2.4
Quality3.9
Difficulty9%
Would Retake116
Reviews9%
Would Retake
116
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
18
4
15
3
15
2
24
1
44
What Students Say
“Worst accounting professor I have ever had”
BUS426 - 1.0 rating“Lectures were useless, basically just read off the slides the whole time, which came straight out of the textbook”
BUS254 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
74%
Textbook Required
67%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.54 avg changeRatings by Course
BUS254424
5.0
(1)BUS426424
4.0
(1)BUS424
3.1
(11)ACCT254
3.0
(1)BUS251
2.7
(3)Difficulty by Course
254
4.5
BUS251
4.3
BUS426
4.1
BUS426424
4.0
BUS254
3.9
Reviews (116)
No Comments
No Comments
This prof doesn't answer any question, and doesn't allow TA to answer hw questions too.
No Comments
No sense of humour. Cannot tolerate challenge. Accuses students of defamatory statements as means of silencing.
This professor makes us work so hard, but we learn so much from his course. One of the best professors at SFU!!
His lecture is fun and easy to understand but the content itself is very hard. You need to do all the questions in the exercise book if you want a good mark.
No Comments
Excellent prof and fun class!
Even though I rarely go to class, I learned quite alot from the seminars that I went to...for one thing, he knows how to teach. He is also quite organize and is willing to help w/ students to deal w/ this difficult course. Easy Exam.
One of the worst profs ever! He regurgitates what the textbook said and he is not helpful at all. Avoid him if you can!
hard exam.. and not helpful to students
Absolute the worse instructor. He is so high on himself and his research in "Audit", that he couldn't care less about the students. He just regurgitates the text book and makes class attendance mandatory(probably just to waste our time). Avoid
TERRIBLE TEACHER! More concerned with his research and EGO than anything else let alone teaching. Got an A in his class, but no thanks to him. Did not attend lectures after midterm because he accused me and one other student of cheating.
Comes off as very arrogant in class but he knows his stuff. He is actually really helpful and nice if you go to him for extra help. He is very inflexible though, his way is ALWAYS the right way.
terrible communicator
A lot of work, but a very rewarding class. He is very helpful when you contact him via email or go see him in his office. Excellent instructor and facilitator of discussion.
Funny, nice guy, but not that great of the teacher. Cool accent.
One word sums it up HORRIBLE. He did not teach the whole semester, I didn't learn anything from him. He makes attendance mandatory so he can waste the whole class's time talking about nothing. He's mean towards people that don't speak English well.
Worse prof ever! The simulation for this class was stupid and a total waste of time. The prof would spend the entire lecture talking about the SFU school system in class which nobody cares!
Cool accent, but that's the only thing good about this guy. I really hated the course and breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was over. HARD exams!
Very fun class. The final exam was a bit of a challenge but the simulation was a total blast, especially with a creative group. The prof was highly accessible for extra help and ran the class as a true seminar instead of a lecture.
He's a great and helpful prof. It's sad to see how many 4th year SFU business students still want their profs to lecture about useless theories. Also, people who don't speak English shouldn't be at SFU in the first place and deserve to be mocked.
His teaching ability is a kind of weak because he just read what it's on the lecture notes. But his exams are not bad, quite straight foward. Hope he can be friendly in next semester.
Not good at all.Didn't feel like I learned anything of value the whole term. It would be nice if a prof can teach me managerial acctg since that is what I paid for.If I wanted useless knowledge I wouldn't have to go to SFU.Mocking ESL students is wrong.
Great prof and great class!
I feel like I did a lot of work for this class without learning anything, and lecture often felt like the biggest waste of my time.
He breezes through the Powerpoints so you can't take notes, and he won't post them neither. There are old pwrpnts but they're a bit different than the one's he's using. Examples he goes through in class really easy, Exam questions really difficult..
He is nice and has interesting view. He is a good prof.
His teaches very clearly, but the problem is everyone is good at this course. Therefore, it is still hard to get high marks.
