ACCT10001: Accounting Reports and Analysis

• Tutorial "participation" (4% of total)
• Assessable tests (6% of total)
• Written assignment 1 (10% of total)
• Written assignment 2 (10% of total)
• Final exam (70% of total)

Note that the final exam is a hurdle. (50%+ required on the final exam itself in order to pass the subject.)

Assessable tests are 4 glorified pre-tute quizzes that are in total worth 6% of the final grade. These have a timelimit of 3 days and are usually opened on Fridays and closed Sunday evening. These aren't hard, but I did miss on the very first one when the COVID-19 panic went super saiyan. But otherwise, pretty chill and as long as you keep up to date, you'll be fine with these.
Assignment 1 (10%): This introduced Excel and essentially is just filling in the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement. While the numbers and timelines are different per student, you could still cross-check with your mates so it shouldn't be too hard. Be careful that you read

This is a compulsory subject for commerce students.
I have no prior experience in accounting but for those who do, Noel will quickly tell you that ARA is quite different and not "all black and white". With that being said, those who did do VCE Accounting or equivalent may have an easier time completing assignments. (balance sheet, cash flow statement etc.) This subject is pretty boring, despite Noel's attempts to spice things up.

I think this subject in this semester definitely soured the taste of accounting for all that did it, and despite Noel's best efforts to make this "fun", it is a very dull subject and his exam did not improve my opinion of accounting. It is a shame that we didn't get to see the funny Noel that people often talk about on here, but I hope my review of this subject is a minority from here on.

Yes, with screen capture.

Noel Boys

Personally I dislike having two hour lectures, but for the most part Noel does a great job at conveying information through. His usage of analogies will keep you awake (somehow tied in a fishbowl or something with accounting) throughout the lectures. His whole demanour is probably the reason why I even watched the lectures anyways...
Content wise, unless you somehow have a passion for accounting, this is a very boring and dull subject but I doubt this will change; maybe I just inherently hate accounting??? Regardless of my opinion, it is an important subject for all commerce students to do as it will offer a glimpse at how businesses record assets, liabilities, equities and more, along with introducing Excel who I feel will be along with me for the rest of my life...
Noel himself seemed a lot more pessimistic than usual this semester, but who wasn't. I think he was just about done by the final exam, his last rant is legendary haha...

Yes, but only one was given which faithfully represented the final exam itself. More on that later.

None...well entry into unimelb...

2/5

Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making, 7th Edition by Birt, Chalmers, Maloney, Brooks, Oliver and Bond. I found the lecture slides sufficient enough but if you want to do more questions or have a deeper understanding, then get this book.

Tutorials are essentially like any commerce tutorial - you get given questions and you answer them in groups. My tutor was good and my tutorial itself was good as well, so no complaints here. There is a tutorial participation mark (where you had to attend them) but that was waived, and instead it is expected that you complete the pre-tute quizzes (4%). These are pretty easy and honestly you could answer them with common sense half the time.

1 x 2 hr lecture and 1 x 1 hr tutorials per week.

2020 Semester 1. Note that this semester was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes transitioned into online learning by the third week of semester.

TBA

practical-based individual assessment 10%, group assessment 10% (quiz 3% + memorandum 7%), tutorial assessment 10% (4 × examinable quizzes 4% + tutorial attendance and participation 6%), final examination 70% (with hurdle)

1. Lecture
Noel Boys is a great lecturer, although I went to only two lectures for the whole semester. His teaching style is extremely enthusiastic such that the lectures, although with somewhat boring accounting stuff, are overall entertaining. Lecture recording is not quite helpful for this subject, since everything is clearly listed and explained on the lecture slides. I seldom watched the recording during the semester (except for rare circumstances such that a particular word might not be clear enough in explaining the idea); instead, I simply looked through the lecture slides and took notes simultaneously.

