Prerequisite Change and Its Effect on Intermediate Accounting Performance

Abstract

As of Fall 1996, San Francisco State University changed its introductory financial accounting course to focus on a "user's" perspective, de-emphasizing the accounting cycle. Anticipating that these changes could impair subsequent performance, the Department of Accounting instituted a new prerequisite for intermediate accounting: Students would have to pass either a pretest or a 1-unit course focusing on the accounting cycle. In this study, the authors analyzed the effectiveness of the screening/remedial system and concurrent effects on performance. They found that students who passed the pretest or accounting cycle class received significantly better grades in intermediate accounting than did students who failed either the pretest or the 1-unit course and than students who did not take either the pretest or the 1-unit class. This finding implies that this form of pretest/remedial course screen would be effective in similar universities in which a large percentage of accounting majors have taken introductory financial accounting at a community college.