He is a good individual(helpful) If you're interested in accounting/business, youll find course useful and easy but for others it will be very confusing. ppl tend to do well in this class (summer semstr average was in 70-80s!) i am glad it is over even though he is a nice guy
The final exam is horrible. You don't need to study hard for it...No matter how hard you try, you still screw up in his exam.
VERY boring class, though helpful--lots of interaction on WebCT. Midterm was easy, final was harder. He should release distributions--nothing worse than not knowing where u are in a curved course when u thought the exams were super easy. Seriously if you can do arithmetic, u will pwn this boring course. And ignore his nonsense about the appendices
Not a good professor/instructor. Lectures are ok, but could learn as much from the textbook. Exams are horrible (studying doesn't help) and grading is ridiculous. I got 60% on exam and A in the course - go figure...Maybe he's a good researcher, but I don't really care...
Since all students will get nearly the same mark for assignments and participation, the final exam is what will determine your mark. Final was so incredibly hard, I spent the last 5 minutes wondering if I have to retake this nightmare course again.
class was so boring, and his powerpoint notes are not much help either. Everyone does well so it all depends on final, which by the way was brutal!
great prof, i enjoyed being in his class. really knows the subject and enjoys teaching it. always available for extra help! exams are a little hard but fair
Class in summer = ridiculous. Mark based on 10% particip, 40%Hwk + 50%final. Hwk consist of few text Qs + he collects 1 Q, marks on effort. No motivation to try! He Would give the "correct" answer to only like 1/3 of the Qs. Particip is worse. Goes around the room asking for people's answers. Stupid. Final was unreasonable given what he 'taught'.
Classes are ok but sometimes can get boring. Final test is hard!
Good TA's (I recommend Hector). His exams were REALLY HARD!!!!! Avg. mark was 51/100!!!!!!!!! But if anything he does joke around in class and is a nice guy- but expects you to be an expert in accounting so you better get caught up on your balance sheets because his exams are mighty hard!!!
Great Prof, great learning, study hard!
He is very experienced and it shows when he gives examples in lectures. He makes lectures interesting ... and his exams are fair.
Not very good professor. Boring lectures. Dont give online notes, and goes thru slide so fast that it's impossible to copy anything down. super hard exams
He disliked teaching this course and it showed after the midterm. It was almost like he deter people from accounting. Definately take this course with another prof, even though apparently he's never teaching a 200 level course again.
He may sound clear during lectures, and make everything seem so easy, until the final exam comes. The final exam was the worst, hardest, trickest, and longest final exam ever, after my three years at SFU.
haha notice how the ratings changed from 3 and 4s to all 1s after this final..haha hilarious. i dont know if he's doing it out of revenge or was his exams always this hard. he was like the nicest guy ever but the more i get to know him the more of a d*** he becomes. i guess after we filled out the evaluations he turned the tables on us.pretty slick
Another example of a nice guy who can't teach worth crap. After the midterm, for some reason, he wouldn't let TAs answer questions on WebCt, his lectures are repeating poewrpoint slides, and he spammed the hell out of my inbox. Don't evenstudy for the final, you'll fail anyway, it's based on time management, not knowledge.
I think he got mad because people left class before it ends. The reason? cuz he was doing some stupid demonstration problems after the lecture. There is no break in his lecture, and if you go to see him personally and asks some questions, he would repeat things in your text. It was not a bad course but he made it bad. Final was crazy brutal.
I don't think a managerial accountant could have done well on his final. His office hours were all over the place because he has frequent "meetings". He tried to give real life examples in lectures sometimes, but usually it wasnt beneficial to be in lecture - he just read straight off the powerpoint slides. Shameful performance, Michael. Shameful.
This prof is a moron. Yes his lectures may be interesting but it doesn't do crap on the exams. The course is interesting but the prof made the course crap. I think this prof should be fired.
The final was tricky. The powerpoint notes are the official ones from the textbook, but would wish they were shorter.
No Powerpoint slides, No course outline, unfinishable exam, never return any assignments (if ever marked), Weekly group cases. BUT one thing I admire him... Absolutely a skillful anti-consciousness robot dedicated in suffocating students with sleep pills while showing off his education and accomplishments for the purpose of indulging himself.
