[wgray]

I have FAR on 9/9/17 and because work and life got a bit in the way, I haven’t been able to put in as much studying as I wanted to. From the beginning of August through around last week, I followed the Ninja methodology to watch all the lectures and wrote down all the Ninja notes without really doing any MCQs whatsoever. Two days ago, I started doing Ninja MCQs, did about 150 or so, and trended at 50-55% without any real variation above or below that mark. I’m kind of concerned that it’ll be difficult to surpass that threshold. I’m a non-accounting business major, so I only went up to Intermediate I in school, so a lot of the concepts are really foreign to me.

Today through 9/8, I’m taking vacation time all day, every day to study. I plan on being awake about 18 hours a day until test day. I won’t have any other distractions aside from meals, exercise, and other personal care, which probably takes my realistic max study hours to 16 hours a day. Social media and games are shut down.

What’s the best plan of attack to get my trending score higher?
– Changing the MCQ subject matter to other areas of focus?
– Best approach to deal with wrong answers?
– Taking breaks?
– Is there a diminishing return by actually studying all 16 available hours? Should I study fewer hours?
– Certain number of questions a day I should shoot for? I’m currently capable of about 20/hour (*16 max hours = 320/day).
– Any other factors I might not be considering?

Thanks

[Recked]

take notes on the questions you get wrong
study 50 minutes on then take a 5-10 minute break, rinse and repeat
i personally usually max out about 2 hours and then have to take a break, or else the information does not get absorbed
I feel like you need to target 36 questions in 45 minutes. i think 1.5 hours for MCQ's is the new target, leaving 2.5 hours for sims.

[CPAcandidate3]

@wgray

I was trending mid to low 50s in FAR 5 days before my test. I took a break from MCQ and re-watched the lectures for my worst sections as well as read through the note cards. It's amazing on a second time through a lecture when you're more familiar with the lingo how much more you get out of it. I got up to a trending score of 70% pretty quickly once I started the MCQ back up. 150 is not a lot I would maybe do another 150 and then take a break from MCQ and go back and re-watch lectures.

[M123]

Exactly – all this stuff makes more sense the 2nd time around after trying to apply it.

@WGray – you're tracking better than me. I did 1200 mcq for FAR. It took 600 to 700 (not sure exactly) when things started to take for me – strong discouragement followed by really getting pumped about progress. So if you do 1200 total mcq (with sims thrown in for good measure) – divide by days left with maybe a day or two for just review – it is possible. I say possible because you already have the videos and notes in.

Don't let a good test window get away 🙂

The other thing I'd say is that yes – there is a point of diminishing returns. That's individual but for me – working full time I could do 120 to 150 q per day for the easier exams but FAR was about 90 since many of the questions are more intensive.

[Fratty Redneck]

@wgray – right there with you. I'm taking FAR next Friday, 9/8, and have half-heartedly gotten through the material. As a result, I'm trending 55% on NINJA MCQ through 790 questions.

I'm taking tomorrow off of studying as I unexpectedly was offered club level tickets to the South Carolina – NC State game in Charlotte. I'm a big Gamecock fan and couldn't turn it down. I'll dive back in Sunday and cram like crazy through Thursday. I'm going to watch Becker lectures on weak points (trending 29% on Not-for-profit) and come back to MCQ. Good luck to you. We will both need it in the coming days.

[wgray]

I'm not ordinarily a crammer, for my first 3 passed exams I had an easier work schedule in public and was able to balance a normal 6-8 weeks of study time. This summer got really crazy with my workload, and I simply didn't have the stamina to crack open my study materials after a long day of work. I correctly anticipated this and told management I was taking a vacation without really sharing that this is what I'm actually doing. Apparently, some people I work with would rather I spend my remaining waking hours working than getting a CPA.

So I really appreciate the tips, all, please keep them coming!

[Author]

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