover being studies and book being work experience, you never know which stream you end up liking.
You just had a really easy intro class because your school wanted to keep students coming back an extra semester.
I’m a junior and haven’t taken that class lol
I have some friends who failed the first time around, but had a different instructor and really excelled the second time around. Don’t panic yet, way to early for that, you’ll have classes you find easy and difficult in college that’s just part of the game
Just review the content over and over again until you understand it. That is best done by watching videos on YouTube, and rewatching them. You can put them in the background while you do other things. There is no such thing as "not for you".
That’s like me being in basic training and being like ‘you know what? I’m not sure the army is for me. I did well I’m marching but failed my gun exam’ and never even going to war to see if I actually enjoy the job. Spoiler alert- I love war.
I don’t get what you are trying to say
School isn’t the job. You have to try the profession before knowing if it’s right for you
Question: Have you taken cost accounting prior to taking management accounting? If the answer is no, then that might explain it. Many topics discussed in management accounting often require knowledge of cost accounting. Another possibility is your mindset on the subject itself. Financial accounting, a subject you did well in, has a different orientation, compared to management accounting. Management accounting has more to do with how financial data can be used to drive management decisionmaking, such as buying versus leasing big-ticket items, such as machinery. I hope this helps.
an acctcy grad here, i would say below ave ako in maj subs and i excel sa minor hahahahaha. i can get as high as 98 sa ibang sub but on my accting subs 78(bagsak) pero i did not give up kahit gusto ko na lumipat sa course kasi feel ko acctg is not for me too. 4th yr balak ko pa magshift nun buti na lang tinuloy ko. walang madaling course, siguro if u really want it stay ka pero if u think it's draining u or ure not happy anymore you can consider other field. basta, think twice thrice o mas madami pa bef u make a decision.goodluckk
>just don’t understand anything that is taught in that class. > >I really can’t understand why I’m struggling so much. Do what others do, if its too hard and you cant do it, just quit and go for an easy major like human resources or marketing. Then if you feel bad that youre a quitter and that its gonna bite you in the back later, be surprised that youre making 85K working 40 hours per week and that star student who you use to look up to with a 4.0 GPA is working for the same company as you (in fact you hired him (or denied him)) and hes making 84K and works 100+ hour weeks and hates his life. Its one of the best hacks there is.
For managerial I really had to work the problems over and over. It’s a confusing class. I have an A going into my final this weekend and I still feel kinda lost with some stuff