Borman? More like Bor-ing. I was trying to give at least a mediocre review, but the results of the Memo and the exam scores were...disappointing. This class was disorganized because he makes us participate way too much. We were behind a lot because of the participation questions and I'm sure he spent at least 15 minutes of class time either trying to help people get to a very obvious answer to his question or on calling the names of people who didn't show up, which isn’t necessary and cut into large chunks of class time while making it a huge obstacle for us to learn.

The material wasn't terrible and a lot was just a surface level review of intermediate accounting, but a lot of us were expecting actual unique knowledge on financial statements. You learn how to build basic financial models and there's a heavy usage of Excel for the homework and a project on analyzing the financials of his choice of companies, but most of the choices were extremely boring since a lot of those were heavy value companies. In my opinion, Borman is too risk averse and doesn't talk much about growth stocks and innovation, which is a disadvantage when that's what makes the markets exciting. He doesn't include much about current news related to growth stocks, and he won't add knowledge about things like Benjamin Graham's value investing theories or Berkshire Hathaway and their strategies. Ultimately, this is just another accounting class that doesn't do much to improve your investment philosophy.

Both the midterm and final questions were horrible and I’m sure his graders just gave us random grades. A large chunk of people were using Google, chatgpt, and texts to cheat which made it look like a lot of us understood everything to get an A. I sat in the back and I saw entire rows of people behind the projector just copying and pasting from chatgpt which is very discouraging.

The grading and instructions for the Memo were also ridiculous. He wants you to fit all your insights and interpretations of things like turnover ratios into 1 page, Times New Roman 12 font. There is almost no way to fit your ideas concisely into the model, which you will get points off since he will ask you to "elaborate" despite there being no flexibility too due to the restrictions. You won't get any recognition if you more than exceeded the requirements. The grading for the Memo is harsh and slightly unfair, unlike what the COVID review said. The people who got an 100% on the Memo probably sucked his dick, so if you want to get an A in this class, be ready to get on your knees. Also, for some reason when he is grading, he forgets how to read.

Overall, try to take this class P/NP if in excess of accounting minor units. And try to suck his dick early on.

If you expect to come out of the class feeling confident about investing in the stock market, it would not happen. This class can be very confusing at times, most of the time we focus on the concepts and rarely the application or how to do it yourself or how to use that knowledge to help you invest. It just felt like a waste of time, validating the very rudimentary investment intuition that most accounting students develop, and barely teaching you anything beyond that. This class is pretty low stress due to how unorganized it is; it's fine if you're just taking it to fulfill CPA requirements, but it won't really be a fun or helpful class.

First of all, I want to point out that this is an accounting class (120A, 120B, some 122) and not a finance class so if you disliked accounting you won't like the material. This also isn't an easy A and participation and attendance is graded. Go to lecture even if sitting through him calling on people to answer his questions is torture because the class is so boring that you might not want to watch the recordings. Any snippets of finance information that you get from this class could be extremely helpful to you in the future if you plan on becoming a better investor but like another reviewer said, he focuses most on deep value investing. The most valuable part of this class is the DCF (big project) but to be even moderately successful on it, you have to start early and self-teach it to yourself through youtube. It also helps if you have a friend in the class who you can collaborate with on the homework and on the project. There are also a few homeworks on Excel graded on accuracy.

Test questions were long and hard to understand, so if you're not a good test taker, expect a B or a C on those. Most people get in the A- or B range on the tests and there will be a few extra credit questions (1-10 points). He also issues PTEs

Honestly liked the class, although his lectures themselves could be dull at times. The exams themselves were open book/note and were honestly a little weird, but the questions often revolved around a few talking points he would repeatedly mention in class. I honestly thought the project was pretty cool, it is just building a DCF, and although his instructions could be more clear, you can get additional help just off Youtube. For grading I think he mentioned that half the class gets A/A- which isn't bad at all. As far as accounting classes go I think this is one of the better ones.

