Harold Wilson

School: Old Dominion University
Department: History
Location: Norfolk, VA
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
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Dr. Wilson has a hard time getting his thoughts out to the class. But he is a very kind man and if he knows who you are(aka you take time to talk to him) you should not have anything to worry about.
If you like to sit in class and not participate then you either be excellent in accounting or take someone else
Exams: Very hard but had a huuuuge curve.
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Mr. Wilson is a nice man, and sometimes funny, but I don't suggest taking his class. It it a total waste of time and money. You will not learn anything! However, if you have found yourself stuck in his class, don't drop it. You will pass. His grading system is absurd and gives you absolutely no insight into how you are actually doing. But it works out for most. Key word...CURVE!
Exams: Ridiclously hard. There is no possible way to study for his test. If you can manage to even grasp a consept of the material in class, it will be totally different on the test.
Homework: None
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He was not a good professor at all, he started class off with the stupid jokes, He gave one HHEELL of a curve but I did not learn one thing. I hated his class do not take him if you want to learn something. But if you want to pass with little of no effort take him.
Exams: They did not make any since, the study guide he gives does not help.
Homework: None!
Textbook: We did not use the textbook, but buy one cause its the only way you will learn anything.
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He tends to get off the subject very easily. I took this as a 3 hour course 6-9pm so he tended to talk alot about his wife, grandchildren, children, his corvette he had for sale, and the new house he was building. He was a very nice man just easily distracted. At the first of the semester I thought I was only to fail this course but he helps you in any and every way he can.
Exams: She test are really hard, and if you're like me and have no accounting background they can be tough. Study Study Study!
Homework: no homework
Textbook: The textbook will come in handy when studying for vocabulary words, but you could probably get by without it. He gives out a lot of handouts on different kinds of accounting problems.
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Dr. Wilson is a nice guy but he just doesn't know how to teach. He'll talk about nonsense until the last 10 minutes and try to cram everything in and confuse you even more. He hands out TONS AND TONS of handouts and is very unorganized. If you're not good at Accounting, I would not take him. He curves like crazy and that's the only way you'll survive. He also gives a finance test at one point which is the hardest thing you'll ever take. It's not the normal finance stuff. Stay away from Dr. Wilson. He's in my top 5 of worst teachers.
Exams: You need to take a whole other class strictly on how to take his tests. It's unreal the way he grades and what he takes off for. I think he gives his grades and points based on his mood that day. He takes off if you write too big or too small and then if you go into the "margin". It's seriously stupid. They're really hard and never make sense. The questions have nothing to do with what you study.
Homework: None. He said it was helpful to do the homework at the end but it wasn't. The only other thing we did outside of class was a personal budget and stock market analysis and they were "extra credit".
Textbook: We hardly used it in class, but I used it when I studied. You have to teach it to yourself.
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The guy means well and some sense of humor, but his teaching style was way over my head. On a positive note, he has a HUGE curve. My tests average about a 58 by the end of the semester and I ended up with a C+
Exams: The tests were very hard and hard to study for. The answers were not clear cut, or they were tricky.
Homework: none
Textbook: Rarely used it, maybe to get some definitions to study for the tests, which they were not the ones he used. He had his own definitions and views on accounting.
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I don't know how this guy became a teacher, he should not be teaching. Don't waste your time and money taking his class. Everytime you ask him a question he doesn't give you a straight anwer, he just says "I'll leave that for your research" and everything he writes on the board is abbreviated, so you have to sit the and try to decipher what he means. Don't take this guy unless you want to hear boring stories and stupid jokes that have nothing to do with accounting.
Exams: Test questions came from a book other than the one we used in class and about 80 percent of the questions were about material that was never discussed in class.
Homework: excercises at the end of the chapter
Textbook: you must read the text if you want to actually learn something in this class.
