NEARLY half of Accountancy sophomores who were given a second chance to stay in the program failed the retention exam and were transferred to Management Accounting.
The number of second-year students was cut to 482 from 868. A total of 557 examinees took the first retention examination last March 29, with 265 students failing the test.
One-hundred ninety students were exempted from the retention exam after getting grades of 2.00 or higher for both Accounting 1 and 2.
The retention exam, implemented in 2008, was previously a qualifying exam in the College of Commerce. Later on, students were only required to get a retention grade of 2.75 in Accounting 1 and 2.
But department chair George James said the faculty realized that the retention grade was not enough to screen students. “The college decided to be stricter in screening the students,” James said. “This is more of a ‘streamlining’ on who deserves to get into Accountancy.”
Students transferred to the Management Accounting program will no longer be qualified to take the certified public accountants (CPA) boards.
Moreover, those who failed in the retention exam were required to take summer classes in Accounting 3 or Financial Accounting, a requirement for incoming third-year Management Accounting students.
A total of 104 sophomores who failed the Accounting 1 and 2 subjects were also automatically transferred to Management Accounting and were told to take the subjects failed during summer, along with Accounting 3.
Under the new retention program, maintaining grades in Accounting 1 and 2 should not be lower than 3.00, otherwise students will be automatically transferred to the other program.
Joseph Volfango, a faculty member in charge with the retention exams, however, said those who are in the MA program would still be able to take the licensure exams for CPA’s.
“After finishing the MA [program] here in UST, they can take [additional] units in another school,” he said. Nikka Lavinia G. Valenzuela with reports from Cez Mariela Teresa G. Verzosa
