One-on-one

During teaching practice I helped grade 10 Accounting pupils after school, as an extra accounting class. In this class I reflected on the past exam and tried to determine what they don't know or what they are struggling with.

So this one boy struggled with the OE = A + L (Owners Equity = Assets + Liabilities)... I sat with him one afternoon, one-on-one. We took a exercise and we went through the exercise transaction per transaction. I gave him T-accounts to logically see the transaction happen in front of him. After about the 5th transaction and nothing seems to be wrong with him, I asked him why he came for this extra class if he keeps getting everything right? He told me he never used T-accounts in the exams. So then I asked him if he had spare time left in the exams and he said yes. So then I gave him the tip to use T-accounts next time when he have to complete the OE = A + L.

If it still doesn't work, we will try a different technique.

So what is this whole story about?
I just want to point out that sometimes you just have to give one hour (or even less) of your time to someone and maybe you can make a big difference, just because of the one-on-one dealing with a problem "technique".

Happy calculating :)

www.double-entry-bookkeeping.com