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Wilson really enjoys talking about how worthless his son-in-laws are and telling corny jokes. He also loves talking about his fraud business that he's co-owner in with his buddy, whose last name is Wilson. Fraud is his masterpiece. Thats what he loves and thats all I can say. He will give you a good grade if you try hard. If you go into the class and do not read, take notes or even pass one test, he will still pass you with a C. Period. No lie. GREATEST CURVE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE.
Exams: The test had material on it that we had never heard of or had never went over in class.
Homework: Only one homework assignment was given but it had little relevance.
Textbook: Wilson gets adjitated if he sees you don't have your book but it really doesn't matter. You never actually use the book for anything except to act as if you're following along with what he's talking about when and if he ever actually opens the thing.
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Dr. Wilson is a funny guy, he keeps the classes attention and is lively. If you take him, don't expect to learn too much about managerial accounting, but do expect to have a low grade. Don't worry though, in the end he curves or adds in points or does something to bring grades up. My grade calculated to be a high 50 to a low 60 and I ended up with a C in the course. To make a long story short, go to class(he takes attendance), try and do as much as you can, and you'll be ok at the end of the semester.
Exams: Towards the end of the semester he gives a test on finance. How he expects students to understand finance without giving them so much as a book to study about it I don't know.
Homework: At the beginning of the semester we had a group project to work on outside of class, and one other project was required. Neither very hard.
Textbook: I referred to the text a few times.
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I could not bear to take this professor again. He talked more about his family, included an occasional bad joke, and RARELY talked about relevent material. Unless accounting comes naturally to you or you are willing to teach yourself, I would avoid this professor.
Exams: Homework was never taken up and rarely discussed. His grading seems to be quite fair, he claims to curve. There were only two other assignments, one was a stock market analysis
Homework: He assigned questions from the end of each chapter were never taken up and to be honest, of no help.
Textbook: Helpful only because you must teach yourself.
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I would not suggest taking him to anyone! He is the worst teacher. He likes to get off the subject and talk about his family and friends. He likes to tell jokes that make no sense. I dreaded going to class, but I went everyday thinking maybe he would actually teach. He would scribble things on the board that you would have no idea what it meant. He did not answer questions clearly. He curved his test like CRAZY!! You have to be a very good guesser to make pass a C on the test.
Exams: The tests were horrible! You can not study for the test, because there was material that you have never seen before and you get so confused that you can not concentrate on the test.
Homework: He never checks to see if you do your homework. Doing the homework does nothing because he never explained it well so you will be confused on the work.
Textbook: The book was somewhat helpful. You could learn more from the book then him.
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STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROFESSOR! He's a nice guy and all, but as a professor, I have to say that I'd rather be taught by someone clueless. All we talked about was his personal experiences. Class hardly contained accounting information unless you asked a question. Lectures were only based off of questions, not the material.
Exams: I got docked points because my lines in my journal weren't straight. NO KIDDING!!!
Homework: questions from the end of the chapter. It was never graded or checked though.
Textbook: Had to use the text because you didn't learn anything in class.
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Mr. Wilson is a great human being but a terrible professor. He very rarely "taught". His idea of teaching seemed to be just answering questions on the readings. If there were no questions, he didn't even teach. He just went on to the next lesson. Most of the time spent in lectures consist of hearing about his family, his trips and his outside accounting business. Also, he is very different with tests. He hands out one page at a time. He's just different, but like I said, he's a great person, just not a very good professor.
Exams: Grades on a major curve. Brings the highest test grade in the class up to a 95% then adds the difference in points to everyone elses test. Also, on the final, he subtracts 5% from your grade on your final exam and replaces your lowest test grade with that number. However, I have to say, without the grade curving, I would have probably gotten a C or D instead of the A that I did get.
Homework: Questions from the ends of the chapter in the book and a Stock Market project about a specific stock of your choosing.
Textbook: You can't do the homework without the book. Also, if you don't have the book, you won't have the slightest idea of what's going on!
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DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. YOU WILL NOT GET A GRASP OF THE CONCEPTS AND YOUR G.P.A. WILL SUFFER!!!!!!
