Analysis of factors leading to success in intermediate accounting.

ABSTRACT

This paper examines if various factors such as academic performance in other courses, age, gender, and primary language of communication affect student success as an accounting major. Success for this paper is completion of the second unit of intermediate accounting. Knowing what factors predict success is valuable as it allows counselors to direct students to other majors, if appropriate, and helps accounting programs identify the best and brightest students. If it is known what factors influence success, those factors should be used for determining who gets admitted into the major.

1. INTRODUCTION

Most business schools have minimum entrance requirements before a student is accepted into the accounting major. The requirements are generally courses in introductory accounting, economics, statistics, business law, and math. Some schools also have other requirements such as English courses, essays and/or entrance exams. Students must obtain minimum g.p.a.'s plus any other requirements before they are accepted into the accounting major. These requirements are designed to increase the probability of success in the major. If space in the program is limited, entrance requirements are a screening process so the best and brightest students are selected for the major. Entrance requirements are also necessary to meet the AACSB requirement that students be selected consistent the schools mission. The goal for all entrance requirements is to limit enrollment to those students who will successfully complete the program.

Today's majors are a diverse group. They include students of both genders, many different ages, g.p.a.'s, and English as a second language. Many students obtain entrance requirements at universities or colleges other than the degree-granting institution. A university must take all the known factors and use these in determining who gets admitted to the major.

This study addresses the question: Do any of the following factors determine the success of an accounting major: gender, age, English as a second language, where entrance requirements were taken, g.p.a, in the entrance requirements, accounting principles, and intermediate accounting. Success for this paper is defined as the successful completion of the second unit of intermediate accounting.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

A review of the literature revealed papers addressing many factors that may be determinants of success. Grade point average was the best predictor of success (Danko, 1992). One study found the importance of the first exam score in principles of accounting (Doran, 1991), another found success predicted by the overall performance in the initial accounting course (Eskew, 1988). One paper found a relationship between gender and success in upper division accounting courses (Wooten, 1998). An information systems paper studied the relationship between gender and success of students in the first college information systems course (Lending, 2002). The amount of effort put in by the student was a predictor (Ibrahim, 1989). The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC, 1992) stated that the first accounting course taken by the student is critical.

The finance literature addressed performance. A working paper by Wilson found that finance students in night classes appeared to outperform day students. Students in classes that were of longer duration but fewer meetings did better than students in shorter classes with more meetings. He also found that class size did not matter in performance (Wilson, 2002). The opposite was stated in an economics paper. Students enrolled in the large economics classes did not per form as well as those in smaller classes (Raimondo, 1990). GPA was found as a factor of success in economics courses (Borg, 1989). A significant factor in another paper was also GPA (Anderson, 1994). A surprising result was a paper describing that students taking a three-week summer course performed better than those who took the normal semester course (Van Scyoc, 1993).

3. METHODOLOGY

The data for this study was compiled from Intermediate Accounting I grade rooster for a three-year period at a northwest university. The classes were all taught from the same text and by the same instructor using the same teaching methods over the period of the study. The initial regression model used a student's grade in the second intermediate accounting class was the dependent variable. Seven explanatory variables were selected either because of their statistical significance in previous research or because they because of their practical significance to the accounting program in question:

Explanatory Variable             Anticipated Correlation

Age                              Indeterminate. While older students
                                 might be more motivated and dis-
                                 ciplined, they also tend to have fami-
                                 lies, jobs, and less of an ability to
                                 focus on academic matters.
Gender (0 = M; 1 = F)            The research suggests that female stu-
                                 dents tend to do better in accounting
                                 courses.
Site of entrance requirements    Status as a transfer student is expec-
(Transfer status: 0 =            ted to have a negative effect as
Transfer; 1 = Non-transfer)      transfer students are moving from one
                                 academic environment (usually a commu-
                                 nity college), to a very different
                                 academic environment. The lack of con-
                                 sistency between those two environ-
                                 ments makes it more difficult for
                                 transfer students.
GPA, requirements                Positive correlation as indicator of
                                 general motivation and academic
                                 ability.
GPA, principles of accounting    Positive correlation as indicator of
                                 topical motivation and academic
                                 ability.
Grade, intermediate I            Positive correlation as indicator of
                                 topical motivation and academic
                                 ability.
English as second language       Negative correlation since those who
(ESL = 0; English as first       speak English as a second language
language = 1)                    have greater difficulty with the text
                                 and classroom communications.

The data was obtained for all students who completed the second intermediate accounting course. Students must be accepted into the accounting major to register for the first unit of intermediate accounting. All students who took the class went through that admissions process.

Generally the results in this initial analysis (Table 2) were consistent with the expectations. The most statistically significant factors were related to academic performance in other courses, notably the introductory accounting courses and the first intermediate accounting course. The statistical significance of overall academic performance was not as statistically significant.

The lack of statistical significance for transfer status was unexpected. The expectation was that the community college students who took introductory accounting courses would not do as well in the intermediate courses as those students who took the introductory courses as the university. That expectation was based on the allegedly less rigorous standards at the community colleges and the variety of community colleges from which the students in the analysis came. One possible explanation is that the community college students took three academic quarters of introductory accounting, while the other students had a more condensed two-quarter introductory sequence.

