How is accounting hard? (2024)

Accounting as an academic pursuit can be very challenging, and I believe this is often because students often enter an accounting classroom for the first time with a misunderstanding of what accounting is and what skills are needed to excel in the field.

First and foremost: accounting is not math. Sure, accountants use math all the time, but you're not going to spend much--if any--time in an accounting class learning mathematics. Most of what you likely already know (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) will get you through lower level accounting classes.

Second: studying accounting is about learning rules, more than anything else. The profession of accounting is generally about applying agreed-upon rules to business practices in order to generate standardized documents. For example, if your company buys a new piece of equipment that you plan to use for five years, how does the cost of that equipment affect your profits for the current year? Any accountant will tell you the answer to that question is: "it depends." Knowing what it depends on is what accounting is all about.

Finally: studying accounting focuses on learning how economic activities conducted by a business entity (an individual, a company, a government, etc) affect that entity's ability to survive and convert resources into assets. It's as conceptual as it is practical, which makes it a very interesting academic pursuit.

Thus, the hardships of accounting, for students studying the field, can be many. You'll spend time reading content that is very rules-based, and, therefore, often rather dry. It's not Shakespeare, so don't expect to be thoroughly entertained by the text. However, if you're fond of solving problems or understanding complex concepts, accounting may be the field for you. I love that, as a professional accountant, I work in a field where I'm often tasked with unraveling and understanding complex problems and then communicating them to people who aren't familiar with accounting.

Every academic field has its difficulties, challenges and opportunities. To be a good accountant, you should have great financial and counting skills, as well as be attentive to details and possible economic risks. In many cases, no matter how difficult the academic subject is: It's just important to immerse yourself into the field, study it, and practice in real work situations as much as possible.

Accounting is considered one of the most difficult subjects at University, and likely the most challenging in the college of business. From my experience, there are several folks who will attempt to get an accounting degree and ultimately fail due only to lack of ability and not lack of dedication. But I would also argue that the math needed for accounting is more basic than economics and finance degrees. The challenge with accounting lies with understanding technical, rules-based, knowledge and applying them to complex scenarios where there is a web of possibilities, but generally only one answer. I witnessed many 3.5-4.0 gpa students from high school struggle with accounting. Those who succeeded spent many hours learning the material and practicing the rules to get the math to work out. In accounting there is a balance - all things must equal out in the end. Those who succeeded would also study 20-40 hours for each exam. There are generally two intro to accounting classes which act merely as morale boosters. The true hardship starts with the intermediate accounting classes that come soon after.