The Balancing Acct from a university student’s perspective:
I am currently student at Rice University, and when I first sat down to play the Balancing Acct, I had zero accounting knowledge. I had never even heard about accounting in high school and only had a vague idea of what accounting might be by my junior year in college. I never considered studying accounting before playing the game because it just seemed like a tedious, abstract subject that only the people who do taxes need to know anything about, and it was therefore not relevant to me at all.
I began playing the game and discovered the integral relationship that accounting has with business as well as with personal finance. It struck me how useful a general knowledge of accounting is to everyone, not only just to those going into careers in the business world. The game was a very enjoyable, hands-on introduction to accounting, and as I spent time playing the game, I really got an understanding of what the accounting equation is and why it is used.
After playing the game, I decided to take a beginning accounting class at my university. My classmates struggled with the terms and material presented because it seemed so theoretical, and most could not grasp how it all fit together. Most students did not enjoy the subject because it seemed to be just memorization of terms and examples with no real application, and the professor struggled with ways to substantially present and explain the material. I felt I had a very practical introduction to accounting from playing the game and could better conceptualize the material presented in class. I constantly found myself visualizing the game in everything we discussed in class. I found I did not have to use rote memorization for the accounting equation or any of the terms presented in class; the game had given me a very illustrative, tangible representation of how the terms relate to each other and the equation, as well as how the concepts can be applied to real world situations.
Eric, Stanford University – “Having no accounting experience at all I was a little skeptical about how much The Balancing Acct could teach me in an hour of game play. Boy was I mistaken! I did not realize how effectively the game could give a sense for the overarching challenges a corporation faces: accounts receivable and accounts payable, unforeseen circumstances such as worker's compensation, as well as inventory management. The Balancing Acct game teaches participants how to use the accounting equation in real world situations and, along with this beginner knowledge, is a lot of fun to play with a few friends.”
Bryan, Occidental College, “The Balancing Acct” game created by Elizabeth Conner offered me a refreshing new approach to learning the basics of accounting. Without any previous experience or knowledge regarding accounting, within hours of playing this game, it taught me many different accounting terms and basic accounting principles. The most basic and important equation, Assets = Liabilities + Owners’ Equity, was introduced immediately and through play of the game I learned what this equation meant and its finer details. Quickly I became proficient in recording and classifying business transactions all the while attempting to make risky yet intelligent decisions in order to build the most owners’ equity. The rules are clearly written and easy to follow. Supplementing these rules is a “cheat” sheet that smoothly helps even the most ignorant accounting minds through the processes of their accounting and strategy. Overall through playing this game in its entirety it taught me general accounting without me even knowing it. This abstract take to accounting instruction added the much needed hands on, visual experience that is necessary in my learning process. Also this game answered the question that all students ask, “Why do I need to learn this for the real world?”; “The Balancing Acct” brought the real world to the class room.
