Monday August 24, 2013

Are you checking the announcements on Black Board?  Did you spend the weekend running down the resources posted there under TAMUSA Accounting Resources?  I posted two more articles on how to get off to a fast start as an accounting student. All of this is to urge you to become engaged in a daily study of accounting now, not later in the semester. 

I spent my first three high school years at one school. Then I moved and finished the senior year at another high school. At KHS we only went to two debate tournaments a year. As a result we had little to no real world experience pitting ourselves against other schools. I never did any better than a 50% win two lose two in the first four rounds of those two tournaments. 

AHS however had won the state championship the previous year. The generous budget allowed the school to attend all the debate tournaments, well over a dozen as I would guess. The e coach set the bar .  I quickly learned I need to read at least an hour outside our daily class on the subject.  And I learned to be  far more prepared for the negative or status quo side of the issue. The first tournament was a mere six weeks into school A freshman partner and I won it outright winning al four rounds.  That was a first for me. The change took a mere six weeks. 

The change was realizing the degree of preparation required for success. The rest of the year I always qualified for the quarter final rounds, and won many extemperaneous and persuasive contests. The difference was preparation, every single day. 

I am attempting to pass on that lesson to you regarding the study of accounting. But whether you are Vladimir Horowitz or Phil Mickelson or Mike Phelps the Olympic swimmer or an accounting student here, it's all the same. 

As Phelps coach succintly put it, Mike practiced very day of the year, Christmas, New Year's his birthday. If you want to win at this as he put it, 

get in the water. 

Sunday August 25 2013

Former Senator Bob Krueger  reflects on stadium expansions in Texas. He notes that Texas seems more enchanted with football than achieving great colleges. The study he references only has Rice University in Texas in the nation's top 50. 

I would say the surveys raking the 'top' colleges fail in hat there is not nearly the difference between the top colleges, and whatever the next tier of colleges are. Today we all have near unlimited access to far more information at lower cost than was possible when I was an undergraduate. Back then schools prided themselves on the size of their library, ie, the store of knowledge at the school. Today all schools can share in cyber-space stored knowledge. 

The academic idea of a 'great professor' is one who publishes research. But le me ask you juniors seniors and grad students reading this blog. In your college experience, how many research papers have you read?  Hmm, that's what I thought. The great teachers in my opinion are great communicators with their students.  I frankly don't see the 'research' reaching the students. But then to me college is all about the students, not the resesarch. 

George Will noted a few years back that only 35 college teams will qualify for a bowl game anyone ever heard of.  But I notice that once schools pass say the 20,000 enrollment mark, the President assumes his or her school is just like UT or A & M, based on size alone. If that were true, Alamo CC would be in the Rose Bowl, the enrollment there after all is 60,000. But winning college football games is a tough assignment, A & M's experience the last ten years is a good lesson on that. At any rate, we see schools like Texas State and North Texas trying to wedge into Division One thinking that the Fountain of Eternal giving to the school is a mere touchdown away. But this is a fool's errand, building a consistent winning program is incredibly difficult, and inculcating a fan tradition requires long time rivalries, something not likely to happen when playing schools that lie across several state boundaries. 

I just checked, Trinity University has a football team, who knew?

What constitues a great school, here is one anecdotal story. 

One day when I was in my office at Texas State, a young lady probably 19-20 came by. She was in my class. She halted at my open door, almost apologetic in addressing me. I'm sorry to bother you, where is  the teaching assistant?  I laughed replying the buck stopped right here, no teaching assistants at Texas State, you just get the teacher. She was truly astonished, her jaw literally dropped. I Invited her to sit and chat. She related that the best decision she had ever made was leaving UT Austin for Texas State. She noted

her largest class at Tx State was smaller than her smallest class at UT

professors were frequentl ynot in class bu toff giving lectures or fund raising elsewhere. 

She had become  a cheerleader at Tx State. 

So, the best school for you is just that regardless of its naitonal ranking. 

Saturday August 24 2013

I am teaching one Saturday hybrid 3312 class, others are twice a week, whith two 3311s and another 3312. As you will see I have assembled an array of resources to aid in your accounting study. We truly want you to believe that TAMUSA is a value added experience. 

Far  too many student wait to get really engaged in their accounting studies each semester. links are either on the syllabus or under course content on BB as TAMUSA Accounting Resources. I suggest you do the folloiwng 

After the first class, order your book in print if you want or buy the sixth edition off Amazon for a mere ten bucks. 

Examine the Schaums books, I have both and many students have done likewise so they are around, I suggest you order the intermediate versions off Amazon. 

Give Quantum and FAME a try, these are very well done self study sites.  While you are at it , log on to connect and give Learn Smart a try, it's free. 

This would be good time to familiarize yourself with the textbook site http://www.mhhe.com/spiceland7e

Remember there is a power point for every chapter, great review, I suggest you watch multiple times. just pull down the tab to the chapter you want and the power point is ther. Notice how the flash cards are a log like Learn Smart. 

Hey did you watch the Baruch site on the narrated description of the three statements, remember the link is on both the syllabus and TAMUSA Resources. 

Oh, hey, how about those weblogs, if you are reading this you already found the first. Scroll bck thru the summer posts to get a feel for what professorelam is all about. Read the links, this is a darned fine free business  course in and of itself. 

Try some of the lnks such as marketwatch and yahoo finance, read those particularly during the week to keep up with the news. 

And hey, don't forget to subscribe to the WSJ. I have sample copies coming in early September, why wait, start now and being increasing your contextual understanding of the markets. 

And oh one more thing, get a supply of yellow highlighters, my favorite shade, and start reading the textbook. Write down the Learning Objectives LBOs, practice on the sample problems, uh uh, no cheating, cover up the answer, go as far as you can without looking at the answer, okay take a peek but then repeat the entire process. As I said this morning, looking at the answer will only make you an expert at, yep, looking at the answer, it will do noting to teach you how to work problems. 

Thursday August 22 2013

This Georgia Tech Sophomore gives a rousing welcome to the next arrivals at Georgia Tech!

Wednesday August 21, 2013

It is hard to remember you were trying to drain the swamp. 

I have spent hours and hours preparing for the start of the semester only to encounter one difficulty after another. 

I spent Monday and Tuesday at school with both the MH rep and Michelle working on tblackboard and connect. 

Update Wed Aug 21 9 30 AM CST

Michelle using her student ID was able to access both the book and syllabus. If you have difficulty call Michelle Martin at  210 784 2307

 

Thanks for all for staying in touch. As you will see we have assembled more tools than ever to assist your study of accounting at TAMUSA.