SMU ASoc - Accounting Thought and Practice

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Accountancy Module

ACCT 332: Accounting Thought and Practice (AT)

Official Description on Oasis		Professors
This course is designed to give students an overview of topics that are relevant to accounting theory development, pertinent research, standard setting and regulation processes within the accounting profession, and contemporary efforts to benefit practice. A systems approach is utilised to facilitate students’ understanding of the various accounting model data sets that have been put forward by the accounting profession, including GAAP. Knowledge of this history forms an indispensable repertoire for students to evaluate current developments in accounting and to challenge new initiatives that are continuously being debated on the business environment – accounting interface. Most certainly, the ultimate goal of this course is to have students learn how to learn in the accounting arena combined with the confidence of never growing obsolete on the subject matter of accounting.		Prof John Joseph (JJ) Williams [Not to be confused with Prof John Williams from SESS!]
		Pre-requisite
		Financial Accounting and Corporate Reporting & Financial Analysis
Importance		Project
This course gives you an insight to what life might be about if you were to ever be an academic in the accounting field. This course is all about articles after articles on accounting. This course first brings you back to the basics of what accounting is all about, and go on to discuss about how accounting has evolved over the past century and also the current issues surrounding the accounting world.		There are 3 main projects in this course - project I & II, and a Group Discussion Project (GDP). The 2 projects are pretty simple, and it can be completed in about 2 to 5 hours. The first is a calculation questions based on the first 4 weeks of class, while the 2nd is a summary of all the GDPs covered in class. As for the GDP, you will be assigned to an accounting topic and will be required to read up to 8 articles and present on them in class. It is a 1.5 hours presentation, so be prepared to stand for a long time. The GDP can be completed within a week if there isn't much to read up on, although it's advisable to start earlier because some articles may be harder to read and absorb than you expect.
Difficulty Level		Technical Difficulty
A survey was done in May 2011 on the level of difficulty for the various accountancy modules. Rating was done on a scale of 1 to 5 [1:very easy and 5: OMG!]. Generally, you can consider a rating of < 3 to be manageable and relatively easy. A rating of 3 to 3.5 can be considered challenging yet manageable. A rating of > 4 will probably give rise to horror stories. For comparison, go to modules difficulty.		Average: 4.22/5
		Project Difficulty
		Average: 3.54/5
Interesting Facts		Advice and Studying Tips from Seniors
As you might have guessed, or perhaps still ignorant or confused about, the Prof JJ Williams here and the Prof John Williams you had heard about when you took Analytical Skills in year one are two different person. Because of the similarities in their names, there had been many incidents over the years where students sent their slides and work to the wrong prof. Year 1s and seniors take note to send your work to the right prof! The second toughest accountancy module in SMU. You will find yourself in either accounting heaven or accounting hell once you attend the class. Coming to class makes you feel kind of dumb (and no, not dumb like a fox). You find yourself hesitating when asked a yes/no question. Actually, you just find yourself hesitating when answering any question because you are just unsure if you are correct. The most common answer to give in class is "nothing", "none", "zero", etc. If in doubt, just answer "nothing". You probably got it correct. At the end of the course, you find yourself remembering phrases like "mei you", "ni xian", "dumb like a fox", better than any other information. There is no textbook for this course, yet the amount of articles you print out might be thicker than many of the other textbooks you own. If you believe your FRSes and what you have learnt in FA, Corp and AFA are correct, you probably have not yet taken this course. If you had, you probably are wondering why you studied them. If you have to make a philosophical statement about accounting after taking this course, it will probably be “In portraying reality, we construct reality.”		Understand the linkages between the various GDPs, and find out what's the main question that JJ wants us to answer It's almost impossible to do all the GDP readings on your own. Prof JJ will keep reminding the class to discuss the readings as a group but most people will dismiss what he says. Do try to do what he suggested because the readings are so much and so difficult to understand that you must discuss as a group. Split the readings among your friends, do summaries for each GDP and come together to discuss. Besides, don't be discouraged when you don't understand what's going on in class because it's only normal to feel that way. What's most important is what I've mentioned earlier - you MUST discuss the GDP readings with friends. Try to read all the articles for GDP sessions and pay attention during GDP Readings are a must! Enjoy it. It's the most inspiring accounting mod. Listening is important in grasping. This module has a heavy essay based evaluation, its good to take this together with Advanced Audit (Gov, R & A for juniors) which gives a good background on the accounting world. Do your own mugger notes so you won't be overwhelmed during study week. This course may drive you mad. Try not to be too bothered by what goes on in class. Half the time he's arguing with himself anyway, and arguing with him is like beating your head against a brick wall. It may get you class participation marks, but it's rarely worth the rise in blood pressure. That said, the topics are actually very interesting, don't let the journal articles scare you off. No one gets the mind map stuff at the end right, so relax. The exam is the most important part of the grading, and you must know your readings and basic principles. He will and does accept opinions other than his own if they are properly substantiated, and that is probably his best feature. Read the essence. Look at past year GDPs. Read, read, and read. And then read some more. Keep up to date with the weekly readings; it helps tremendously at the end of the course! Prepare for every lesson by reading the articles; share the readings workload with your group mates and do summary for each reading and GDP. Discuss the theories in a group. Good to take in last year as it sums up every other accounting courses.
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