2. Tutorial
Fortunately, my tutor Alisha is nice and can explain the knowledge clearly and concisely. In order for us to participate in the tutorial, she usually came up with various group discussion topics and walked around to see how each discussion group was going. At the end of each tutorial, she would back up all important knowledge and give a personal prediction on what might be examinable based on her past marking experience. Sometimes, she failed to back up everything within the time limit; in this case, she would kindly send us an email with detailed explanations of the topic.

3. Assessments
The computer- and practical-based individual assessment requires us to analyse a company's transactions and prepare a transaction analysis worksheet and two financial statements on Excel. This assessment should be overall straightforward with some tricks involved (eg. formatting issues). Although it is a bit hard to get a full mark due to the tricks, most students find it relatively easy to get a high enough mark.

The group assessment is the most difficult part of this subject (personally speaking), since I am not good at doing any kind of group task indeed. The start point of this assessment is calculating some ratios as a group; after that, the group needs to answer some quiz questions in terms of interpreting the ratios, and a memorandum (actually a report) should be written with more detailed ratio analysis provided. The difficulty of the quiz component is far beyond my expectation, since most questions are really ambiguous. For example, one question asks whether a 3% increase in Inventory Turnover is insignificant, moderate or significant. This is very hard to say since there is no benchmark provided in the lectures. The memorandum is marked with a rubric, and remember, most assignments with a rubric in UMEL can be tough, since it is really a subjective issue in determining the quality. My recommendation is to analyse one point in detail rather than include many points with on-the-surface analysis.

Tutorial assessment is a reward and most students can get a full mark (or almost). Do not rush when doing the examinable quizzes and try to get most questions correct (by searching the lecture slides or even asking your friends directly). Try to ATTEND every single tutorial, and even if you do not speak a single word for the whole semester, you can still get almost 5 out of 6 in this component (if your tutor is not so strict)! I feel sorry now since I missed one tutorial and was late for almost every tutorial hence lost 1.5 out of 6 in terms of tutorial attendance and participation (the easiest mark), and ARA (89) is the only subject that I failed to get a 90+ in my first year.

The final exam is not as horrible as you may think now. Since I lost so many marks in terms of the group assessment, I was a bit depressed during the SWOTVAC and did not prepare for the ARA exam carefully (even did not know how to prepare an Income Statement in the right format). However, the overall mark for this subject is far above my expectation due to an excellent performance in the final exam. The key point is that, for ARA and future accounting subjects, the time may be a bit limited in the final exam; do not hesitate and think about what to write, just write everything you know, since redundant answers are not punished. Allocate your time reasonably for each exam question; if you spend too much time on a single question, just skip it and move on! The sample exams may be useful, but since I did not look at them at all, I cannot provide recommendations on how to utilise them.
Overall, this is a great subject, especially for those with accounting background prior to entering university. Enjoy it and wish all the best for your university life!

Yes, but not quite helpful.

Noel Boys

There are seven exams provided, but sample exams only.

4.0/5.0

There is one required textbook, but not necessary to buy it.

1 × 2 hour lecture, 1 × 1 hour tutorial

2019 Semester 1

89

Assignment 1 (Individual) 10%
Assignment 2 (Groups of 3-4) 10%
Online tutorial participant quizzes 5 x 1%
Tutorial attendance and participation 5%
End of Semester 3hr exam 70%

Originally wasn't going to post another ARA review, but I feel it deserves a fresh review given the change in course design and lecturer.

General:
After hearing horror stories about accounting in high school and having never done it before, I was expecting this to be a boring/drag subject. However I was pleasantly surprised This was a very well organised subject, and with a consistent effort good grades are definitely possible. Overall, I'd say it gives you a nice introduction and basic understanding of accounting reports and commerce/business in general, plus some of the problem solving/working backwards type questions could be fun. As stated above, there are weekly questions to work through, which really help reinforce understanding and keep your knowledge up to date.