Good Prof. Taught well and was very thorough. Ensure you study hard though, becasuse it's not an easy course.
Not bad. Exams were fair.
Worst Accounting Professor and maybe professor Ive ever had! Tests were unfair ( tested us and material not lectured upon or in text) NO NOTES because he is making his own book therefore can't print out his notes or use the text and goes through slides to fast to let you copy anything down. AVOID AT ALL COSTS GPA KILLER and HORRIBLE PROFESSOR
Friendly enough but the amount of content covered is too much and the amount of work weekly is way too much. No Powerpoint posted because he's writing a book but the ones he uses are useless. He flips between them so fast, you can't follow anyways.
Worst Professor I have ever had in three years. No notes, not helpful and is a complete jerk when you ask him for help. The average for midterm was 52%. Makes you write in pen for accounting!. Honestly the worst professor I have ever had
This class is HARD and this guy makes it even harder for some students. His midterm was a KILLER. like omg, the average was 52%, but his final was easy. overall, he is good at explaining concepts but he is just wayyy too hard. he doesnt even have lecture slides for you because he is making his own book or something. well, BS, thats complete garbag
Used his own PPT notes from a book he penned that will be published in Fall. Since they were "copyrighted by the publisher," he could not send them to us. This was particularly unhelpful. Not a hard course really, but lecture style made topics dry and boring. Attendance not really mandatory, just read the book. Mcdonald did a far better job in 251!
in an accounting class over 180 students, he only gave less than 4 students A+'s after the class is curved. That's too mean!
Overall, I would say he's a fair prof. Accounting is a pretty dry topic already, but he seemed like an ethical, down to earth guy that I didn't mind listening to. The online lyryx assignments could take up to 3 hours (for the longer ones) but in the end, it helped me keep up with the coursework. Not an easy course, but a decent prof.
Lectures aren't mandatory but they help to understand the material. Lots of work! There are weekly assignments for tutorial as well as online assignments that can take a long time. Midterm was brutal! But for some reason the final exam was MUCH easier. The curve is a little ridiculous, it gave way too many students Bs and not enough B+ or A-
ridiculous. 60 something ppl got Cs. that's right, not C+. only a few ppl got b- and a- or b+. weirdest curve EVER. i got 4% above average as my final grade and i still got a C. how the hell does that work?!
...............
boring lecturer, came off as a little arrogant, went through concepts too quickly, didn't learn anything from him - had to learn it all from textbook myself :(
He has a good sense of humor, which sometimes keeps me awake. Yes, accounting is so boring. It isn't hard, as long as you read textbook, you'll survive. His marking policy is very strange. I should have a A+ though.
Great guy, quite funny, which keeps lectures interesting. Clear explanations, just like the textbook he wrote. Like all other business profs, he shows u clearly the percentage of the class that gets a certain grade, don't know how weird that can be.
ok so on the final and MT he decides to throw in q's we've nvr seen in class or assgmts, totally unfair!! he was apparently writing a book so the lectures in class were not the same as what he posted online due to copyright issues, gimme a break. AVOID HIM AT ALL COST!!!
He has a really nice personality, and the book is pretty straight forward. His exams don't look like any of the practice questions, but they still made sense.
Really nice prof! Midterms and finals are not that hard as his book's excercises. His joke about ROI is funny! Love him!
I don't do RMP comments, but his marking style was so bad... that i had to do it...
Great Prof. Exams are much easier than the weekly questions, so if you keep up with those you'll be fine. Interesting guy too, he knows his stuff
This prof is not helpful. His lectures are not very organized and he doesnt explain the material very well. He goes through some problems in class but does not really explain it.. He just does it on the overhead. I would avoid his lectures if possible
I absolutely love this guy!! His blunt sense of humour is fantastic and it keeps the class interesting. I had a low interest on accounting and to be honest was a little nervous at the beginning of the semester. The txtbook he wrote is really useful in understnding the topics. As long as you keep up with readings and doing the questions you'll be ok
Easily my favorite Beedie prof. He's direct, clear and super funny! Definitely takes the dryness out of accounting
I wouldn't recommend him!!!! Exams are really arbitrary, in terms of marking scheme. He prepare lecture notes (ppt) using another textbook, which he think is the best. His lecture notes ignores the real textbook, but test on the real textbook. In another word, his in-class teaching and exams do not match. Understanding and hard working do not help.