Exams: The tests were not a fair test of whether you understand accounting
Homework: Only stupid extra-credit assignments
Textbook: Good book
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I would not recommend taking this professor. He spent much of the class time telling stories, instead of going over assigned problems. It would have been more helpful if he spent the class time actually reviewing accounting problems.
I think that his true interest is in fraud and auditing, so he tends to focus too much on these areas. He doesn't really do a good job explaining basic accounting. Most of the students had no prior accounting knowledge, so they needed the class taught at a more basic level. He seemed to forget that he was teaching the "first-level" accounting course.
Exams: Tests were pretty hard and did not really seem to measure your understanding of the material. Some questions were pulled from later chapters that we had not even covered yet. The good news is that almost everyone did awful on the tests, so he did did give a huge curve on the scores.
Homework: Homework was not graded, but you will be completely lost if you do not do the assigned problems. It's not enough to skim the book and attend class.
Textbook: Textbook was pretty helpful and was really where I got my understanding of accounting (certainly not by attending classes). You will do better if you buy the Survival Guide which has problems along with the answers.
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UNBELIEVABLE! This guy is clearly out of his mind. The lectures never once even approached relevancy, and his tests were impossible. I usually would have felt more comfortable being tested on the goings on of his family and friends, as that was covered extensively. He curves the be-jesus out of his tests because the high grade is usually somewhere around a 40. Granted, our accounting department is severely lacking, but this guy is far and away the worst professor I have ever had or ever heard of. If you really enjoy hearing personal stories from the world's worst living instructor, take this guy. I promise you won't be disappointed. Otherwise avoid him like the plague.
{Irrelevant Info Omitted - MTSU Review}
Exams: Very unfair material taken from the resevoirs of his accounting material. NOT out of the book at all. There is no way to study for the tests
Homework: I stopped doing the homework entirely when I realized it was not going to do any good
Textbook: Don't waste your time reading it no matter how hard he tries to convince you that the material in it will be on the test. Rest assured that it won't, and that the highest grade will undoubtedly go to the luckiest guesser
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Dr. Wilson is a nice guy, but his class was the worst class I have ever taken. Tests were the only grades and they looked like CPA exams rather than a beginning accounting test. The class I was in started with about 80 students and then about 50 of them withdrew...including me
Exams: Tests were multiple choice, true/false, and the rest was doing balance sheets and stuff like that. They never related to what was discussed in class. Test were extremely hard and the questions were worded to try to trick you.
Homework: Homework was the example problems at the end of each chapter. It helps to do it.
Textbook: Reading the textbook helps a little, but you never know what is going to be on the test.
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The professor completley wasted my time and money. He never lectured , he only told stories. Dr. Wilson is the absolute worst professor I have ever taken!!! stay away from him!!!
Exams: Tests were over materail relating to nothing on class discussion or homework.
Homework: Homework from end of each chapter
Textbook: You better buy the book because it is the only way you will know what is going on in the class.
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Mostly the professor was very courteous, very nice, but didnt teach the material. I felt as though I was in an auditing class sometimes than intermediate accouting. Class time was interesting but had little relavance to the tests
Exams: Mixture of tricky multiple choice, problems, and short answer. Multiple choice looks like a CPA exam. He generates these questions randomly. Most of these we had no idea, and they werent even in the book or our old accounting books.
Homework: Homework is required. However, since there is no solutions manual and evasive answers in class to your questions, you are shooting in the dark
Textbook: There is no solutions manual with this textbook thanks to the accounting department. Textbook is difficult to read it is better to go back into it and answer the questions
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-His test were impossible and not what he taught in class, when he taught. Most of the class was listening to stories about his family and corny jokes. When he did start teaching Accouting he taught over your head. I would keep far away from him!
Exams: his test were not anything like what was taught in class.
Homework: was due on test days and were problems.
Textbook: used the Textbook in order to do the homework.

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