As many Managerial Accounting syllabi for live classes are built, the students' final grade is based on the following components: class participation, attendance, homework, mid-term exams and the final exam. We conducted a research in this Spring term for the Managerial Accounting course with two classes of 30 students each at the College of Business Administration, Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, USA. Our research results indicate that (1) class participation, attendance, and homework submission are factors that do not have significant effect on the students' examination grades and (2) the first midterm exam was significant as a tool to stimulate learning, in that it functioned as a “wake up” signal for the majority of the students analyzed. A major implication of this research suggests rethinking the structure of the final grade formula in the syllabus to further emphasize the elements that most directly increase students' motivation to learn.