Prof is terrible, final exam doesn't explain material well at all. His powerpoint notes are terrible. Avoid Him!
My advice would be to not take BUS 426 with him unless you are capable of memorizing a 600 page dense and confusing textbook. Prof is straight up lazy.
Meh. Not that great, not the worst though. His lecture slides could be a lot better, but at least he gets all the concepts across decently enough. Make sure you do all the homework assignments, or else you'll definitely fall behind.
His exams are tough but if you practice and understand the concepts you will do fine. Attendance to tutorial is mandatory and you are required to do a presentation on homework assignment. He is very friendly and helpful in his office hours and it is clear he wants to help you succeed. If you are confused on anything go to his office hours.
Michael is an all around really great person, he has a quirky sense of humour and is there for students when needed. However, to do well in this course you really need to put the time in, homework is difficult and seeing the T.A's to understand it is essential. Midterm and final were relatively tough so do all of the homework and lecture Q's.
HARDEST PROF AT SFU!! hands down, 3rd year student who kept delaying 254 cuz this guy was always teaching it... Youre gonna fail the midterm.. Final is more fair but extremely tough. Take 254 with a better prof in summer. Don't take this advice and youll get a C...
Lectures were useless, basically just read off the slides the whole time, which came straight out of the textbook. He did go through some practice problems as examples but he goes so fast there's no way to know what's going on. Beware the midterm.
Worst accounting professor I have ever had. Takes 3 hours to complete a slide deck because he spends the majority of lecture talking about himself and his accomplishments to feed his ego. Throws curveball questions on the final exam. He also discriminates against non native English speakers, so beware.
He is definitely knowlegeable in audit field. He talks about lots of real life examples during lectures. We did weekly quizzes which you have to score 4 out of 4 in order to get one bonus mark. This quizzzes are nearly impossible to score perfect cuz you basically lack time. Midterm and final were fair but the case project was tough.
dry sense of humour, refuses to provide answers for textbook questions, blunt and rude. Probably one of the most difficult classes I've taken.
Very enthusiastic, makes the class fun. Passionate about the subject and very knowledgeable.
Online homework was pretty frustrating - if you got one part wrong you could lose 1/3 of the points. Not sure how people did well on hw. Lectures were decent, short and as interesting as accounting can be. Tutorials were useful and well organized. Only one hard question on the midterm the rests of the tests weren't too bad. Overall a decent class.
To be honest, lectures were not very useful. I found Favere gets side tracked way too often and time is disproportionately spent on things that are of no value. His MCQ questions on the midterm and final are vague and his power point slides do a poor job explaining the concepts. Using more models and providing practice questions would help more.
Michael's class had such a large disconnect between lecture material, homework questions, and tutorial work that it was almost impossible to grasp key concepts. What makes matters worse is that the in-class slides and the tutorial work could not be viewed after said class/tutorials and so if your note-taking isn't up to par, you're done for.
literally his lectures and his homework qn/ tutorials are completely off...
This was the worst prof I have ever had. Unclear in lectures, horrible at teaching, gave an absolutely absurd amount of homework that was worth a lot. Ive been at sfu for 3 years, this is the first prof Ive ever rated because it just had to be known how unbelievably bad he was. I tried to rate him a 0/5 but couldnt.
Midterm and final was unfair. Way too much homework
lectures and tuturials were uncoordinated
shouldnt have got hired
Very unorganized with everything. Lecture slides posted on Canvas don't match the ones used in class and he refused to post them. Talks fast and lectures are hard to follow. For exams I just studied the textbook and redo the hw questions.
Seems like a nice guy at first but really does not care about his students at all. He makes his own rules that may not be even apart of university policy.
