COMM 2020

I felt like this class was easier than financial, however, this was probably because I had gotten used to the level of work and difficulty of the Professor's questions. What was different though was there were some chapters that I had to spend hours upon hours on and others that I finished all the work for in literally a day. In terms of exams, I did okay on the first two, really well on the third, and pretty bad on the final. I ended with a B which was kind of disappointing since I got an A- in financial but this was just the results of me losing motivation due to getting into comm I guess. Just try to spread out the work throughout the week or you'll hate yourself when Sunday night comes.

Withdrew from this class as soon as I was declined from the commerce school. If you get into the commerce school, I hope your GPA is doing ok :)

Only take this course if you need to (COMM pre-requisite). Otherwise, you will regret it. I've never been so stressed. I felt that this course is based on surviving every week. The format is very similar to COMM2010 but COMM2020 was harder because Professor Martin made it harder after the cheating scandal that happened in the Fall 2021. He started to proctor almost everyone and that is basically taking an extremely hard exam with a TA looking at you as if you were guilty. The only thing I would recommend anyone taking this course is only take it if you need it.

This class was not as difficult as I had expected. The content itself and the questions can be confusing at times I will admit. However, the tests are open notes, so I found it very successful to have previous practice/homework questions open as a reference while I took the test. Once you are familiar with what types of questions you can get on the test, it becomes a lot easier. Also, you are allowed to check your graded homework assignments with other students (given you have completed it yourself already), so that helps in making sure you get those points. So I would highly recommend for the tests to spend your time going over the practice questions, homework questions, and practice tests. Also, I found the readings to be pretty useless. I just skim read every chapter and I still did well in all the tests because the questions he asks are pretty different from the majority of content in the textbook.

I think the difficultly of this course is blown out of proportion; however, I can definitely see why people are angry about the way Roger Martin teaches this course (as in he barely teaches). Other than weekly review sessions and frequent emails (and office hours if you into that), there is little connection with the professor. That being said, my man is just chillin to be honest. He gets paid to do very little teaching and it kind of sucks for the students; but if I was a professor of his age, then I too would much rather teach this way. So I do not hate him for choosing to make this a virtual and "learn it yourself"-type of course, I like many other students just wish the system could be different.

I wouldn't say I recommend this course, but if you have to take it as a comm prerequisite, then you might as well go in with a good attitude about the class and trust that you will do fine :)

#tCFspring2021

There's no getting around it: this class is hard. I thought it was harder than COMM 2010.
Specific pieces of advice:
- budget extra time to study the differential analysis chapter
- the midterm involving flexible budgeting and stuff is (to me) the easiest material in the course. Getting 100% on that exam is pretty doable, so try to aim for those easy points.
- My system was to try and finish the weekly deliverables by around Thursday, and then spend the weekend revising, because that's how it got drilled into my head. Obviously not practical for everyone, so find your system, and then chunk down your work, because cramming REALLY doesn't work (trust me)
- For your own sanity, put an upper limit to how much time you spend on this class daily. It's really easy to get stuck for hours and hours.

It is really strange that this class features so little of Roger Martin as an actual instructor, and nearly every review (rightly) complains about this. The exams are, as everyone has said, wild cards, and that can be absolutely infuriating.
BUT If you're someone who has to take this class and you're reading these reviews and scaring yourself, my piece of unsolicited advice would be to just focus on what you can control - like the practice problems, homework, and studying as best you can. Definitely the most maddening class I've taken so far, but it doesn't last forever. Good luck!

earning 200k without teaching but PROCTORING. hmmmm a moderator seems to describe him better. long story short, you waste money by buying the required ebook on connect and learn nothing from him. Even the practice and homework problems are practically useless for the midterms. Really wonder what the deal is for him.

Roger is the best professor I've ever had!! Some of my friends recommended the class to me and said it was going to be one of the most fun classes I'll ever take at UVA. The exams were really easy as long as you study an hour a week. It's a low stress class and I would highly recommend taking it for a GPA boost!

this course ruined my gpa. I worked so hard and my test performance was horrible (especially the final). the exams are extremely tricky and it does feel like you're teaching yourself the content. if you're gonna take this course, DO IT IN THE SPRING!! after you've already applied to comm

It's not as bad as people make it out to be. Stay on track for readings, practice problems, and homeworks, and you'll be fine. Perhaps a tad easier than COMM 2010. Didn't talk to the professor all year so don't know how to rate him.
#tCF2020

Similar to 2020 in structure and weekly work. So make sure as in 2010 be on top of things and try to get work done earlier in the week. Midterms felt tougher than 2010 but were open note in Spring 2020 because Corona. Final exam was definitely tough even with notes but I ended up with a B+, so I cannot complain. Content is a little more based on conceptual stuff and a little more 'step-by-step' in doing exam problems but honestly I liked it that way. As in 2010, you will learn a lot if you work hard and it is possible to do well if you focus on understanding the types of exam problems he asks (take the practice exams!!) and work through his "Foundational 15" problems for each chapter.

