I got As in both Intermediate Accounting classes. My degree is in CS and those classes were right up there with some of the big "gatekeeper" CS classes like Data Structures or Computer Architecture.

The one good thing about those accounting classes is that everything you'll be tested on can be learned by rote. Do pension problems (or bond problems... whatever) over and over again and you will get good at them. It's not like proving shit in math or writing poetry, where there's an element of art or creativity to it.

That said, the breadth of these courses is huge. There are maybe 3 or 4 types of problem or procedure you'll need to have down pat for each exam- often more, actually. Consider chapter 16 from Kieso, Weygandt, and Warfield, "Dilutive Securities and EPS." It covers stock warrants, stock option plans, and other ways companies use equity to compensate employees, but of course it also covers investor-driven concepts like convertible debt and preferred stock. There are specific ways to account for all these things, which you'll need to be part of your "muscle memory" before being tested on it.

So my advice would be to work all the problems for each chapter plus whatever other relevant problems you can find elsewhere. I don't think there's a textbook other than Kieso, Weygandt, and Warfield you might draw on, but surely you can find problems online. Or just wear yourself out doing the chapter problems over and over again.

The second thing I'd suggest is to develop an overall understanding of accounting. Its macro-level purpose is to create a scoring system for businesses. If terms like asset, revenue, gain, expense, retained earnings, etc. are just different boxes with different names that some professor told you to put various things in, well, you can learn to do so purely by rote, but it's easier if you also kind of understand "why." Accounting for bonds, different forms of equity, valuation of inventory, etc. will come more naturally if you really understood why you were doing the things you did in the early chapters about booking expenses, creating a basic income statement, and so on.