8 hr study strategy

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #2042159
    jeremyawhiting
    Participant

    I have a unique situation right now, I have the opportunity to study like a madman but I do not want to burn myself out. It is easy to overshoot or plan to do too much in one day. RIght now I have several days that I have open to study for 8 hours, but I am prone to burn out and do not want to make the same mistake as I did early on when I was first taking the exams. So I am reaching out to see if anyone has a strategy to breakup an 8 hr day into modules, something that will segment the day with breaks, etc.

    For Context, I am taking the FAR exam in November 2018.

    AUD - 78
    BEC - NINJA in Training
    FAR - NINJA in Training
    REG - NINJA in Training
    Graduated 2013
    Worked at Big 4, got burned out, went Corporate, then went to small CPA firm, now I work for myself doing bookkeeping.
    Tried the exams failed then passed, then had three kids, now I am trying it again.
    Making the final push plan to be done August 2019.
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • #2042297
    chandler
    Participant

    Hi Jeremy,
    I studied 10-12 hours most every Sunday this last busy season while I was taking the exams. Basically, I would lock myself in a room with no distractions- phone, email, etc. And I would work through set goals that I had written down. With Becker I usually did it in terms of modules and sub-modules. So like REG was broken up R1-R8 (8 modules) and each had somewhere between 4 and 10 sub-modules. Generally, I would say for example- I want to do R1 and R2 today. Within these 2 modules, there are 10 sub-modules. I would sit down and work through 2 of the sub-modules at a time before giving myself a break. Sometimes, I ran through these in an hour, sometimes it took three. After that, I would take a 10-15 minute break, maybe more if I needed to eat/do something else. I also tried to get all my other tasks for the week done before/after Sunday so I wasn't having to stop to clean/do laundry etc. The key to me is avoiding distractions. If I locked in for 10 hours on a Sunday @ 100%, I can get done what would take me 20 hours+ with distractions.
    I don't know if it's ideal or not, but that was just what I had to work with having to do 60-75% of my studying on one day of the week.

    Chandler Priest

    Licensed TX CPA

    REG 01/27/18 - 98

    BEC 03/03/18 - 96

    AUD 04/07/18 - 91

    FAR 06/02/18 -96

    #2042651
    Small4
    Participant

    break it out every 2 hrs. Our minds can only take so much info all at once. For me, I recall i used to cram so much and i ended up not doing so well. What worked for me at least is i wake up early and actually do my “focused” studying in the AM, like 6-7am or something…then 7-8am i do hw or practice questions over and over but not insanity. I'm more of a night owl but i realize regardless our bodies are more tired at night so if we stay up so late, whatever we retain at night isnt as good as say when your mind is fresh after breakfast or after a solid 6-8 hrs of sleep. PLUS, if you do it in the AM, you already feel accomplished that day and the momentum of studying carries on more vs you postpone to cram at night or late afternoon. So say you want to learn about 1/2 of a chapter, i devote my study to that. and i check that off my list of things to study and cover as much as i can on repeat till i feel comfortable moving on next topic. So 2-3 hrs, rest or do what you got to do, then back 2 hrs on a different topic. Rinse repeat. I would say, always end the day with practice test or at least do a handful of simulations and print those and study them like a book since its the concepts that are key to passing.

    AUD - 77
    BEC - 75
    FAR - 82
    REG - 77
    -Becker (do all mcq, period),
    -Buy NINJA mcq (68% trend), and
    -PRINT trouble topics.

    -Also Used WTB mcq (68% trend).
    -Do 40-50 SIMs and read answers/try to learn from solutions like its a book example.
    -Lastly, when having trouble with same topic, go big picture and watch trouble lecture

    BEC - 68,70,72,75 5/15
    AUD - 78(expired), 77 8/15
    REG - 29,58,65,77 1/16
    FAR - 56,68,73 - retake October hopefully (last shot)

    Been doing this since 2007 on and off...

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.