I have made it through the first lesson in my Financial
Accounting course, and I’ll be taking my first exam this week. I have been taking this course for about a
week now, and my original plan was to finish an assignment a day, essentially
30 pages of reading in my textbook, and finish up this course in about three
weeks. However, this course is a bit
more difficult than I anticipated, and it’s taking me longer to get through the
reading assignments. I figure it will
actually take me about four weeks to finish this course at my current pace.
During the assignments, I’m supposed to complete the Self
Check problems in the study guide at the end of each chapter. Now, I did these religiously during all of my
previous courses. But, I was so
frustrated with this textbook that I decided I would just read through the
chapters in the textbook and go right to the exam and save myself the aggravation. The Self Check problems are not graded, but
they are designed to give you practice in the subject. However, I didn’t feel the chapters were
doing a very good job of explaining HOW to do the problems in the Self Check
portion of the study guide. I figured by reading ahead and learning more about
how income statements and balance sheets are actually constructed, I would be
more prepared for the exam. I guess I’ll
find out how sound my theory is after I get my grade on the first exam, which I
plan to take tomorrow night.
As I have mentioned before, the exams during the course are
online, and you receive your grades immediately after clicking the “submit”
button at the student portal. Students
can also mail their exam answers to Penn
Foster College. I suppose that’s an option for students that
don’t have access to a computer, but I can’t imagine waiting around for a grade
on an exam during a course. I had to do
that during my English Composition course, and the three week wait was
crazy. I guess I just don’t have the
patience to wait for grades. I like the
immediate feedback of the student portal.
I’ll check in again tomorrow, and let you know how the first
accounting exam goes. Wish me luck!