Lectures:
Could be watched at home at the end of the week, but probably best to attend to keep up to date. I think most people would agree Noel Boys was an entertaining lecturer who explained things well and kept it interesting. Just don't take a photo of the slides, lol. Lecture slides were fantastic, providing pretty much everything you needed to know, and were placed on LMS prior to lecture. I actually looked back at the ARA lecture slides this semester in ACCT10002 / IFA

Tutorials:
Usually contained both group work and tutor/classroom discussions, which was a good opportunity to both meet new people and to pick up participation marks. Only con was some of the tutorial questions were a little weird/vague, and didn't seem examinable or like they really added anything (E.g. Estimating what the uni uses as the useful depreciation life for various assets).

Quizzes:
Technically part of participation mark, and pretty much asked basic questions, most of which were pretty easy to answer by reviewing lecture slides. There were 5 assessable quizzes for 1% of final grade each, which you could only attempt once. There were also practice quizzes, which you just needed to attempt to score participant marks (score didn't matter on these), which you could attempt as many times as you wanted.

Assignments:
Assignment 1 was pretty straight forward, and pretty much just required you to complete some exercises similar to ones done in the lectures and tutorials. However, there were a lot of issues with the grading, due to computer generated marking - make sure you read all the instructions carefully.

Assignment 2 was probably the most difficult aspect of the course. You could chose your own groups from anyone in the subject which helped (knowing you have someone you can rely on), and there was an online forum on LMS to help others find group members (I paired with a friend and found 2 others on there, which worked pretty well for me), otherwise you're randomly assigned a group. For part 1, your group will have to perform many calculations/graphs/detailed workings, which seemed a bit over the top (probably would have been better if we only had to do a select few, as this would have been enough to ensure we could calculate them). After this, for part 2 you'll need to really think about the ratios/changes in ratios, and use this to compare two companies and write a 1200 word memo ( memo format important, my group lost a few marks for addressing memo to/from wrong person ), which also needs to sound like it's written by the same person. Marking was also kind of subjective, as there's no real right or wrong answer, it's about how deep your analysis is.

Exam:
Was a pretty fair exam in my opinion, where lecture slides and practice questions (from the textbook and past exams) were probably the most helpful to prepare for it. From memory, I think ~60% was calculation/report preparing, and the rest theory questions. I found 3hrs to be more than enough, despite being a little intimidated at the start by some of the long preparing type questions. However, to get the top marks (like in any subject) you really need to understand everything behind it.

Yes, with screen capture (However, only released after the last lecture of the week)

Noel Boys

From memory 3, all with solutions

4.5 Out of 5

Recommended book is Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making which provides a pretty good overview, but tends to drone on, but provides great practice questions which answers are supplied for on LMS.

1 x 2hr lecture per week, 1 x 1hr tutorial per week

2017, Semester 1

H1 (80)

Online MCQ tests which are scaled by tute participation (10%), group assignment (20%), 3hr eoy exam (70%). Exam is a hurdle – min 50% pass.

Note: I haven’t taken VCE accounting before, so my opinion might be different from those who have done so.

From what I’ve heard, if you've taken VCE accounting prior, there are some similar aspects and some different aspects, the most different being lots and lots of writing. You focus not on the calculations and making the reports, but more on the theory and interpreting results and reports which I think was the overall purpose of the subject in the first place (re: subject objectives in the handbook). However, I didn’t feel this was the case as the exam contained some heavily calculation-based questions (in managerial acct) which was surprising considering we hardly touched on the calculation-side in tutes… Generally you'll find the sorts of questions in tutes on the exam, so going back through these before exams is a good idea.

