[Stahl]

Ok, first off, I know people will ask when I have it scheduled, I don’t have it scheduled yet as I am still waiting for my NTS from the state. I wanted initially to schedule it aroudn the end of August/middle of September, but I feel like I won’t be able to make that plan even if I do get my NTS.

I’m struggling with my studying and also trying cope with burnout too while doing this. I’m working full time at retail, usually working hours that range between 5AM-1PM to hours like 8AM-4PM. I usually get 2 days off a week, but that is not always the case, there has been instances in which I ended up only getting 1 day off a week on this end, but I am working 40 hours a week on this end so I am full time while trying to study as much as I can for the CPA.

I have had my materials since May 20th, using Gleim, but I”m only just progressing thru chapter 12 out of 20 chapters in the materials. And the more I look things up for advice the more that I read that 4 months is too long for studying but like..I feel like I cannot get my progress any faster on this end as much as I try. I keep trying to do the lectures, normally the 3-5 minute ones takes me about 12-15 minutes to get thru because I”m pausing a lot to stop and take notes on paper (and my hand cramps often, so I’ve been wearing a brace on it to help keep it from doing such. but I feel like the only way I can remotely even have a chance of retaining information is by taking notes.) But being a very VERY visual/tactile learner, I feel like the lectures are my only chance to even get some semblance of the concepts as much as I try. I tried just going straight to the MCQs before but I felt like I never learned much from doing it that way even after reading the explanations, and I cannot just simply read the information to learn it. So it really conflicts with my learning style.

Either way, with the pace I’m trying to do, I keep finding myself more and more frustrated and upset a lot especially as I keep looking at my scores for each unit and the fact that they are far below anything I would normally get in a normal class too, thus finding myself in a downward spiral. Even my parents noticed that and are saying that I”m doing too much and try to get me to stop for a good while, but I feel like I’m doing not enough. Especially since as I try to focus and sit and do a lot of it, I’m struggling to keep myself somewhat cognitive because I’ve already used up a lot of my energy for the day at work. (I try to go to bed around 10PM so I can get up at like 4-5 AM for work. On the days I work at 5 or 6, I only give myself 30 minutes to get ready to get to work so I only have a light snack to eat and have my actual breakfast on my work break, but when I work 7 or 8, I usually want to get an actual breakfast in and give myself an hour and a half, which is still only barely enough time for me to make something decent for myself and clean everything up and even ensure I have my lunch for work made up before heading out for work. I find it impossible for me to get up any earlier than that. Also being in retail, that means I legit am not allowed to even study any of my stuff at all during downtime, and my break is so short I about most get the time to do a small set of flashcards on my phone before returning to work, which…have only had only worked some in keeping up on small concepts, but it has not helped me at all in upping my scores in my prior sections much.

When I get home from work on some of the days, I already feel exhausted from trying to get up early and how demanding my retail job is as well, it often making it hard for me to concentrate on my work yet I still try to as hard as I can, but also being that my parents have been taking many vacation times and having me be the one taking care of the house, I also find myself trying to keep up on chores and also make my own dinner that also take a good bit of time as well. And thus there has been days in which I feel like I only get thru maybe 1-2 hours of study when I have days I work because of that. I try to get as much in on my days off, but those are the days in which I find my spiral getting worse as I do each set of MCQs as well, to where even my parents have been trying to push me to just stop studying and take days off, but like….with the rate I’m going and the fact that I’m still struggling so hard to even absorb any information from the materials that I have no matter how much I concentrate due to my learning style, and I keep trying to search for vids on youtube to help explain concepts but I feel like I need like…a whole book explanation of everything and finding it harder as to where to start (I try to look up the Farhat vids and the Edspira vids, but I feel like there are so many concepts in the book for FAR that I’m struggling with that I never struggled with in Uni at all, to where my searches for things to just better explain the entire darn chapter/unit in Gleim’s chapters better than what Gleim’s lectures give has been…unhelpful.)

I’m starting to feel like I”m ready to give up and the fact that I’m feeling not even halfway thru my target (because I wanted to give myself a good couple of weeks of nothing but full review before the test) and that I’m already feeling as if I’m taking too long to even be able to do the rest of the exam parts in time too.

I’m sorry this WoT looks long and it is probably unorganized. Honestly the fact that it took me 3 days to get thru all of the lectures for the entirety of unit 12 has not been helping my confidence and they aren’t long lectures either, I just find myself having to repeat thru them several times because I”m still just not even remotely understanding the concept thru it and it takes me a while just to write thngs down, when I do the MCQs I go thru all of my wrong answers and write down what the question, answer, and the reasoning as to why in attempt to try to learn it, and yet in doing that it makes me take about a few hours just to get thru a single set of 25 MCQs as well for a chapter. And I don’t know how to best up that pace and still try to get myself to ‘learn’ the concepts adequately. I’m worried that with this being my pace right now, that I won’t be able to budget my time for the rest of the exam parts adequately (even tho by that point I’ll be out of retail and in a firm where they would likely not mind if I use downtime to try to study for the exam)

Also I keep feeling like I would do better if there was a legit ‘FAR Class’ that was in person, I know the accounting classes in Uni would be supposed to prepare you for it, but I feel like there are so many concepts that were only barely touched upon in Uni on this end and thus there are many concepts that I feel like are only just being touched upon the first time to me or did not fully explain well enough.

Also as one other question, but is there an extensive amount of long physical writing on the test? (like long essay/paragraph response questions that cannot be typed on the computer?) Because if so I need to know in case I need to apply for any special accommodation thing as well for that matter.

[SaltyCaptain]

TLDR. Plz summarize.

AUD - 77
BEC - 85
FAR - 78
REG - 85

California Licensed CPA

[monikernc]

Your post is way too long to read but I hope writing it helped you sort things out. Use audio and video options as much as possible to max your study time. Do mcq's for an hour in the morning, a half hour at lunch, and an hour and half after work. On days off at least 4 hours a day. Push for 6. FAR is a beast. If you have been out of school for awhile rebuild your fundamentals to avoid slowing your study time. You can do this with a good diet, good sleep, plenty of water, and limited sugar and caffeine. Your self-care is an important factor for success. If you can find a more stable job do it. Try to get into accounting now.

AUD - 93
BEC - 82
FAR - 76
REG - 88

How have you been?
Ninja book and MCQs and the forum, all first try! 2016
Licensed State of Montana April Fool’s Day 2020
State of Colorado June 2020 - AICPA Ethics 93
Experience was the worst part of the journey for me. You?
If you want things to change you have to do something different.

FAR 7/25/15 76!
AUD 10/30/15 93
BEC 2/27/16 82
REG 5/23/16 88!
Ninja Book and MCQ and the forum - all the way!!!
and a little thing i like to call, time and effort!
if you want things to change, you have to do something different

[Author]

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