John J. O'shaughnessy

Highly recommended. John has a great command of the subject and an engaging teaching style

This professor is very knowledgeable about the subject and teaches not only from his obvious book smarts, but his own personal experiences in the field of accounting. I left the first class a little intimidated, but after the first midterm I realized that all I really had to do was read the chapters assigned before he lectured on them and pay attention in class. It is not neccesary to print out the power point presentations, if you read the chapter it is kind of pointless. The big downside to this teacher is that sometimes he will not answer your question very specifically, but I found that he was good at explaining the material as long as you were prepared to listen. Advice: Do the assigned problems, they are not very difficult and strongly help you understand the material! Also, read the chapters, because his tests are based soley on the book. Don't bother buying the workbook (unless you are an extreme overachiever and like to spend money).

I thought the tests were a fair and thorough review of the material. The good part about the lectures is that they have relevant, up to date examples that help you understand how the material is applied. The bad part is that the prof does not engage the class, but rather talks at the students. The homework problems were well chosen but he had a hard time explaining how to solve them, even with a blackboard full of his scribbles. He seems like a nice guy, although he didn't even try to get to know any of the students (on the last day of class we had to tell him what our class participation grade should be - I can only assume he didn't know anyone's name).

Great lecturer. Make sure you do homework. It is not checked, but important for exams. Read the text to study for multiple choice exam questions. Watch out for class participation grade. There is no criteria. You will be asked to grade yourself. Write down every question and comment that you make. You will be asked to show it to him.

Prof. O'Shaughnessy really does know his stuff, but he lacks the ability to teach the material well. He only teaches each chapter for about a week and then moves on to the next. Since I didn't get what he said during his lectures, I had to self-learn from the book, and I really agree that the book teaches the material much better than he does.

I also don't like the way how he weighs his tests so much even though there are only a couple of questions per exam (one 30% midterm that consisted of 25 questions, another 30% midterm worth 42 questions, and a 40% final worth 32 questions, all multiple choice). If he is going to do that, he might as well assign more tests. Because of that, so many students fail his class.

If any of you are planning to take ACCT 100, try to find another professor. Take O'Shaughnessy when there are only no professors left.

nothing much to say just that he's the easiest teacher for Acct 303. Just make sure you do ur homeworks (20%) of the grade, and ur exams are graded on the curve. For the final exam, out of 45MCQ, he droppped 11MCQ and so 34/45 is an 100%.

Dont really need to purchase the book - just make sure you photocopy the homework problems. His powerpoint notes are detailed and explanatory. Go through each slide properly as thats what i did before the exam and did pretty well in this course

His lectures are very clear and to the point since he does everything on power point. There are no assignments just three tests which are fair. And he also makes outlines of his class lectures that you can print. he makes it very easy for you to learn but he lacks personality during his lectures so they are a bit dry, but other than that he's great.

Course Syllabus: Midterm I 25% Midterm II 25% Final Examination 30% Homework 20%

John O'Shaughnessy is a cool professor. Exams are totally based on his lecture powerpoint notes (all downloadable off his website). Most of his MC questions (30-35 questions) are somewhat difficult and tricky. Most do poorly on MC test, but the extra credit questions WILL definitely boost up your score by at least 2 grades!! You can get a 'C' on the MC test and still get an 'A' on the exam if you answer the extra credit correctly. Extra credit questions are straight off the homework assignment. In addition, he'll drop 2-3 questions on every test. John is one of those few professors who want everyone the get an 'A'. Homework (questions from textbook) should be an easy 20% of the semester grade. He'll go over the homework in class and some will appear as extra credit on the exams. Over half of the topic is this course were challenging, difficult, and dry, but John does a good job in his lectures and understands that some topic are difficult to grasp. Powerpoint notes are downloaded off of his website, and I recommend printing 9 slides per page, because John will often zip through each slide and each powerpoint chapter notes has an average of 90 slides.

Overall, this class was okay, easy 'A' and finance students will learn accounting concepts and some business environment from his class.

I actually thought I would fail the class, but with all my hard work, and showing the professor that I tried, he knew that I did my best. I improved in the class, not by much though, and I received a passing grade. I must say that going to him, showing him how much work you put into your studies might better your chances to pass the class.

