With bonds, what helped me is writing out the entire bond amortization table. And then writing down the JEs that go with them. I learned bonds in Intermediate accounting and was taught that way, so no matter what the problem asked whether its interest expense, or the discount etc, I go to the amortization table.
For J/E on bonds: (borrower)
In beginning , always CR bond payable. B/c you have liability to pay in xx yrs. DR cash, b/c you got cash!
Always DR Discount (i always remembered D and D) on B/P and CR Premium on B/P in beginning!
When you record Interest Expense. Just reverse previous J/E, meaning CR Discount OR DR premium. Like i said i like the amortization table and that sort of visual. Pensions suck too. I remember I utilized SIR-AGE from Becker, and memorizing the crap out of that. The JEs in pension I never seemed to understand as well. Luckily I didn't have JE sim problems for pension. I will let you know if i think of anything else.
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