10 Habits That Will Make You Fail in Accounting (Part II)

Less than 24 hours ago, I published the first five habits why students fail in accounting. Here are the next five habits:

6. Procrastinating / Doing Last Minute Work. This may be an offshoot of number 5 but it can also be a poor habit all by itself. Waiting until the night to study for the next day’s exam or finishing the assignment or project an hour before the deadline is not a good habit to indulge in. Add to this is the fact that there are just simply a lot of distractions in a student’s life today. Distractions such as updating the Facebook account or playing online games the whole day abound so a student must really stay focused and concentrate on his or her studies. Otherwise, everything will just be for nothing.

7. Not Following Instructions or Directions. There’s this one time I gave a quiz where my students only have to answer true or false. Fairly easy right? Not so for one of my students who flunked the quiz. Why? Because, instead of answering true or false, she answered something else. Frankly, I thought she should have her head examined. But then again, not following instructions is a trait a lot of students possess. They go ahead with answering the exam or the assignment without giving serious thought or fully comprehending the instructions. The results? Failing the exam or the assignment, or worse, the subject itself.

8. Not Participating in Class. I know there are really shy people out there who can’t participate in their class no matter how they try. But active participation is actually a must to get your teacher to notice you plus it can contribute to getting a higher grade for you (as I assume this is one of the components of the grading system). Besides, if you know you’re going to participate, you’re going to double your effort in understanding the topic and the subject-matter, right?

9. Mind-Blocking / Negative Thinking. This one is really important, especially for an accounting subject. One student I flunked from the subject always had a frown in her face whenever I discuss accounting. In addition, I sometimes hear her saying “it’s hard” or “I can’t understand”. Is it just me or is she really setting herself up to not understand what I’m teaching her? In accounting (or any subject for that matter), one key to learning is to open yourself up (and your mind) to the ideas and the topics. I mean these are ideas that you did not hear in high school, right? They’re entirely new. So you have to keep an open mind and an open attitude to learning new things. If you say you can’t understand, chances are you will never understand the subject. True enough, that student of mine was one of those who did not pass my subject.

10. Blaming Your Teacher. I wish my students did not do this but sometimes, really, students just could not accept their shortcomings and ultimately blame their teacher for failing the subject. True, there are bad teachers. But there are also bad students. So which is really which? Did you flunk because your teacher is a bad one or did you flunk because you are the bad student? Blaming your teacher may be a good exercise for you but in the long run, who are you really kidding?

Another long blog that I just have to cut into two but I do hope you get my point. I’m pretty sure a lot of professors and teachers out there notice some (if not all of these things) plus a few more. If you’re a student and you’re reading this blog, just try to avoid these bad habits. Sometimes having good habits can spell your success in terms of passing your subjects. So good luck and see you later! Cheers!