Basically the same exact format of comm 2010 (weekly HW/reading/etc) so the guidelines are ofc very clear and structured. I heard so many rumors that comm 2020 was easier than comm 2010, so I was heading in feeling a little relieved. But omg, that was wrong. IMO, comm 2020 material was a lot harder than comm 2010 and in many ways, very different.

I do NOT recommend this course. Of all the courses I have taken at UVa, I regret this one the most. Professor Martin is a nice guy, but that doesn't excuse the fact that he puts information on the exams that comes out of nowhere. I studied for the final every day for two weeks and I still did horribly. I even felt like I understood all of the concepts because I went through all of the practice problems, homework problems, and practice exams and still failed the exam. I don't think the exams are there to test you, they are there to trick you, which is not how you learn. You don't even get to review the final exam, which doesn't teach you your mistakes or give you a chance to ask questions. This class was one of the reasons I decided not to go to Comm school because I felt like it was absolutely pointless with what I want to do in the future. I hated this class and I hated the structure. If you don't have to take this course then DO NOT.

This class is self taught from a textbook - why am i paying 60k a year to try to teach myself accounting and get destroyed by a 50% weighted final exam at the end of the semester. There were questions with topics from LAST SEMESTER of accounting on the final exam. Why the FUCK do we have to be tested on material that we haven't practiced before in a SELF TAUGHT CLASS. Make the tests easier or give us more prep material. Im so sick of knowing the material so well (its not hard material) and still getting Cs on exams

Okay. Yes, this class can be frustrating - there is a lot of work, and the exams are not layups. That being said, the amount of vitriol that is being directed at this class and Roger Martin in particular is unfair. Do not listen to comments complaining about this class ruining your life or about the instructor being a bad person. If you are planning on taking this class, PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY. To do well requires an enormous amount of self-discipline. You MUST do the all the work by yourself. You MUST not only read the textbook but take specific notes relating to specific problems and concepts. You MUST understand the material and not just be able to complete the homework, as the exams are more difficult; they test a knowledge of the material, not just an ability to memorize how to do problems. You MUST study a lot before the exams, particularly the final. The class demands a lot from its students, but is not unreasonable given the fact that we are all at UVA for a reason.

Fair but challenging class. Evidently, UVA students (especially McIntire hardos) are soft and think they are all special snowflakes.

Whoever this is is completely wrong, a B- in managerial? You serious? Realistically, you're probably going to get dropped...

To the prick who said if you didn't get an A in this course you're not McIntire material. Well guess what you fucker. I got into McIntire with flying colors and will probably end with a B- or B in this class. This class is not an accurate representation of McIntire and nor are you to be a judge of who is McIntire material or not. The final exam was much longer than the previous ones, 9 -12 extra problems vs our midterms but we had the same time frame. That is inherently unfair. Roger's materials do not prepare you whatsoever for the exam. 1- you learn so much stuff by yourself 2- the stuff on the exam is often questions or concepts we barely learned about or have seen.

As a collective accounting community, we must enter the quantum realm in order to stop Roger from snapping his fingers and evaporating half of our grades. In the long run, Professor Martin is "inevitable". May the odds be ever in your favor.

If you didn't get an A in this course, you are honestly just not McIntire material. I did the work and it paid off. I look forward to having Roger as a mentor for the rest of my time here at UVA.

Okay, okay, for all of you reading these reviews and filling your trousers, here is the deal. The content is difficult, the online textbook is annoying, and the classic roger martin red BOLD text emails are not the most comforting...but honestly as long as you ACTUALLY spread the work out like a physical class would throughout the week, and work independently, you should be fine. I struggled in financial because I relied on my friends every Sunday (right before the due date) and never thoroughly learned the content. In managerial though, I spread the reading and assignments out and always submitted the HW without help and finished with an A without the curve. Obviously I missed more points on the HW, but that .0062 whatever loss on my final grade was well worth the lessons I would learn from making these mistakes. The tests are a little heinous, honestly i'd say there is a ~5 point loss on each exam that you really just can't control from the hard questions, but if you understand the content well, these points will not make a significant difference on your grade. Godspeed my friends.