Teacher personality: Positive aspects Professor John OShaughnessy is the best Accounting professor; I have taken at state. He is always available for help during office hours and by appointment. The book he has chosen for the class is fairly easy to read. It offers online help and online quizzes. His style is to first cover the material assign homework and the then the next class immediately go over the homework. He also has a sense of humor and is a very engaging when it comes to lecturing. He is quick to point out short cuts to formulas that are not offered in the book. "All in all a great Professor!"

Negatives: Towards the end of the semester, Professor John OShaughnessy rushed the class threw the final chapters too quickly which made studying difficult for the final.

Grading structure Accounting 101 is a challenging course so be prepared to work hard. You have to read this material and do the homework or you will not pass his class. I believe that 25% of the class did not pass the course weather that is a reflection of the professor or students who though they could cram 4 to 5 chapters the night before the exams we will never know. But if you put forth the effort, you will have no problem passing his class. He grades on a curve by throwing six questions out of each test that in my opinion is the bomb. Grading: midterm #1 is 30%, midterm #2 is 30%, and the final is 40%, home work is not required to be turned in.

He is a descent professor, but not the best. Heck, come to think of it, not many professors in the acct. dept can teach the subject well. His lecture like other said before is a summary of the chapter, and does tend to get boring. His exam are difficult, be he does give a curve, (if he didn't, 90% of the class would fail). However, he is a DESCENT accounting professor compare to others in the dept. I would recommend him if you get the chance but just don't expect to be passing with flying colors if aren't the type that hit the books every night.

He is not the easiest teacher, but I think you learn a lot from him. He is very knowlegeable in the field of auditing, and he promotes you to think and integrate all accounting knowledge you have acquired.

While it may be true that he is not the best pick for the first accounting class, he definitely is your key to success! He gives you as much help as he can, so long as he knows that you are serious student.

If you had unplesant experience with him for ACCT100, you will not find anyone else easier at the later courses. Accounting concept is not easy to begin with, so I think in some part, it is your responsibility to spend good time to understand the concept.

For ACCT506, we had two exams (non-cummulative), 2/3 multiple choice and 1/3 short essay questions. He grades the essay very fairly and there is no surprise if you had studied the material. He encourages you to participate in class, and you will be presenting an article or a case study to the class.

If you want to learn and thinking about taking the CPA exam, his class will help you immensely.

As a business person, he is a fair and very intelligent in this field...although in a teaching aspect...he sucks. He answers your questions with a question so in the end, you might as well have asked a wall that question. He decided to take out his power point presentation and his online notes because he felt like no one was attending his lectures. Without his online notes, you would seriously not know what to copy down for he talks so vaguely on the chapter and he doesn't "teach" the chapter...he basically summarizes the chapter to you. His tests at one point were open notes but the subject is such a hard one, you need a professor who will teach you how to interpret the subject. He curves which I suppose is a good thing. He writes EXTREMELY small and seriously...his lectures are useless because they are just plain non-understandable. An example of how he lectures: a chapter on journalizing accounts-he will draw the chart and give a problem and tell you this is where it goes and expect you to know why it goes there and how to interpret other problems. I WOULD SERIOUSLY NOT RECOMMEND HIM AS YOUR FIRST CHOICE!!!!!

He is nice, but ACCT102 might be hard for someone. In spring2000, only 25 out of 90 people could pass this class. Do your "practice set" earlier. It is not hard, but time-consuming. Final is very easy!

Dr. Oshaughnessy is hard but fair.. His lectures covers the material in a nice way, but you really need to pay attention if you want to pass this class, because this class is really hard! If you ask him a question, he will ask you a question back, and he is very keen to make sure that you understood his answer. To sum it up, he is a great instructor, his tests are pretty tough, and you really have to put effort into his class, but you'll get a lot out from it.

John O'Shaughnessy was the only professor I had this semester who really challenged me to learn something and thereby made it interesting. After taking over from Mark Blank, he made the class much easier to follow, more engaging, predictable, and challenging.