I'll break it down by category because this class/professor was not as bad as the reviews would make him out to be. This is my first review on here ever and I took his ethics class and accounting for entrepreneurs or whatever that class is called and this one was definitely the hardest of the three.

Participation 10-12% of grade - I never went to class because lectures were recorded so I missed virtually all of these points except for those given for doing professor feedback. I kept meaning to start going in because he goes through the class roster and you only get called on every 2-3 classes but the few classes I attended he didn't call on me and I was too lazy to volunteer. This is definitely easy points.

Midterms- low averages and a pretty decent curve - I think people who actually go to lectures for this class actually get more confused but if you just look at the slides and remember key phrases he repeats - they are literally word for word on the exam. The exam is open notes and you can have them on your computer - I kid you not - just ctrl f searching the transcript of the recording of the class got me so many answers and just looking at slides also helped. I wouldn't rely solely on this but it helps to avoid overthinking because his lectures maybe aren't the best.

Finals - Same as midterm but weighted more.

Memo- literally an insane project because even though I rewatched every recorded thing he said about the project - you really won't know what he wants unless you go to office hours and/or work with a friend who also went. He said he doesn't post an example one because then everyone's memo would look the same and he doesn't want that. For the forecast just go to 2-4 of the OHs towards the end of class and just ask as many questions as you can and he'll basically tell you what not to do which is super helpful. If you're stressed just record the audio of the entire OH on your phone or take detailed notes. Pretty sure the grading is lenient on this but you have to go to OH to figure out what he really wants you to do. It's weird and he said this is like a 40-50 hour project but its more like 20-30 if you take out the guess work that comes from not going to OH. I procrastinated and did fine just because of Office hours. It's not that bad and is a super good project if you're going into finance or something.

Overall his teaching clarity wasn't the best but tests were fair and open notes on your computer (no google or chat gpt allowed). The participation is kind of dumb because I did better than my friends who actually went to class - and they've consistently outperformed me in basically every other class that we've taken.

I would recommend the class because if you just listen in class and review the examples from lectures and the slides ( and pay attention to the numerous anecdotes he'll tell about random companies) you will cruise through the exams I promise.

Lastly - this guy has had an insane career and education and could be an incredible reference/ someone to have in your corner. I'm sure if you actually participate and go to OH he would be super helpful for MBA applications or any post grad job advice. He's funny and keeps it real.

Professor Borman is a great professor and highly engaging. He cares a lot about his students learning -- especially during covid times -- and is very flexible and open to scheduling additional one-on-one office hours, answering questions in class and via email, and making sure you can catch up on class recordings/notes should you occasionally miss class. Overall, he is very understanding and approachable. During class, he will call on people to offer answers, which at first might seem daunting but overall he cares about engagement and learning more than getting it right during class (and he will not mark you off for incorrect answers given during class, but rather will help you figure it out). He always adhered to the class times, and often would end early. Sometimes he would upload a 15 minute video lecture on the more mundane stuff and ask you to watch it before class, then start the live class 15 minutes after the regular start time and only lecture for an hour in order to not go over the allotted class time of 75 minutes in total. Very considerate!

The class consisted of a midterm, final, two homeworks, and a final project. The homeworks were exceptionally easy, by design. The midterm and final were very doable if you attended class and participated in the discussion; many of the test questions are based closely on examples from class discussion. Helpful, too, are reading CNBC or MarketWatch or other similar websites to improve your financial statement literacy overall. The final project which is a financial model of a public company is very interesting, appropriately tough, but graded very fairly. Everything mentioned above about his approachability apply extra around the time of the final project. Professor Borman made himself more available than usual during the weeks leading up to the submission date, he would spend time at the beginning of each class answering questions, and the examples in class would be from the companies that the project was on. So everything tied together.

For anyone interested in learning and who is tired of the high-stress, low-support accounting professors at UCLA... take this class with Prof. Borman for a supportive and low-stress experience that really teaches you a lot!