I think this course is well designed to a certain degree but not for UVA. We pay tens of thousands in tuition, we should not be teaching ourselves an entire semester of material and then failing overly tricky exams. Professor Martin says he isn't trying to trick us, but then why do extremely well prepared students who can do all of the practice, homework, and review problems get rocked on the exams? It is very disheartening and unfair, I do not recommend this class unless you have to take it because it will ruin your GPA and make you sad and feel dumb. I don't want to say anything negative about Professor Martin because he receives enough hate but seriously, c'mon man??? I may stand corrected because the financial curve was very fair and generous, but at the current moment I have never done so poorly in a course, especially one I put so much time into.

:(

Not to be dramatic, but this course literally ruined my life :/

I have no doubt that Professor Martin really does try his best to create a good course, but his problem lies in putting effort into the wrong areas. The material is tough and it damn well should be, but he should take into account that not everyone has time to visit him in his office/participate in Zoom sessions/find TAs for help, and the very fact that this course is online renders him instantly unapproachable. Online courses require self-directed learning, absolutely, but when your methods aren't working, it's time to change some things, like giving this course an optional lecture section for students to attend should they wish to have an in-class experience, or giving examples of complex problems that require multiple approaches so we're not completely blindsided on exams. His exams are also poorly worded at times and are an absolute pain to dissect. Overall, the material is not difficult but the way his questions are structured make this class more painful than it needs to be.

EDIT: I love how the really scathing reviews about final marks and how easy the class is were removed. Commerce kids are really mean and snobby for no reason sometimes. I ended with a decent grade in the class and I really believe that 2010/2020 depend on how well you interpret Roger's questions. If you're in tune with what he wants, you'll do excellently. If not...scrape what points you can on the exams. You'll be fine.

Too good, Roger. Too good.

Roger my man, what's the deal

I learned a lot in this class and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in accounting or business in general. Many of these reviews attack the professor or the online format of the course, which is unfair. If you put in the work, like taking notes on each chapter and actually making an effort to understand underlying concepts rather than just memorizing how to do practice problems and homework problems, you will find that studying for and taking exams is more manageable. I found the online format to be beneficial too, as I had more freedom to do the work when I could and go back and review things that I needed to. Obviously, this class isn't for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

I don't usually write reviews for classes, and I didn't after financial last semester, but this has honestly been absurd. I truly don't understand how so many people can complete all the weekly readings and homework, study using the practice problems the professor himself provided as preparation for the test, and still get absolutely railed. I don't wanna wreck Roger because I feel like he gets absolutely roasted in these reviews and I worry about his mental state if he reads these, but I really am near the point of not caring anymore. Long story short this class is beyond wack, and if you do take it, make sure you have some friends to keep you sane because you're gonna feel like you're losing your mind. Awful experience all around, but would've been 10 times worse without homies. If you're taking for precomm, rip, good luck. If you're taking for fun(??), you'll prob regret it tbh.

I'm amazed at how poorly conducted this class was. VERY challenging exams due to a vast majority of the points being fill in the blank, meaning if your calculations are just ever so slightly off you will receive 0 points and many problems are linked together as well—not to mention the test content is seemingly random compared to our reading, practices/hw/ sets which will take you at LEAST around 10 hours a week. To be fair, the curve hasn't been calculated in so I may stand to be corrected as the financial accounting curve was generous and fair so this hopefully may be the case as well. Otherwise, this has really been a rough experience that I wouldn't wish upon my worst adversaries. Good luck anyway as this is required for comm and it doesn't seem like they will be switching the format or instructor anytime soon—though I hopefully stand to be corrected about all this with a course change + generous curve!