Accounting is not easy for me, and there's a lot of counter-intuitive stuff to learn. O'Shaughnessy made it interesting though, and was patient enough to go over everything slowly enough to make himself understood but quickly enough to hold my attention. He came to class prepared every day, with an easy to follow PowerPoint presentation ready to go that was downloadable from his web site. His site, by the way, was more interesting than some BACS professors' sites. He commanded attention, not just because he seems like a nice guy, but because he was actually teaching us something useful. I'm not majoring in accounting, but I still think I've learned something I'll hang on to from the class.

I have read many of the reviews. It is true, if you try to email this guy a question, he has never answered it. He always asks a question. So figure you have to email him 2 times to actually get the answer you wanted. He tries to help you as much as he can but this semester he gave many homework assignments, and went over them as a group. So as individuals I didn't get to know what I did wrong. He has odd office hours so if you have class, good luck on meeting up with him. His overhead projections are hard to see. He does think everyone there are accounting majors and he grades the problems part of the exam hard!!! I missed one thing i got only 2 points out of 10!!. The bad thing is, he might be the best instructor in the department.

I think Prof. O'shaughnessy is an excellent teacher! He is great an explaining the accounting concepts. I understand most of the concepts and he makes accounting easy to learn. Although I heard bad things about him, from my experience so far, he is the best to take when you want to take Accounting 100.

For a C.P.A O'shaughnessy sure makes a lot of mistakes when making calculations. His errors throw students off and make everyone confused. He almost never catches himself and it's usually students who correct him. The class was not enjoyable. He went too fast and gave bogus homework assignments that weren't even explained well when it came time to go over them. Again he would rush through the reviews and his overhead projections were too small to see. Questions were encouraged but most were so clueless about the topic that it was hard to know what to ask. O'shaughnessy knows his accounting concepts but explains them in an uninteresting fashion. The only ok thing was that sometimes the tests were open book. In the end, all I can say is that if you want a mechanical teacher, take him.

Lets see the material went too fast, could not see his power point presentations, he answered questions with questions, the midterms were weighted too much. The only good thing is that his final was not cumulative and all the homwork he assigns if you do he gives you credit for it.

I guess I will start off by saying that Dr. O'shaughnessy is an excellent accounting teacher for someone who already knows a little bit about the subject but for raw beginners I would recommend against taking him for a 100 level class. He goes way too fast assuming that people know the material and uses a power point lecture which as I had to run from near the other side of campus and usually got to class at 10 minutes after all the seats in the front were taken so I was forced to sit in the back of the room and could not see the notes nor were they sent to the accounting lab in a timely manner to make copies of them.

I guess for accounting majors he would be a good teacher because he's really anul and nit-picky not only as a teacher, but as a person. This was by far my hardest class because of the poor teaching. First, he walks into the class assuming that we have a general background in accounting. Second, he assumes that we're all accounting majors (85% of my class wasn't). Third, he makes it extremely hard to ask questions because when you do, he'll either answer it patronizingly, or won't answer it at all saying he doesn't know what "money is". I feel he is very uncaring about the students in class and gives the impression that he's just there to talk and then leave. I would only recommend him to accouting majors and not to any other business majors.

Great teacher! He counts homework even and that is a sign that he cares enough to spend time collecting homework and giving people credit on it. Teachers who give no hmwk are the ones to avoid. Definitely take this professor if you have the chance. Luckily the final is not cummulative and he even gives hints on the contents of the tests.

Professor O'Shaunessy is a teacher who deserves recognition. Accounting is a really difficult subject and he can really get it across. He makes concepts easy to understand with his examples. He uses powerpoint on a TV in class so you'd be better off sitting in the front of the class. His grading was 25% 1st midterm, 25% 2nd midterm and 35% 3rd midterm. The final is not cumulative. If you keep up with your homework and read the chapters as they are assigned, you will do just fine. I would definitely recommend him to students who are serious about learning something in class.

Professor Oshaughnessy is an excellent teacher. He is one of those teachers that really teaches students "something" in class. He uses powerpoint to teach his lectures and u can download the lectures from his website. I took his class in the Winter, which was kind of difficult and rush, but it was worth money because i really did learn something from him. However, i don't really like his grading policy. 40% each for the midterm and the final....if u fail one of them, then u will be in trouble.