How to survive difficult undergraduate accounting classes
Advanced undergraduate accounting requires mastering heavy, complex workloads like bond amortization and lease accounting under strict, closed-book exam conditions. This immense pressure overwhelms students trying to balance full-time school and work, ultimately causing severe burnout and making them want to give up entirely.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1studying harder to cover the material
- 2switching to or anticipating different difficult classes like tax or cost accounting
- 3Quitting employment to focus entirely on school
- 4Checking if professors curve grades based on overall performance
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Amortization schedules for bonds and lease accounting is what hell looks like.”source ↗
“I took principals 2 while working full time and I did not enjoy my summer 1 bit. I also felt like some of the information I didn't retain well.”source ↗
“Advanced Accounting made me want to give up and pursue a career doing literally anything else.”source ↗
“I work full time as well. I’ve done pretty well at just barely balancing full time work as well as full time school… but this just feels like a fire I see myself walking into.”source ↗
“The issue is that since is a lot of material, tests are hard if, like mine, they are test center tests/no open book.”source ↗
“Currently enrolled in intermediate II - it’s tough.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 21Why do debits and credits make no sense?
- 22Feeling lost and overwhelmed starting a new accounting job
- 4Is switching to an accounting major worth it?
- 2Why does managerial accounting feel so confusing at first?
- 2Scared about graduating with an accounting degree and forgetting everything
- 5How to escape high-stress corporate accounting and public tax roles