FARbehind, bummer, I remember reading a lot of your posts concerning FAR as we took it at the same time.
Here is some advice I would give to people:
I see people constantly putting up the scores that they are doing on the becker practice or whatever. Like the original poster saying you were scoring 85-90...I'm not sure how you were scoring that well and had such a drastic difference on your exam...that seems like a massive disconnect. I never score in the 80's or 90's when doing my MC's for practice. It is usually high 60's to high 70's. Maybe you are memorizing the answers...I don't know.
I convert my yaeger home dvd's into audio mp3 files and put them on my ipod. My ipod hooks up to my truck. I listen to them when I drive, and I ride the train to work everyday and walk a few blocks, so I listen to them for that commute. I'm not always paying attention, but it definitely helps. They are very easy to convert too. Also I get to the point where when an instructor is explaining something, I can finish the sentence, or if the instructor asks a question, I can answer it before they do. And I'm not talking about having it memorized, I mean I don't always say it word for word, but I say the concept. This really helps reinforce things for me.
cpareviewforfree.com helps a lot
Whatever it is that I am studying for, especially for FAR, it was almost always on my mind. I am not kidding you...for about the last 2 weeks leading up to the test I was dreaming damn near every night of MC questions. I was literally doing this stuff in my sleep. Its really crazy because 95% of the time I can't ever remember dreaming about anything at all, but constantly leading up to FAR I knew I was dreaming about the material.
This was key for me in FAR: Remember, you only need a 75, you don't need a 99. If there is something that you are really struggling with...my advice is to half-ass know it and move on. Now, obviously you cannot do that with everything, but I remember for instance, convertible bonds kept giving me trouble, but I really didn't care...I just figured it was a weak point. You don't have to be an absolute expert in everything.
Remember, this is a competitive exam. You are going up against the other candidates. It is not just an overwhelming amount of hard material for YOU...it is like that for damn near everyone. Just think that you have to beat out 60% of the crowd. Hopefully that can take some of the pressure off of you.
Lastly, be honest with yourself. Are you really studying, when you are studying? It happens to me where I watch an hour of lecture and my mind is totally elsewhere. That really is not an hour of study. The original poster - 35 hours per week? IMO that is freakin insane...especially if that is on a consistent basis. How many of those hours are real productive study hours? I personally could never study that much in a week. I may have done it for FAR 1 week, but that is about it. Let me explain it like weightlifting. Some people spend hours upon hours in the gym, only to find they are not getting big gains. Meanwhile others spend not even half the time at the gym and have twice the gains. You don't build muscle in the gym...you build muscle when you sleep and your muscles rebuild from being broke down. I think the same concept can apply with your brain. You gotta give it some rest. Be efficient with your studying. Let your brain soak it in and marinate on it. Don't overwhelm yourself...I don't think that is a good way to learn.
These are my personal things that I do which I think help me out a lot, and hopefully they can help you.
AUD - 81, BEC - 74, 80, FAR - 82, REG - 81
Done!