I feel that it’s necessary to point out that this was the subject I was worrying over the entire semester. Part of the reason why is because I haven’t taken accounting before, but also because I felt I was constantly behind in the lectures, often having no idea what was happening, even though I devoted so much time to ARA. Maybe I don’t study effectively, but the “required” readings were stale and way too long - I would be discouraged to even start; thinking of the sheer amount of time it would take. I’m even inclined to say that they didn’t really help with my understanding of the subject because some of the explanations were way too advanced and written with a purpose that wasn’t to educate effectively. I stole my friend’s VCE accounting unit 1/2 book and found the explanations much more concise and appropriate (for me, anyway). This said, you’d probably be better off not buying the expensive book if you’ve done accounting before.

I did get a bit confused on whether or not ARA is heavily memory based - the IQ tests certainly suggested that lots should be memorised (especially formal definitions of terms), however this wasn’t emphasised in the tutorials, so I was inclined to just search for the answer in the textbook instead of truly trying to test myself on how much I knew. In retrospect; it really was a waste of time worrying over these tests, since they played only a minor role with the understanding of the subject itself. If you think you’re up to par, use them only to test your knowledge, otherwise, don’t spend too much time on them.

I did say that I often had trouble understanding the lectures, but that was more my issue than the lecturers. They were generally well set out, albeit boring, but I felt they were much better absorbed when attended in person compared to lectopia’d. We didn’t really have Michael Davern enough to let me comment on him, but Matt Dyki was good in that his strict attitude made you concentrate. Michelle Hogan did a relatively good job in making managerial accounting interesting, my only complaints being the lecture demonstration on how to calculate budgets, which would’ve been better in a tute, and her poor control of the class, ie. People started talking over her and she couldn’t stop them.

The last lecture was a revision lecture which went through each set of lecture objectives and pointed out the main points. I started panicking because there were some concepts I had totally forgotten about, so my idea of exam prep was to go through and type a paragraph for each lecture objective. Doing so showed that the important concepts came up more than once, and these were often tested upon in the exam. Hence, going through the lecture objectives and seeing if you understand each is a good idea for exam prep.

All in all, an average subject. It does well in that it teaches you about the subjectivity in accounting but fails in that too much is assumed knowledge. However, if you find yourself totally lost, try going to consultations, which Matt Dyki strongly suggests. Often you’ll find yourself a one-on-one tutoring session, where the tutor can really pinpoint your weaknesses. Matt Dyki also does these, and I’ve heard that he is really friendly and helpful. There’s also the online tutor, where questions are really prompted answered, so you can grab some help there too.

Yes, but sometimes the lecturer disables it to share exam tips, work through old problems, etc (not often).

Michael Davern (intro to acct), Matt Dyki (financial acct), Michelle Hogan (managerial acct).

Yes, one (as it is a revised subject as of 2012 sem 2).

3/5

E-book version of Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making, 4th Edition by Birt et al, 2012. Not strictly needed. More on this in comments.

1x2hr lecture, 1x1hr tute.

2013, Semester 1

H2B

Group assignment worth 20%, Tute/weekly online tests 10%, Exam 70%

I know Matt Dyki actually browses these boards, so my opinion will be as honest as possible if it is actually used as feedback for improving the current course.

First and foremost, ARA is a very taxing and demanding subject for non-commerce students. This is due to the fact that so much 'assumed' knowledge is required, especially during the first few weeks of financial accounting. Davern and Dyki star as the lecturers for the first weeks of financial accounting, and introduce income statements, balance sheets etc in the matter of weeks. Fundamentally speaking, there needs to be LESS coverage (less topics) but MORE precision (that creates solid understanding) in the consistency of teaching in each of the subjects.

How do you get a H1 in ARA? Don't do the readings, spend your time revising select questions from tutorials, and base your learning of lecture slides. Don't waste your time doing the sample exams. Don't waste your time by taking the weekly quiz seriously (it's worth so little). The rest comes down to luck. Some tutors mark incredibly harshly, where some mark a lot more fairly. Keep in mind that they are in charge for practically 100% of the entire course (assignment is tutor marked, exam is MOSTLY tutor marked, as dyki and hoggan mark 'harder' parts of the exam), so you can definitely bet that luck comes into play, and could cause anywhere from a 5% to ~10% swing in your overall mark.

