Kenneth K. Leong

If you are a learn-from-book person, then he's the guy to take.He puts problems from the text for exams so if you know all the hw problems you'll get a B or so. If you know all the problems(even the unassigned ones) then you'll probably get an A. But if you are not a read-book-yourself person then don't take him. There's no point in going to class because he's late every class for 1/2 hr and he scribbles on the board asking for calculations from students with a calculator and reading over students' texts. During class he would go out and chat with people while the class work over a hw problem. Even though his teaching style is ineffective, he's a nice professor and has a sense of humor so at least you don't have to put up with some self centered professor who hates his/her students.

You should only take this class with Dr. Leong if you are very good at learning from the book and don't mind spending the time to pretty much memorize it to pass his tests. Although Dr. Leong is a very nice person and tells some funny jokes he has to be one of the worst teachers I have ever had. His mastery of the material is glancing; his lectures are scattered and confusing; he is often late starting class and late ending class; his handwriting is difficult to decipher; and he writes everything out in a mass of abbreviations on the board, or attempts to explain things without using the board. He also assigns a great deal of homework but does not collect it or review it unless you ask a specific question...and then he doesn't always know the answer to the question (sometimes merely changing the subject rather than saying so), or his answer diasagrees with that that the answer key provides. And there was more than one occasion when a student did not understand the explanation he gave and he could not think of another way to explain it. Consequently, students are expected to seek answers in the Accounting Lab, which is not often open at convenient times and has very limited hours during finals week. I got the feeling that he would have much rather been teaching a class on mergers and acquisitions or the stock market (his favorite tangents in class). The hardest part of this class though was that there was such a massive amount of material to cover and that Dr. Leong was unable to narrow the focus of the material to help us study for the two tests, largely because he hadn't made them up before the question session. Each test was billed to cover 12-13 chapters, but neither covered more than 6 chapters.

Professor Leong is nice guy. He is very easy to talk with and he has a great sense of humor. You can feel that he really cares for his students on a personal level.

However, if you give him a piece of chalk and an accounting problem to solve, he turns into something else. His teaching style is scattered at best. You won't know where he is going with his lectures. In fact, I don't think that even he knows. He may start with one topic like Net Present Value and 10 minutes later he will end up talking about something completely different like Straight-Line Depreciation. This is a typical lecture. There is no structure, organization, or cohesion. It's best to read the book and make your own sense of it all.

He does assign relevant homework, but does not really go over the problems very well. A question that should take 5 minutes to answer will take at least 30 minutes because of all the tangents he gets into.

His tests are from the book, but he gives the impression that the questions will be harder and require more analysis. However, he is a generous grader. That was the only way I got an A in his class.

I would not suggest taking Leong. But, if you ever wanted to have a professor to go have a drink with or eat some nice food, this is the guy. I think that he is very intelligent, but for some reason he can't teach what he knows to a class.

Professor Leong is a kind instructor, but he is very unclear and does not prepare students well. He goes off on many tangents (usually unrelated) and stops midsentence and says, "Follow, okay?" Very hard to follow. He assigns problems from the book, which are helpful, and takes his exam questions directly from problems in the chapters that students were not assigned. Two tests were given -- 50% each. He is fairly generous with grading and gives partial credit.

Leong lectures in a very confusing way. He uses abbreviations for everything, i.e., CIXPV=capital in excess of par value. This can be confusing for native speakers and foreign students alike. When he writes on the board he uses acronyms indiscriminately and meshes everything together. He doesn't like erasing topics already discussed and the result is a jammed, indecipherable board.

If you're going to take his class, I suggest getting the syllabus, spending time at home (instead of in class) doing every exercise in the book and coming to class for the tests. Just be sure to keep in touch with someone who does attend class so that you know about test date changes, etc.

Overall, I think Leong's heart is in the right place but his communication skills and teaching style just make the course too confusing. He's difficult to understand and goes off on many tangents. I have learned much more from the book.

Dr. Leong is an interesting instructor because he is very humurous when he teaches and he enjoys teaching accounting. The only problem taking Dr. Leong is that he does not come to class on time, but he is always around to help students indeed. I like to recommend him because he does not make accounting boring like other instructors; he is a very fast paced instructor.