In grading my summer course midterms, I'm starting to again see how prereqs make the difference. In my financial policy class, for example, I can determine who has taken the prerequisite course and who isn't by simply looking at the midterm scores. One person obviously got credit for taking an undergrad class many years ago, so they had no clue about some of the material and how it fit together. Several other students came straight from a STEM background and have no clue how accounting and econ and finance work. Even though they may know their fields, they aren't prepared to cultivate an understanding of financial economics at the firm level without a lot of remediation on their part. In financial statements analysis the undergrads are better prepared in many ways because they at least know what they don't know (and have one Intermediate Accounting under their belts).
Unfortunately, this isn't a new trend, and summer course grade distributions just seem to get worse and worse each year. Ultimately the burden lies with the student, and those who are willing to prepare reap the benefits every time. Summer is tough enough as it is.
