Evaluating the verbal, quantitative, and problem‐solving skills of students entering the accounting curriculum

Abstract

From a roundup of recent literature on the effectiveness of the current accounting curriculum in the USA, identifies a consensus that additional education is needed to better prepare students for their careers in the accounting profession and seeks to determine which areas need to be addressed if substantial improvement is to be achieved within the curriculum; analyses data collected from the results of students’ tests undertaken over three consecutive semesters at a US Midwest university to assess students’ quantitative, verbal and problem‐solving skills, and finds that performance in the latter two areas was consistently less impressive than in the former. As each of these areas is seen as important to accounting careers, suggests that more attention should be paid to communication and problem‐solving skills as part of the curriculum, although not at the expense of technical skills; tabulates and briefly discusses a number of other findings from the research, for example with regard to gender differences across the skill areas.

Citation

Sneed, J. and Ace Morgan, D. (1999), "Evaluating the verbal, quantitative, and problem‐solving skills of students entering the accounting curriculum", Management Research News, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 22-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409179910781643