He has been a member of Another71.com's Club 75 since August 2010.
Week 2:
Captain Obvious statement of the year: Studying for the CPA Exam is rough.
I will admit it has been tough to get started, and when I do get started it's hard to maintain studying 3 to 4 hours a day when there are so many other distractions and things that need attention aside from work: little league, that bathroom that is about 90% finished, the overgrown plants, the evolving mess that is slowly over-taking our house.
That's what I'm looking forward to the most when this journey is over. That's right, painting, pulling weeds and changing the oil in the car. No celebratory dinner or party will feel as good as putting on a pair of old jeans and T-Shirt and getting up on a ladder to edge the ceiling and thinking of nothing else except that I hope I don't get any paint on the ceiling.
I want to do these things without thinking that if I get a 73 on FAR, I'm going to regret not studying right now and then the feeling of guilt creeps over.
I've done better with my studying recently. With the calendar hitting October, it clicked almost like magic that I need to study more, which I have done. I've always been like that, a moderate procrastinator.
Hopefully I'll be able to keep it up and I'll catch up to my original plan:
- Finish the Yaeger CPA Review DVD's in 10 days.
- Re-write notes for a week while doing 30 MCQ's a day.
- Then MCQ my butt of for the 10 days up until the test, while throwing in reviewing flashcards, the Yaegar FAR handout and Jeff's FAR Study Guide.
28 days left..
Week 3:
I am just past the halfway point in my studying for FAR, I am 4 weeks in, with 3 weeks left to go. Ive begun writing down my study goals and that has been working out very well for me.
If I want to get through a Yaeger DVD by a certain date, I have it written down, and Ive been sticking to it which is good. I am starting to get the sinking feeling that I may have over-estimated how much time Id have studied by now.
I will have finished off the DVDs by the end of week 5, with 2 weeks left after that I plan on doing at least 60 questions per day for the 15 days I will have left. Which will give me about 900 MCQs in the final 2 weeks.
I havent kept up with the exact amount Ive done so far, if I had to estimate, Id say its around 300 or so and Ill probably do another 150 or so this week. Ill supplement this with re-writing my notes and perhaps re-watching sections of the DVDs where I am not quite comfortable. At this rate, by test time Ill have put in about 100 hours if I continue at my now 3 hour a day pace.
Ive really ramped it up now that its getting to crunch time, Im just hoping my slow start wont land me a dreaded 74.
-J.W.