Hi, I’m Jaanki Jeevan, a traditional MPA student in the Financial Reporting and Assurance track. I will be graduating this December (yes..almost done). I’m an international student from Mumbai, India (the other side of the world). I’m here as a guest blogger to share my recent experiences at a summit in Orlando, FL which focused on lean accounting. The ideas presented were very interesting and thought provoking and I’m eager to share them with you! So stay tuned for more…
Advanced – Well, it wasn’t ACC311.
I still contend that Intermediate Accounting for MPAs (Not ACC 329) is the hardest class in the business school, but Advanced Accounting is no “walk in the park.” This past week was the first exam, or as Professor Deitrick likes to call it, “the first scrimmage.” Professor Deitrick is a phenomenal accounting teacher considering he was a math major and he uses a repetition based technique that drives his core points into memory rather effectively. He did a great job preparing us, especially with the use of a course packet with detailed examples and practice problems.
My technique was a little different than Natalie’s (see previous post) but my circumstances were different. Coming off an ITAC exam, TX/OU ticket draw, and continuous homework in all of my classes, it was difficult to start preparing a week in advance. I had kept up on all of my reading (each chapter twice), all the practice problems, and I never missed a class so I was able to minimize the need for playing catch-up.
The three days before the exam I really began to study hard-core for it, with problem after problem of practice. Is it weird to say that I find business combination accounting to be REALLY COOL?!?!?! Continue reading Advanced – Well, it wasn’t ACC311.
The Dreaded ACC380k.1
I am so happy, thankful, and somewhat surprised that I’ve made it to this Saturday, still alive and well. Several times over the past couple of weeks I have wondered whether that’d be the case. You see, Thursday night was my first Intermediate Accounting midterm, and I’ve heard horror stories about this class, not only from other recent MPA students, but also from my father, an ’82 graduate of the McCombs accounting program.
But as it turns out, it wasn’t so bad. For maybe the second or third time in my college career, I can truthfully say I didn’t procrastinate when it came to studying for this test. I started last Sunday, and tackled a different topic each day, doing practice problem after practice problem after practice problem. On the night before the midterm, I timed myself as I took the 2008 midterm 1. I felt pretty comfortable with it at 10:30 p.m. and decided the best thing I could do at that point was get plenty of sleep. If there was one important thing I realized by doing all the practice problems, it was that an all-nighter before one of these exams would be a terrible idea. Solving these problems certainly takes an alert mind!
The test was long. It was during dinnertime. And it was tough. But it wasn’t impossible, and I felt well-prepared.
My professor, Dr. Shuping Chen, has done a terrific job at preparing in-depth answers and explanations to ALL of our practice problems, and this really helped me study well. And because she gave us the first exam from last year, I was prepared for the format and level of difficulty of the exam. One of the things that motivated me to keep studying hour after hour was the level of detail that Dr. Chen put in to the solutions manual. If she was going to spend THAT much time and effort on answers to optional problems, then it must be important and I had better keep studying. Time and time again, I am thankful and appreciative of the professors in this program. There is a reason the MPA program is ranked No. 1! It’s very tough but also very well-taught.
So maybe ACC 380k.1 isn’t as terrible as everyone makes it out to be. Or maybe they make the first midterm easier so that we don’t all suffer anxiety attacks. Who knows! I’ll have my answer by October 29, the date of our second midterm.
From Austin to Boston
Keri Ledezma, MPA admissions manager extraordinaire, e-mailed me a few days ago to see if I was still planning to blog from afar now that I’ve graduated and moved to Boston. It was REALLY good to hear from her! It seems like forever since my wife, Janssen, and I packed our things and moved across the country. In reality, it has been less than two months, but I’m not ashamed to say that I miss Texas! I miss Texas friends, Texas football, Texas teachers and staff and Texas weather!
So it was good to hear from Keri, and I assured her that I’d be checking in every so often to blog about my post-MPA life as a new associate auditor at one of the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms in downtown Boston.
Life as an Auditor
I’ve been really happy with life as an auditor so far (the photo above is taken from a conference room I was working in last week). My coworkers are all smart, interesting people, and there’s no end to the learning resources that my firm provides. After a good amount of training, we’ve all been deployed on various engagement teams working in and outside of Boston.
My first auditing experience was actually in Wisconsin, and coincidentally, Janssen’s dad is originally from Beloit, Wisconsin. So instead of flying me home for the weekend, the firm paid to fly Janssen out to visit. What a great policy that is! It saved the firm money (J’s flight out and back was less than mine would have been), and allowed us to have a vacation sort of weekend (there’s a link there because Janssen posted a bunch of photos from the trip on her blog a couple of weeks ago).
The client was great to work with, my team was awesome, and besides the fact that I ate less healthily than usual–going out to dinner every night–it was an ideal beginning to my auditing career. Each of my team members, including myself, even brought home some genuine Wisconsin cheese to our respective significant others and family members.
Two other things I should mention before letting you go:
1) I recently learned that my summer CPA studying paid off when I received my passing score for the fourth and final section of the CPA exam! What a relief that is! Now I just need to rack up 1000 auditing hours to become a licensed CPA in the state of Massachusetts.
BTW, I highly recommend taking the CPA exam before you start working full time if you can. Why? You won’t want to study after a full day’s work. It’s unbelievably nice to have it out of the way up front so I can focus on what is already a steep learning curve becoming an auditor.
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2) Another unbelievably nice thing? Making money again. Also highly recommended.
Just the Start
As I look back on everything that has happened to me during the past months, I can only remember what Jim Franklin, director of the MPA program, said at orientation: Even though “What starts here changes the world” might seem only a good marketing slogan, in this class there are 95 people who hopefully will have leading positions at important companies and this definitely can make a difference.”
Almost three months have gone by since I started this experience, and it all seems to have happened yesterday. I started my MPA during the second summer session, so I’ve been in Texas since the first days of July. My summer classes (Fraud Examination and Legal Environment of Business) went by as fast as lightning. It seems like it was yesterday when I was learning to use the UT shuttle and looking for my classrooms. During this time I believe I have checked my resume 15 times – seriously.
Today, I am planning my schedule for the next week and I am really nervous because I’ll have my first Intermediate exam and two interviews (my first ones here). I have been thinking about preparing for interviews since I got here, but even with that, it doesn’t seem real that in a couple of days I’ll be sitting right in front of an interviewer.
Last Friday, I went to a MPA International Connection (MIC) meeting, where we talked about interview tips, and at the beginning someone asked us how we were. A friend and I agreed that so much is happening and we feel that we can’t even “process” something when another thing comes up. Right now, I am starting to think that writing here will really help me reflect upon what I am doing.
To me, everything is happening so fast. The good thing is, I am enjoying every second of it. After all, what started here is really changing my world.