Pre-Skills

Students join the Smith School with a variety of technical skills and educational and professional backgrounds. The resources below have been compiled to assist incoming students with preparing for their master's coursework.

UMD students have unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, an online library of instructional videos covering the latest software, creative, and business skills. 

 

Required Summer Pre-Skills Assignment for BUAC 712: Business Communication 

BUAC712: Business Communication, taught by Professor Sam Handwerger, is a required first-term course for MS in Accounting students. 

Stories - we all like to hear stories. WHY?

Well, perhaps it helps us make sense out of the events of our life. We seem to be genetically wired to "accomplish" things while we are alive on this earth, to have a meaningful life. Yet life events often seem random.

So if we hear "stories" of others, then perhaps hearing how others have found meaning in the events of their lives helps us find meaning in our own, very unique, life.

"THE MOTH" is a nonprofit venture promoting the telling of stories (see https://themoth.org/). The first "speech" in this class will be called "The Moth Speech", and it is all about you.

Sample some examples of The Moth Speech at https://themoth.org/education/stories. Now develop one of your own such stories into a two-page story", writing it out in your own words. Write it out freestyle, meaning just "write", don't think of grammar or spelling or paragraphs. Just write.

Then give that draft to an open source AI site, for example https://openai.com/chatgpt/. Ask the AI to re-write your writing. Consider what "prompt" to tell the AI. To help you with prompts to AI for writing go to https://www.grammarly.com/blog/ai-writing-prompts/. Give your freestyle draft of your story to AI with a prompt per your liking and ask it to re-write it based on that prompt. Edit that to get to something you like and are proud to call "your story" as written by "you" (assisted by AI!).

Have your "story" ready at the first class of the course...not to turn in...but to brainstorm how we, as a class, can make use of these for the benefit of others.  

Finally, and not required, but if you feel strongly about the meaning and lesson(s) of your story, feel free to pitch it to The Moth at https://themoth.org/share-your-story/pitchline.

Questions about the BUAC 712 pre-skills assignment or course content can be directed to Professor Handwerger (shandwer@umd.edu). 

   

Required Summer Pre-Skills Assignment for BUAC 740: Data Driven Decision Making

BUAC 740: Data Driven Decision Making (DDDM), taught by Professor Tunay Tunca, is another required first-term course for MS in Accounting students. This critically important course covers analytical tools and models for managerial decisions that are used extensively in managerial practice as well as in other subsequent courses in the MS in Accounting curriculum. To prepare for DDDM all students are required to complete "Spreadsheet Modeling: Introductory Section (SM)," an online course from Harvard Business Publishing. This online course focuses on fundamental skills in spreadsheet analysis that will be used in DDDM. This assignment accounts for 5% of each student's grade for DDDM.

Study Time Required: Students should go through the various units making sure to constructively use the active learning method that is the basis of this online course. The faculty instructor for DDDM will be able to monitor your progress through the various parts of this online course. Harvard Business Publishing estimates that it will take 6 hours to complete this course. Students should assume this as a minimum to be safe and plan accordingly. Students are urged to register for SM and begin studying the course material as soon as possible.

Performance and Due Date: SM includes a Final Exam with only once chance. Performance in this online exam will account towards the 5% of the grade for BUAC 740. The deadline for taking the SM final exam is Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. 

Academic Integrity: Students will complete this assignment under the University of Maryland's Code of Academic Integrity. Any violation of this code, such as receiving help from another individual in taking a Test, will result in an academic integrity sanction, including the possibility of an “XF” on your transcript with the notation “failure due to academic dishonesty”.

Harvard Business School Publishing Online Course Registration Information  

Course Number and Name: Spreadsheet Modeling Online Course, Excel 2013: Introductory Section

Cost: $45, to be paid individually by the student directly to HBSP

Login Information:

Technical Difficulty? Contact the Harvard Business School Publishing Technical Support at custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu or 800-810-8858 or see https://hbsp.harvard.edu/contact-us/

Questions about the BUAC 740 pre-skills assignment or course content can be directed to Professor Tunca (ttunca@umd.edu). 

 

Additional Optional Assignments and Reading

Incoming students do not need to be proficient with all of these tools prior to the start of classes, however, having some prior experience could help them learn more effectively.