Author: Admin

By Annabel Faulkner

1. Understand the reason behind the answer rather than just regurgitating it by memory – this will ensure you understand the topic fully. This will also help you later on in the course because accountancy builds on previously taught topics – if you’re unsure of something then make sure you understand it before you move on.

2. Prepare fully for lectures, seminars and tutorials to make sure you reap the benefits. Print lecture hand-outs to ensure you can engage fully with the lecture and do the tutorial work prior to the tutorials so you can ask for clarification from your tutor for parts that you don’t fully understand.

3. Questions can often be wordy in exams so make sure you read questions carefully and thoroughly, and always double check your answers to avoid easy mistakes and errors.

4. Join the Management Society as it is a great way to make friends and offers lots of exciting opportunities from socials to trips abroad to careers event.

5. Practice exam style questions in preparation for exams so you understand how to lay out your answers correctly – in accounting there are often easy-to-pick-up-marks for the layout.

6. Work with course friends in revision time and in preparation for tutorials – they can help you and you can help them.

7. Keep up-to-date with current affairs, for example, by subscribing to the Economist, as this will help you with your degree as well as interviews and beyond.

8. Make the most of the career events run by the Management School, ManSoc and the central careers service – they are free to attend and you can build up your own industry links!

9. Look in to taking a placement year in industry or doing an internship as this can give you real life experience which will make you stand out when it comes to interviews. It also is a great way to see if you enjoy working in that environment.

10. Use your personal tutor in the Management School; they are experts in their field and understand how to structure essays and how to prepare for exams. They are there to help you or point you in the right direction of someone who can.

By Anamil Kochar

Let me start by telling you something about myself. I am Anamil Kochar, from India and did my most of my schooling in Amity International School at New Delhi, the capital of India. After that I moved to Pune, which is a city in western India and enrolled in an International School, which followed the British Education System. This total change in school environment and coursework, along with the fact that we moved to culturally a different part of the country, has really shaped me as an individual and has been instrumental in leading me to study on the BA Accounting and Financial Management programme at the University of Sheffield.

Sheffield University is one of the best universities in the world for my course as the Management School is a Triple Crown Accredited Business School. This course allows us to not only learn accounting but also understand life in the work place and improve life in general through modules like Professional Self-Management.

Professional Self Management was probably my favourite module in first year. This module had an assignment every two weeks ranging from online self-analysis and group tasks to understanding plagiarism and creating a personal development plan. The self-analysis helped me know my personality and understand my strengths and weaknesses. The other tasks helped me reflect on my learning, performance and aspirations. The personal development plan allowed me to spell out what I wanted to achieve in life and the means to achieve it. Moreover, it also allowed me to plan for my personal, educational and career development. The best thing about this module was the guest lectures from IBM and Grant Thornton. They helped us understand what employers look for when recruiting students for placement, internships and graduate jobs. For example, all the employers want students to be a part of a committee at university level, following this I applied for, worked towards and got elected into the universities Raising and Giving committee as the treasurer. Furthermore, it also helped me understand the recruitment process in detail. This module focused on the development of personal values such as honesty, integrity, self-motivation and loyalty, which are useful for life in general.

Another interesting module in the first year was Business Challenges, where our aim was to run a simulated company over a period of two years making decisions about the pricing of products, amount to be spent on advertising, marketing and production. We then had to determine profit and customer satisfaction at the end of two years. This module looked at all the aspects of running a business and is very useful if someone want to run their own business in the future. Also, it had a trading period every 10 days, and within the last week of the semester, we had a presentation and an essay due, so we had to work with very tight deadlines. One thing that I learnt from this module is that anything can happen in business world, be it a challenge, a deadline or a strategic decision, you have to be ready to expect the unexpected.

The other main modules such as Introduction to Management Accounting, Financial Accounting, and Business Economics helped me understand the details and techniques of Accounting, the importance of accounting in real life and practical approaches to the subject. This structured and supportive approach in all the modules also helped me achieve an internship in a financial company at the end of first year; you can read more about this in another blog post coming soon!

To conclude, I would like to say that I am really proud that I came to study at the University of Sheffield and I am enjoying every bit of my student life as well as every aspect of my course.

By Robbie Bailey

Hi guys!

I thought I would tell you about my experiences during my first year here at Sheffield and the modules that you can expect to study if you choose to study at our Management School.

As Accounting and Financial Management students you will, of course, study various modules in accountancy. For me, this consisted of two separate modules: Introduction to Financial Accounting and Introduction to Management Accounting. These modules aim to give first year students an understanding in the differences between financial and management accountancy. Financial accounting covers things like financial reports and the accounting regulations that must be followed in practice. These reports and the financial performances of businesses are the basis for the decision making processes which are covered in the Management Accounting module studied during the first year of this degree.

The ‘Financial Management’ part of this degree is covered by a range of modules that are studied alongside the core accountancy modules. These include: Introduction to Financial Management and Analysis for Decision Making. Introduction to Financial Management covers the basics of various topics involved in money management and includes more mathematical material. Topics covered include risk and return, financial derivatives and interest rates. I have really enjoyed studying this module this year as I have a strong mathematical background and Financial Management has provided me with a great opportunity to learn how to use my skills within a specialised financial environment.

The Analysis for Decision Making module studied during the first year here in Sheffield is the most mathematical of all the first year modules. It is effectively a continuation of a level mathematics, particularly Statistics. However, do not worry if you have not studied any maths at a level! Students are separated into those who have a level (Analysis for decision making A) and those who don’t (Analysis for decision making B). Both groups study the same material; however, those in the B group have one extra hour of contact time per week. This module covers topics such as probability, investment appraisal and normal distribution. Those of you who, like myself, have studied a level statistics modules, will enjoy this module as you will find that the skills you have learnt prior to studying here in Sheffield are easily transferable. The Management School here at Sheffield also provides Microsoft Excel workshops during this module and these are spread throughout the year. These workshops provide a sound understanding of the functions of Excel and the skills learnt in these workshops will be crucial during the later years of this degree and in future life.

During my first year at Sheffield I have also studied various other modules on topics surrounding finance and management. First years are required to study a module of Business Economics as well as additional management school modules in Self-Management and Organizational Behaviour. All these modules provide students with a great all round understanding of the financial world and cover a whole variety of subjects. The broad range of study is helpful when students must select their own module choices in later years.

Personally, I have really enjoyed my first year here in Sheffield and the first year of studying for the Accounting and Financial Management degree. Sheffield University and the Management School are truly world-leading and this high standard can be seen throughout all the aspects of the education provided here. The staff provide an excellent learning environment and the various forms of assessment used throughout the year have allowed my studies to remain enjoyable and challenging.