Also surprising was the negative influence on gender. While it is well recognized that males had greater academic success in the sciences, it was not evident that they had similar successes in accounting. However, the analysis indicates that this is the case in this subject pool. This warrants additional study, given that females represent an increasing percentage of both accounting students and entrants into the accounting profession. It may be that this is an artifact of the institution in which the study was conducted or it could be that there are interactive effects (age and gender) that need to be considered.

The results for the language factor are interesting. Every one of the students in this study who spoke English as a second language was from an Asian country and had submitted acceptable TOEFL scores for admission to the university. But while many educators and students express the belief that these students work very hard, the results suggest that language creates a statistically significant hurdle for these students.

5. CONCLUSION

This exploratory study examined factors that the authors believed to be relevant in predicting the likelihood of student success in the second intermediate accounting course. The goal was to help identify students through characteristics such as performance in the introductory accounting courses, who might benefit from the insights. Of particular interest, was a desire to identify students that faculty should recruit into the accounting program.

Generally, the results were consistent with those of similar studies in the extant research. However, those studies did not adequately address the significance of language and community college preparation in student success. Given that an increasing number of U.S. students have English as a second language and take two-years of courses in community colleges, it is imperative that such factors be more rigorously analyzed in future studies.

Appendix 1--Regression Statistics

Regression Statistics

Multiple R            0.655053
R Square              0.429095
Adjusted R Square     0.365661
Standard Error        1.012411
Observations         71

Appendix 2--Anova Results

ANOVA

                                                         Significance
              df    SS            MS          F          F

Regression     7     48.533776    6.933396    6.76444    5.5E-06
Residual      63     64.57355     1.024977
Total         70    113.1073

TABLE 1--SUMMARY STATISTICS (n = 71 *)

                                         Relevant Descriptive
Explanatory Variable                     Statistics

Age                                      Range: 18-47 years old; Mean:
                                           23.7; Median: 22
Gender                                   Males: 27; Female: 44
Site of entrance requirements transfer   Transfer Student: 36; Non-
                                           Transfer Students: 35
GPA, requirements                        Range: 2.0-4.0; Mean: 3.15;
                                           Median: 3.11
GPA, principles of accounting            Range: 1.85-4.0; Mean: 3.27;
                                           Median: 3.5
Grade, intermediate I                    Range: 0-4.0; Mean: 2.44;
                                           Median: 2.3
English as second language               ESL: 9 ; Non-ESL: 62

(* The original sample include 81 students. Due to the lack of
necessary information in some student files, ten subjects were excluded
from the regression analysis.)

TABLE 2--REGRESSION RESULTS (N = 71)

                             Standard
             Coefficients    Error       t Stat       P-value

Intercept    -2.83368        1.343649    -2.10894     0.038931
Gender       -0.47669        0.256555    -1.85803     0.067839
Transfer      0.032604       0.245238     0.132948    0.894659
preGPA        0.430619       0.32034      1.344257    0.183686
prinGPA       0.868912       0.201136     4.320031    5.64E-05
350GPA        0.267558       0.161018     1.661663    0.101549
Language      0.844491       0.388129     2.175798    0.033329
Age          -0.01021        0.026063    -0.39189     0.696465

6. REFERENCES

Accounting Education Change Commission, "Objectives of Education for Accountants", Position Statement Number One. Bainbridge Island, WA 1992.

Anderson, G., Benjamin, D., and Fuss, M.A. "The Determinants of Success in University Introductory Economics Courses", Journal of Economic Education, Spring, 1994, 99-119.

Borg, M. O., Mason, P. M., and Shapiro, S. L., "The Case of Effort Variables in Student Performance", Journal of Economic Education, 1989, 308-313.

Danko, K., Duke, J. C., and Franz, D. P., "Predicting Student Performance in Accounting Classes", Journal of Education for Business, 1992, 270-274.

Doran, B. M., Bouillon, M. L., and Smith, C. G., "Determinants of Student Performance in Accounting Principles I and II", Issues in Accounting Education, 1991, 74-84.

Eskew, R. K., and Faley, R. H., "Some Determinants of Student Performance in the First College-Level Financial Accounting Course", The Accounting Review, 1988, 137-147.

Ibrahim, M. E., "Effort-Expectation and Academic Performance in Managerial Cost Accounting", Journal of Accounting Education, 1989, 57-68.

Lending, D., and Kruck, S. E., "What Predicts Student Performance in the First College-Level IS Course?: Is it Different for Men and Women?", Proceedings of the 2002 ACM SIGCPR Conference on Computer Personnel Research. 2002

Raimondo, H. J., Esposito, L., and Gershenberg, I., "Introductory Class Size and Student Performance in Intermediate Theory Courses", Journal of Economic Education, 1990, 369-381.

Van Scyoc, L. J., and Gleason, J., "Traditional or Intensive Course Lengths? A Comparison of Outcomes in Economics Learning", Journal of Economic Education, Winter, 1993, 15-22.

Wilson, A., "Exogenous Determinants of Student Performance in First Finance Classes", (Working paper, California State University, Long Beach), 2002

Wooten, T. C., "Factors Influencing Student Learning in Introductory Accounting Classes: A Comparison of Traditional and Nontraditional Students", Issues in Accounting Education, May, 1998, v.13-no.2.

Karen Martinis, Central Washington University

Norman Gierlaskinski, Central Washington University

Ron Tidd, Central Washington University