Comments on: Intermediate Accounting, 2007 FASB Update

By: Old Lady Student

Old Lady Student — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:10:36 +0000

Got this book for my intermediate accounting 1 class. VERY hard to follow. Some homework questions are not even discussed within the chapters! Some are phrased in a way that you have to dig for the answer because it doesn’t match how it was explained in the text (ie you’re looking for potato and the text refers to spud – same thing but you have to really *look* for it). Mix with a professor who doesn’t explain things well and you’ll struggle a bit. Plan on reading each chapter twice to fully comprehend.

Side note: book is INSANELY heavy. If you plan on keeping the book and are going to use it again for other classes, it’s WELL worth spending $10 at a kinko’s to have them cut the binding off and three hole punch the text to carry just what you need for the semester with you. This book will cause serious shoulder/neck/back problems if you try to carry it around along iwth everything else. Just note the pages are kind of thin so you need to handle with care.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: Johnny Taxemhigh

Johnny Taxemhigh — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:42:20 +0000

This book is an expensive paperweight. It is the worst textbook I have ever used. I had to purchase another Intermediate Accounting book just to explain what the author was explaining. There are no textbook solutions or checks by the review questions. The information was presented in a backwards form, an Anarchist version of deductive reasoning. The book is incredibly cryptic and a waste of money. Don’t buy this book if you can get through your class without it. If you really want to learn Intermediate Accounting, I highly recommend purchasing Intermediate Accounting by Spiceland. Spiceland’s book is well written and Mcgraw-Hills website has incredibly more comprehensive online resources and puts Wiley’s to shame.
Rating: 1 / 5

By: Eater of Books

Eater of Books — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:24:08 +0000

This textbook will only confuse anyone coming to intermediate accounting for the first time. It is extremely obtuse in its discussions and hardly provides any examples for the reader to learn from. Instead it is highly discursive about exceptions and rare instances, but never adequately teaches the basics before moving on to these topics.

If you are coming to intermediate accounting for the first time and actually want to LEARN accounting, get Horngren's "Accouting". It may not look like much, but it's got it where it counts!

Kieso's book I belive is useful for those who already know accounting, but are seeking an advanced discussion. I believe professors chose this text because they are bored with the basics that they already know. For the student, this book will leave you unprepared for both the exercise problems at the end of each chapter and for your tests, including the CPA exam.

If you are assigned this text and the problems from it, I recommend reading the same topics in Horngren first (usually he breaks Kieso's topics into two short chapters) and then reading the same material in Kieso [shudder] before taking on the problems. Rating: 2 / 5

By: Las Gayle

Las Gayle — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:54:33 +0000

Intermediate Accounting, Update
Intermediate Accounting is a comprehensive, attractive textbook. The usefulness of the exercises is curtailed by the lack of an answer section. I guess it is a marketing ploy to produce workbooks separately instead of providing even abbreviated answers in textbooks, nowadays. Apart from this deficiency, the book is very useful for studying accounting principles.

Rating: 4 / 5

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:12:00 +0000

The book is huge. I didn’t know the book is available in two parts to cut back on the bulk. It is the size of a dictionary. The book is also very heavy, which doesn’t really come in handy when I am carrying it all over the college campus. It does not fit into my oversized school bag (or it would if nothing else was in the bag).

The book is ok. My professor tests us on questions that aren’t gone over in depth within the book. Each chapter has A LOT of info and not enough ways to critically access and understand all of it. The editors should consider more problems or better explainations that go into concepts more in depth then just scratching the surface as they do now.
Rating: 3 / 5