Lectures were okay, despite the amount of heads I saw nodding off or leaving in the middle of lectures. Hoggan tries to be more engaging, which is commendable due to the dry content associated with management accounting and Dyki, despite looking pissed off the majority of the time, conveys the course material effectively.

Tutorials for this subject are an absolute godsend in comparison to other resources in the subject. The majority of 'learning' and 'applying' will apply in tutorials. The tutor mix for 2013 is exceptional, with most of my mates commending their tutors (one of them noted on a group's assignment "i'm !!!!" in response to its group name: "zyzz"). However, I believe a pinksheet/blue sheet system should replace the current online test system. Weekly online multiple choice tests for this subject were pointless. Not only were they a poor way to enforce understanding (as students could easily cheat their way through with answers for their peers), but the sheer lack of direction in question setting was striking. Lazy assessment, really. Either completely cut the wiley test mark (10%), or introduce two smaller assignments to pinpoint subject areas.

Although I undertook VCE accounting back in 2012, I found ARA to be more time-consuming than VCE accounting, to my surprise. The amount of pointless readings (the textbook acted as a nice haven for me to sleep on) was enormous, and towards the end of the semester, I entirely quit readings and just worked off the lecture slides at my own whim. I strongly suggest future students to only refer to the textbook when in dire need of understanding a concept, as there is a lot of 'filler' material that really should've been pinpointed by the lecturers. The reading guide practically wants you to read the majority of the textbook which is rather unproductive, considering the dry nature of readings.

The problem with such an approach is that an incredible amount of jargon is thrown at students, terms such as: reserves, retained earnings, creditors, debtors, owner's equity which require a very focused effort in order to truly understand each part of each report, in a minimal time frame. When lecturers are asked about a slightly raw concept, students are told to look at the textbook. This is poor teaching, and I realize that Dyki and company want to achieve 'many things in such a short time', but condensing the course into 'bite-sized' sections and LESS actual content, will not only solidify a firm foundation for students, but cut down on subjectivity and discrepancies in marking. Cut out performance evaluation (financial) and perhaps performance reporting (management) and you have yourselves not only a much more concise course, but a more consistent and objective marking scheme to work with.

One of the parts that I heavily disliked about ARA was the enormous focus on judgment/agency theory. This is due to the extreme amount of subjectivity in responses and answers that is exposed in an exam situation for this topic. Despite the fact that Dyki continues to labour on the fact that 'numbers mean nothing', while screaming 'I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU GET' in lectures, and that 'there is no right or wrong answer in accounting', in an exam situation, this spells disaster. I'm sure that if Dyki was reading this, he would see that the answers for Q1 (Agency) for the latest 2013 S1 exam would've be statistically disappointing.

This brings me to what I believe was the worst part of ARA.

The assignment is an absolute joke. Ratio calculation that involves plugging numbers into formulas repetitively? Analysis that is incredibly subjective in nature, that cannot be effectively graded or marked? This may sound like I'm bitching simply because of a poor mark in the assignment, but the fact that SO MANY students complaining about a desired remarking of the assignment that even prompted Dyki to write a full-blown response on the LMS is enough evidence to suggest a scrapping of such an assignment. You simply cannot accurately 'grade' performance evaluation. You said so yourself Dyki, 'there is no right or wrong answer' in accounting, yet select groups were unfairly rewarded with sub-par marks in comparison to less-spectacular groups. I don't care if the average mark was 100/150, everyone should be getting close to full marks if you truly desire students to possess 'complete understanding' of a topic, which frankly speaking, is impossible to grade.
I know a lot of the above may seem like I'm bitching about marks lost and such, but do keep in mind that I (thankfully) scored quite well in ARA. Hope I've provided a honest insight that I'm sure is shared by many of the past students of ARA.

