[SuperAccountingGod]

So I have FAR this Thursday and I am in the final stages of review. Right now I am rewriting my notes on some of the weak areas and plan to do more MCQ for those areas later today. I also want to take another stab at the AICPA sample test. However, I am feeling tired. My brain doesn’t feel as alert and focused like it did yesterday and I can’t tell if I am actually understanding what I am doing or just going through the motions and “convincing” myself I get the material. I feel I still have a lot more work to do but I fear I am wearing myself out and the last thing I want to happen is waking up on exam and feeling like death. Have any of you ever felt this way in the days leading up to the exam and if so, what did you do?

[Rainbow Butterfly]

I will totally admit to see a shrink due to the feels of anxiety and burn out from studying. Best recommendation I have ever gotten! Eat sleep exercise. Make sure you eat regularly (duh I know). If you can focus, go for a 20 minute walk. Exercise at least 30 minutes everyday. And this last one is important, sleep! Without sleep it's dang hard to do anything. If you have been having trouble sleep, see a doc about none drowsy sleep meds. (fyi exercise helps with getting to sleep too). Meditate, pray, or do whatever you need to do to sleep. Some of this advice might be too late considering your exam is Thursday. may not want to taking an new meds right before the exam as it may side effects you don't like. All the same, I wish you the best of luck!

[SuperAccountingGod]

Thanks for your reply, I took some pain meds and am feeling more rejuvinated :D. I admit I haven't been getting enough sleep so I will def be sleeping earlier today and tomorrow! Everybody is telling me not to stress over this test (that's easier said than done) but I am doing my best to calm my nerves. On the day before your exam, do you take it easy so you don't wear yourself out before exam day?

[Recked]

This is a completely normal feeling. Don't overdo it the day before the exam.
I did not do any MCQs the day before the exam. Take half a day to review notes, mnemonics, and highlighted areas. Then take the second half of the day to let your brain re-coop.

[CS]

I also recommend not wearing yourself out. I was busting myself until about 7 pm the night before FAR (had it at 8 am) and my wife told me I looked like hell and hope that I didn't deplete my mental resources. I guess I held enough to pass but I do regret it, there was no point in that extra studying.
However, a light review of notes couldn't hurt. I never took notes so I couldn't review any, so instead I would do 50 -60 MCQ pretty early on in the AM the day before spread among the topics and then just call it a day. I wouldn't recommend that either but every time I wanted to start a light review of study material, it seemed like it would take forever (even abbreviated), so I figured just keeping my brain warm would be ok and that worked out for me.
Also, maybe get to bed a little earlier than usual, or even earlier if you already planned it. FAR was my first, as it is for most people (I am assuming you as well judging by your signature), and so I was extremely nervous and got a couple of hours sleep. The adrenaline and anxiety during the exam kept me alert but sleep would have been nice.

[Anonymous]

I usually take it easy the day before the exam. If anything, I will go through my notes one more time. But my philosophy is, if I didn't know it by then I probably wasn't going to know it by exam time, and getting enough sleep is more important to me than cramming. After reviewing my notes the day before I will do something like watch a movie before going to bed. I always schedule my exams in the afternoon so I can sleep in, do yoga, and eat a good breakfast before heading to Prometric. And on the drive to Prometric I blast my playlist of all of my most favorite songs!! So far that has worked for me 2/2 times. We'll see in two weeks how it worked for REG…

[SuperAccountingGod]

Sad to say my brain is shutting down again. I'm starting to miss a lot of MCQ because my brain is failing to comprehend the question. For calculations I'm making simple mistakes. For conceptual questions my brain isn't thinking hard enough. I don't want to waste my study time drilling more MCQ if it's not going to benefit me like I want it to. Should I take this as a sign to stop and shift gears to something else?

[Anonymous]

Yes – take a half day off. Sitting there killing yourself isn't helping. Your brain needs rest to sort through all that info and properly store it just like a computer does. That's why a lot of people on this forum (including myself) have had dreams where I'm doing mcqs, SIMs, etc. Your brain is processing all that information while you're sleeping. Take off the back half of one day and go to bed early. You will wake up feeling better and let's be honest – you will either pass or fail FAR based on the accumulation of all the work you have put in already. Missing out on one 3 hour studying session will not meaningfully move your score in one direction or the other so you don't have to feel guilty about it. Good sleep will be a better use of your time at this point.

[Author]

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