Worst prof I have ever had at SFU, I have never felt so disrespected. Homework was absurdly difficult at times and he is difficult to talk to. Exams killed me he does not post his slides. Avoid at all costs!!!
Horrible. Don't take. Save yourself.
He is USELESS!! AVOID THIS PROF AT ALL COSTS. Looking for a professor that drastically lowers your GPA? Micheal is your man :) I would rather take all the courses at SFU simultaneously than taking any course with this professor individually. NOTE: If you read any positive reviews about him don't believe it. He would have written it himself.
The scale for quality is too high for him. Even -100 would be a stretch. Take with a different professor. Avoid him. Should be suspended immediately.
AVOID!!! The worst prof I've ever had. At first, he seems like a nice person but that's not how he actually is. He thinks that everyone is cheating because they did better on the final exam than the midterm. It's my first time posting a review here because everyone should know how bad he is. Taking BUS 254 with him was the biggest mistake I made.
Don't take his class!!! He is so bad! I don't understand how he is still allowed to teach!
WHAT A WASTE OF TIME!! PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT FROM HIM
Worst prof I have ever met. He does not seem to care about his students, even if they reached out to him. He does not seem to want his students to succeed. You're better off taking a course with another prof.
This guy makes SFU look bad. He has such a huge ego and the fact that he is allowed to have responsibility over student's grades should be criminal given how little he cares for them, and once again weakens the schools reputation.
so easy to get distracted in lecture, prof spend half an hour talking thing that doesn't relate to class lol. be prepared to read every single word in the book and understand concepts in the corner of the book. exams grading is ridiculous... even try hard to explain a question, while, you have single variation with the "right" opinion, you get 0
He is a very mean professor. He talked so fast in class which you will not have time to take any notes. He did not give out any powerpoint slide before and most importantly you have to read the textbook. He wont give any half/ partial marks if your answer make sense but no quite really the sample answer. Not caring professor.
michael is an amazing prof. I can understand why people say hes hard but I really enjoy the real-life stories he shares and I found real value with the assignments we did in class especially with technology playing a bigger role now than ever before. Overall, I feel that I truly learnt something from his class. would take his classes again
Professor gives little to no explanation on course topics and expects students to understand lectures while zooming through nearly 100 lecture slides per class. Midterm/Final was nothing like the homework he assigns through WILEY, and provides no means of study material for exams or any feedback on assignments done through homework or tutorial.
He is so disrespectful to his students and doesn't care at all about teaching properly. The exam was not related to any homework and was BRUTAL. The average for the midterm was TERRIBLE and he doesn't care at all. Would not take him on my death bed. Prayers for everyone in this course!
Terrible teaching style. Goes through lectures quickly with no explanation. No practice sheet given out to prepare for midterm. No help what so ever.
Course was horribly mismanaged by this professor. His lectures were fine and he explained topics relatively clearly but antisocial TAs had no idea what they were doing during tutorials. They would give 90 minutes worth of questions to do in 30 minutes. Prof took midterm wayy too seriously, spent exam time preparing room and gave no extra time.
Was very rude and inefficient during the midterm. Assigns useless homework. Exams were nothing like the homework or tutorial problems. Tutorials were rushed and not helpful. Often left lectures feeling confused. Learned more with 2 hours of YouTube videos than I did a whole semester of lectures. No support/guide for exams.
rude and doesn't understand simple technology. horrible lecture slides and boring, tests are nothing like the practice.
Although I did well, Michael was an awful prof. His lectures were really long and boring. He didn't teach very well and most of the material had to be self taught. The material itself was not that hard but he honestly made it more confusing in class. He randomly started taking participation midway through the term and provided no warning.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
74%
Textbook Required
67%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.54 avg changeRatings by Course
BUS254424
5.0
(1)BUS426424
4.0
(1)BUS424
3.1
(11)ACCT254
3.0
(1)BUS251
2.7
(3)Difficulty by Course
254
4.5
BUS251
4.3
BUS426
4.1
BUS426424
4.0
BUS254
3.9