This was a challenging but very rewarding and fruitful class in regards to my academic progress and learning. I wish I could take it again and would definitely recommend it to a friend no matter what their major. I didn't think COMM 2010 could be topped as my favorite class at UVA but somehow managerial has done it! :)

0/2 Roger. Disgrace of a professor and class. I hesitate to even call him a teacher because you teach yourself EVERYTHING. Exams are full of curve balls that we have never seen before, even with the countless hours we spend doing reading, practice problems, and homework problems each week (which may I add, count for essentially nothing of your final grade). Roger even failed to provide a legitimate practice test for the managerial accounting final. Only some multiple choice questions which were simply nothing like the final exam questions, especially since majority of the questions were NOT multiple choice. Accounting is so important down the road and many say it is like learning a new language, so why on earth is a class that can be so valuable being taught like this at one of the best schools in the nation. So sad, needs to be changed and Roger Martin needs to learn how to help his students rather than trying to trick them with every single exam question.

Both financial and managerial accounting with Martin online has been the absolute worst experience at UVA so far. Not only does this class have about 4x more work than a regular class, but the exams are nearly impossible to do well on unless you are an accounting god or have prior knowledge. The exams are literally designed for you to fail: littered with deceptive and tricky questions and the exams cover an obscene amount of content to the point where it is extremely difficult to remember it all. Good luck remembering around 20 formulas for the final. If you are pre-comm you just have to suck it up and take it. If you aren't, absolutely DO NOT take this class.

After a whole semester of financial accounting and 2 exams in managerial, I am honestly sick and tired of the way Roger writes his exams. He says things like "none of the material will be new to you" or "the topics are the same" before the exam. Sure, many of the questions are similar to what we have done. But there are quite a few curveball questions worth a hefty part of the total exam points that we have never seen before. He also likes to tell students to "think about different ways I could ask the same question". If I were able to think of the ways in which Roger asks some of his ridiculous exam questions, I think I would drop out of college right now and become an accounting professor myself. I don't understand why he refuses to test us on the material we spend so long preparing for. Convinced he gets enjoyment out of tricking us on every single exam with questions that do not reflect anything we teach ourselves from the textbook, practice problems, homework problems, or practice exam questions he gives us right before the tests. Do not take this class for fun.

Why does he create exams that are designed to make students lose points with tricks? Why does he not test students on what they've practiced through his material? Why are the hours and hours of work I spend on reading, practice, and homework given negligible weight? Definitely don't recommend unless you're applying to Comm, and even then I suggest you take it spring semester so your grade doesn't affect your chances of getting into Comm

Unless you are pre-comm, I would avoid this course. And if you are pre-comm then I suggest you take it the spring semester you are applying for the school so they don't see the grade. The readings are pretty easy and quick to get through but the homework are very tedious. If you start them beforehand and get help from the TAs and possibly get it checked by them you will get an A for the hw section. But the exams are always curveballs. No matter how much you study, even if you have memorized how to do each practice and homework question be ready for a surprise score. The practice questions, hw questions, and the readings are very straightforward but the exam questions are very twisted and its really hard to link what you have learned to what the exam is asking you without realllly deep thought. And the weight increasing with each exam really doesn't help your grade. The class is also completely online but they do have office hours but I felt that the material and the resources never prepared you for the exams and that taking the class in person is a better option. But unfortunately, it's only online which really sucks. The class used to be a joke when it was offered in class but after he made it online it became super hard. And Roger Martin is basically non-existent as a professor except for the annoying emails he sends each week and the videos hes in on collab. You have to learn everything from the textbook.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAA TRASH

Hey Roger, as you cackle with glee as Cs from your exams roll in, here's a couple of things you should know. First, you are a lazy prick. Why are you lazy? Because you sit in your office and answer emails and piazza questions all day long and somehow McIntire still believes you deserve a six-figure salary. Furthermore, when students email you, it seems to be the case that you have the thinnest skin on the mf planet. You'll reply with sarcasm, belittle our emails by finding "uncivil" components of them, and sit back and congratulate yourself on how good you are at teaching. Why are you a prick? It's simple, really. You REFUSE to prepare your students for your exams. That has become very very clear. You save the hardest questions for the exams every single time. Why not give us hard questions as we study for the exam? would that really be the end of the world? Would it be such a terrible world to live in if your students' mental health didn't deteriorate? Our mental health deteriorates because you force us to look like idiots. Whenever exams scores are obscenely low, you say stupid things like "oh you should have studied harder" or "I guess you're not a good student" or (my personal favorite) "you should have spent more time in the chapters". See - that's the best part. you say we should spend 6-9 hours on every chapter. I spent 9 hours on every chapter. Were the results good? absolutely not. You create false expectations and we get our hopes up, and then those hopes get crushed every single time you give us an exam. You make us feel like idiots for NO GOOD REASON. So how about you do what you're paid to do and actually teach? The standards are very low in terms of online classes, but somehow you manage to never meet those standards. How about instead of patting yourself on the back for making students miserable, you actually give us a chance to prepare for your exams? Also, maybe consider the fact that you're not a good teacher? After all, a teacher is supposed to give students the opportunity to have CONTROL over their grade. In the absence of control, the teacher is clearly terrible at their job. If the amount of work students put in to preparing for your exams has very little effect on the outcome, you are the problem. I know you'll never read this but honestly I don't even care anymore. You live in a world where students don't have any other classes besides accounting, and I'd hate to be a part of that sad little world. Enjoy the well-deserved hatred of every student who ever takes this class with you!

