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Financial Accounting Review by Camilla Anderson

Michael P. Licata, Ph.D.
Professor in a Box
212 Dory Drive
Ocean City, New Jersey 08226
http://www.professorinabox.com

This Financial Accounting course is a college level course designed for homeschool high school students. This course is similar in content to the first accounting course taken by college students. The author, Dr. Licata, is currently an accounting professor at the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. For the past eight years, he has specialized in teaching distance learning courses. When this course is completed, the student will have completed the college level equivalent of this course and even be able to prepare easily for the corresponding CLEP test. Any diligent high school level student with basic math skills (algebra) can handle this course

This product contains three CDs that are to be played on the computer. Each CD contains 28 lessons (arranged in 12 chapters), that can be done over the course of 28 weeks (one per week), or 14 weeks (2 per week). Each lesson requires about 75 minutes to listen to, view, study, and take notes, with an additional 1.5 to 2.5 hours of homework per lesson. The lectures are audio recordings by Dr. Licata that the student hears while clicking through a slide show presentation. The student is able to pause, back up, for flip forward through the slides at will, and the audio recording corresponds with each slide.

Included on the CD are printable PDF pages that list the course objectives, key terms and concepts, and the homework assignments, as well as the solutions to the homework problems, as appropriate.

This is my first experience with a college-level course. We have just determined that my 14-year-old son is ready to start some college level work with the goal of taking one or two CLEP tests at the end of this school year--this course being one of them. And it has been a great experience!

This curriculum could not be more organized. The CDs are easy to use and completely user friendly. The CDs and corresponding information are organized, easy to navigate, and the teaching style of Dr. Licata is clear, concise, and easy to follow. He is an excellent professor. This course is perfect for the homeschooled high school student who is interested in pursuing an accounting or business degree. I honestly can't imagine there could be a better option for a homeschool college-level course. While this course will be a challenge for my 14-year-old (who has completed Algebra 1 and has started Algebra 2), it is the perfect way for him to start his independent college level work, and a great introduction to college classroom learning. I was amazed at how easy it was to show my son how to get started (took less than 10 minutes), and how easily he was able to begin working through the course. At this point, he is enjoying the course, understanding it thoroughly, and learning the material well. He is soon going to be able to talk "shop" with his Dad, who has a B.S. in Business Management. The design of this curriculum is effective and easy to use. I am thoroughly impressed and very excited to watch as my son continues to work his way through this course on his way to his first CLEP exam.

This course retails for $150. Sometimes there may be a web special (at the time of this review it was on special for $135). I think it is an incredible value for a college level course. When combined with the cost of a CLEP test (around $80), the total course cost is about $230. I hope Dr. Licata puts together more college level courses for the homeschool high school student. I would use every one.

Product Review by Camilla Anderson, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January, 2009

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