@Kitch
I was thinking of suggestions that might help you after reading your post but rethought what I wanted to say after I read your other post about studying with children. Even without studying for the exam you'd be in a tough situation. Working a full time job with 2 young children is overwhelming for many women, and you've added 4 hours of studying every day on top of that. Your schedule doesn't allow sufficient time to sleep let alone any time for yourself i.e. hobbies, exercise, friends, etc., and you've been doing this for months. Here are my thoughts on some things that might be help.
1. You sound really down in your posts, and I'd recommend you see a doctor and ask about depression. I hope you're not offended by this suggestion. Depression runs in my family, and I've seen how debilitating it can be. You don't have to have something sad going on in your life to be depressed; depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain and stress can be a trigger. Also, feeling hopeless is a common symptom.
2. Ask yourself if this is the right time for you to be attempting the exam. You need to be doing this for yourself, not because your coworkers are making you feel like you have to have your CPA to be worthwhile. It may be best for you and your family (both of which are more important than the exam) if you wait for a year or two.
3. If you decide that you still want to go ahead with the exam at this time, sit down and talk to your husband about how you're feeling and what can be done to improve the situation. Men can be incredibly obtuse when it comes to emotions (sorry to you guys out there, but it's true), and he may not realize how overwhelmed you feel. Maybe he could fix dinner and bathe the kids some nights.
4. I also have a suggestion about your approach to studying if you decide to continue. I spent a long time studying before I ever took an exam, and I wasn't able to prepare properly until I changed my attitude. I kept trying to thoroughly learn the material every step of the way. But that doesn't work (at least not for me) unless you study a ridiculous number of hours. Basically, you're taking one test that covers 3-4 college courses and is 100 times harder than any test you had in college. What finally worked for me was to read the material thoroughly but not worry about catching every single detail, do some MCQ to reinforce it, and go on to the next section. I'd review all the material, but give extra focus to my weak areas. I also did thousands of MCQ during my review.
I hope that some of this helps. Please let us know how you're doing. We're rooting for you!!!!!!!
FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85