Yes with screen capture

Hoggan, Dyki, Davern

One sample exam from the summer of 2012, but I'd expect more for the future exams.

2/5

Accounting: Business Reporting for Decision Making, 4th Edition by Birt et al, 2012.
Recommended for new accounting students, not recommended for VCE accounting students.

2hr lecture a week

2013, S1

H1

If you've never done accounting before, expect to struggle for most of this course. Your first assignment will disappoint you because everything is so new and bizarre. The second assignment is computer-based and it's just about using a program called Quickbooks to apply some concepts. Should be easy if you're good with computers. Tutorials are once again like most subjects, crucial to learning if everything is new to you. Practice exams are a SAVIOR! The LMS may even be over resourceful as there are so many things to help you prepare for exams. They even have an exam format that tells you what each question on the exam is generally about, making it even more easy to study for.The reason I didn't give it a 5/5 is because the assignments do not really relate to the exam. They seem kind of out of placed now that I think back.

Yes, with screen capture.

There are 3 lecturers:

• Matt Dyki - This guy knows his stuff. He writes the exam and is basically in charge of the whole subject. HOWEVER he is incredibly annoying to listen to as he does have an accent. Listen to his lectures if you want to know everything and don't mind his accent.
• Greg Cusack - This guy is quite boring. He's the calmest out of all the lecturers but he is really slow. Doesn't crack jokes like the others. Listen to his lectures if you're a slow steady learner.
• Noel Boys - This guy is amazing! He makes the best jokes. Never fell asleep in his lectures because every once in a while he just yells randomly and everyone wakes up. Go to him if you've never done accounting before because he really helps you concentrate in his lectures.

Yes. There's heaps. Solutions are also posted online.

4 Out of 5

Bought it, never used it.

One 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial (3 hours in total)

2012 Semester 1

H1

5% Participation Marks, 5% consisting of 6 Decision Making tasks to be completed within weeks 1-12, 10% Accounting Elements Assignment, 10% Quickbooks Assignment and a 70% exam.

First of all if you are reading this and you have never done VCE Accounting/don't have an accounting background of some sort, then stay well away from this subject! It tries to go through the whole of VCE accounting units 1-4 in 12 weeks, which is near impossible not to mention tortuous. Even if you have done accounting before, this subjects goes through concepts very quickly that it is still difficult to keep up. On the other hand, this subject is simply just VCE Accounting just more in depth with 2 new topics. The biggest difference you will find is that, surprisingly, the accounting principles and qualitative characteristics are not even mentioned and that the format of some financial statements have changed with can be hard to get used to.

The two hour lectures are a pain and if you have Matt Dyki then prepared to be bored to death. I suggest bringing/sneaking in food or something else just to make it more interesting (I saw someone read the newspaper in there). To be honest though, it is very difficult to make accounting seem interesting.

Assignments are fine and if you need any help there are weekly consults to go to which are extremely helpful. If you have never used Quickbooks before then there is a optional lecture that will be held which I suggest you go to. The workload is okay, there is quite a bit to do each week but it's all repetitive (You'll be asked to fill out ledgers, balance sheets, profit and loss statements and cash flow statements every week from weeks 1-6). Decision making tasks are easy to get marks for, all you have to do is show that you made an effort to do them. The exam - it's usually early in the examination period I hear but if you've done all the work and understand it then it's not hard to pass, although it's very hard to get top marks because there are always tricks.
I did this subject as a breadth and I regret it. Take heed of my warning at the start of my post and basically, I would only recommend this subject to Commerce students wanting to major in accounting or possibly someone who has done VCE accounting - but either way be prepared to work hard in order to keep up to date.

Yes

Matt Dyki

Yes. About 8 past exams were available.

3/5

Accounting in Context, although it is pretty much useless so not worth buying.

1x two hour lecture and 1x one hour tutorial a week.

2011, Semester 1

H1