Roger Martin is a prick. He’s one of those professors that acts like you should be grateful he’s even giving you the time of the day. On top of that, this class is completely self taught, which you may or may not like. What I found to be annoying is that you could study and understand how to do all of the practice or homework problems but then when it came to the test Martin would pull some new concept out of thin air that he’d expect you to make connections with. In a normal classroom setting where you’re actually being lectured, maybe you’d be able to make those connections because you’d have a deeper understanding of the content. But on an online course where you’re pretty much on your own, it’s pretty hard to do that. However, if you’re taking this course it’s probably because you’re pre-comm, so suck it up and take it I guess.

I’d say how well a student does in this course largely depends on how he or she feels about online classes. Personally, I like to teach myself and work independently so I enjoyed the course. However, if you prefer in-person demonstrations, asking the instructor questions, or structured coursework, this class might be a struggle.

Full disclosure: I got an A, but only because of the curve. I'm sort of neutral about the class overall, but there are definitely some problems with it. You will be teaching yourself pretty much the entire course from the textbook and practice problems/outside resources. I actually like this about the class, because I find the vast majority of the time professors don't actually add any value, and at the end of the day they can't learn the material for you; the online format spared me the annoyance of having to go to class just to browse reddit. Fortunately, the textbook was actually great for the most part, and the online practice problems were good at starting easy and getting really hard by the end of the assignment, which I felt prepared me well for exams. HOWEVER: there were some points in the later chapters (looking at you, Standard Costing and Variances) that were written HORRIBLY, to the point where you had to Google just to find out what the hell it was saying, and several places where the FORMULAS WERE STATED WRONG. I am sure that dozens of students were hurt on the final by the editing, and it could have cost them a letter grade. In terms of homework, you have probably around 7 hours a week, and I felt at the beginning that some of the expectations were unclear. I got a zero on the first two "reading" assignments because I didn't know that I had to click this tiny icon and answer tons of asinine questions about the material, but I figured it out eventually. I would seriously recommend starting the homework well in advance of the deadline, because for every single assignment without fail, I tried to read the chapter and do all the problems at 7pm the night it was due (11:59pm) and ended up with an 80% average on the homework overall, because sometimes the material would click and I would breeze through it, and other times I would get stuck and frantically answer the shortest questions to try to get as many points as possible once I realized I was screwed. Not fun. I would have had over a 93% average before the curve if I had just started earlier. TESTS: I thought the first test was easy and got like a 99% because it was a mix of calculation and conceptual problems just like the homework. On the second exam, which I thought was MUCH harder, it was 100% calculation questions which sort of blindsided me, and I ended up frantically racing the clock to finish and ended up with an A-, despite really knowing the material. I heard through the grapevine that the average on the second exam was about a 75%, which does not surprise me and explains what had to have been at least a 1.5% curve on our final grades. The final was almost all calculation questions as well, but overall I felt that it wasn't quite as hard as the second exam. For reference, my study style involves completely forgetting the material after I finish the homework on it, feeling completely unprepared and having a level of knowledge that would land me a 20% on the exam until like three days before, and then relearning all the material in a matcha-fueled binge that could easily not work out. TL;DR: Terrible depression-induced study habits landed me an A because everyone else did terribly, probably due to the lack of a teacher and errors in the textbook.

Basically, 2010 but different (somewhat better) material. You pay $100 to teach yourself a subject that is now done by computers and tank your GPA no matter what you do. Even if you do well on the homeworks and first two exams, you'll still get screwed over by the final and end up with a terrible grade regardless. Good luck to you, fellow student.