IIMs and Accounts - WTH!

Picture this:

1) There are about 10 CAs and an equal number B.Coms in our batch. Not one is amused with the rigor of this particular paper. Not one solved the cases in midterms convincingly.
2) The faculty himself had accepted last year that the paper would take 5 hrs for him solve, but we are given 3 hrs coz we are IIMites.
3) A Calcutta university accounts topper couldn't complete the case in the question paper. Far from it. He was finding it miserable.

I was almost convinced to tone down on the heading. Infact my conservative self within me is persistent in toning down the subject line. But then, my honest self asks me to write whatever I feel like. And I really feel like: Accounts - What the hell?

So many questions have been lingering in my mind about this particularly not-so-funny subject.

1) Why should all managers know accounts?
2) Even if we have to know, why so deep?
3) Case studies for preparation? You kidding?
4) Application oriented number crunching question papers? WTF!

The plus side of knowing accounts:

I agree that managers should atleast understanding the accounting jargon, and they should understand the importance of all those financial statements and the like. Particularly interesting in accounts is the 'fraud isolation' chapter to find out how companies can distort figures - like what happened with the infamous story of yester years - Enron.

Accounts is also very important for a manager since potential dark horses can be isolated for analysis if one is clever enough - something like a huge amount being channelized to a grey area.

But I really fail to understand the meaning behind the course being this rigorous.

What the course has been:

We started off with a balance sheet on Day2. Even in a standard accounts course, I'm told' the balance sheets are introduced after 6 months. That's not all. In session 10, the case that we were supposed to solve would have qualified as a question in a ACA final exam paper.

This doesn't stop here. We have 2 more courses for which whatever we study now is going to be the base.

Translated to simple English: they are most likely 3 D grades in store. :) [Hopefully I say I was kidding...]