[Christy]

My REG exam is scheduled for 1\18. I’ve been studying 3-4 hrs after working full time on the week days, studying for about 3 hrs at work during the week and studying 8 – 10 hrs Sat and Sun for the past month or so. Flipping between Becker questions/progress tests, flashcards to cement the concepts and Ninja MCQs. I feel like I know nothing and can’t solve a MCQ to save my life.

Minor set back or am I in trouble?

[mschnei42]

I would say that knowing nothing and not being able to solve a MCQ to save your life is not a minor setback.

AUD: 98
FAR: 95
REG: July 11, 2016
BEC: August 8, 2016

[Missy]

No it's not possible to study “too much”. It's possible to give in to hitting a wall but that's mind over matter. I often equate this process to childbirth, comes a point you declare you can't push anymore but you're told you have to and you find the strength to get back to work

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Goingallin]

Christy: It seems you put more than enough time into your study but more importantly how was the quality of your study? Do you feel that you understand the material or are you just skimming through and not retaining much? It's definitely hard to focus at work. I took a much longer time studying for FAR bc it was the first time I had to study for an exam in 15 years. Although I was putting in the hours, I wasn't productive. I was more concern with how many mc questions I could wrap up in a day than actually learning the material. also my mind was not wire to study so I was very easily distracted.

[Stilgoin]

Take a day off to regroup and rest- go back to studying the next day. If that does not help, then you are in trouble. What is your trending on NINJA?

B | 62, 78
A | 73, 67, 79
R | 82
F | 59, 59, Waiting

Ethics | 93

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
~Winston Churchill

“In a world full of critics, be an encourager."

[SomeSomeCPA]

I'd say you can definitely not study too much; however, you can easily study the same material too much. For instance, if you told me you had a system of reading a chapter in the book, doing 100 MCQ, a section of flashcards, and rewriting your notes I would say each time you redo that system you can only benefit. On the contrary, if you were doing the same MCQ over and over again to the point you had memorized them, you had absolutely studied that material too much and lost the benefit of the amount of time you had put in.

FAR: 39,59,TBD
BEC: 74,79
AUD: 77
REG: September

[Christy]

Currently trending 83 in Ninja MCQs close to 1500 questions. When I said I couldn't solve a question to save my life, it was me exaggerating. Physically and mentally drained at this point burning the candle at both ends and fighting off being sick. Taking a much needed break, going to bed early and regrouping tomorrow.

[rlarivee01]

It's very possible to study the wrong way too much. Ask me how I know.

I saw no mention of note-taking. Now I'm not much of a note-taker myself, and I don't mean doing it from the book or lectures- But instead, taking note of your weak spots in the MCQ, then going to the book/notes/lectures to figure out every detail about that particular concept. That would probably be more useful than burning yourself out trying to just memorize the explanation why it was wrong in the MCQ software.

I'm doing BEC and one of my weak spots is job costing, or really, cost accounting in general. The plan is to see which questions I'm routinely guessing or getting wrong, then making myself a self-made expert in those.

Good luck!

[waffle_house]

Yes you can study too much when you start outsmarting yourself with easy questions by over complicating them. However, in your instance you aren't studying too much you just aren't studying right or just going through the motions.

[HoosierCPA]

I would say its definitely possible to study too much. Having said that, I don't want to give anyone excuses to back off their study regimen after reading this post lol. Using my situation I have been at it for over a year. Have always studied 2-3 hours per day on the weekdays and 4-6 hours on the weekends. I am comfortable with that study schedule and it has gotten me relatively decent success. After I passed audit in November I moved to my nemesis REG, all while my wife was about to deliver our 2nd baby. I decided it would be a great idea to use FMLA time to grind out extra long days and assure I passed REG and ended the misery of the CPA exams! I was putting in roughly 6-8hrs a day every day. By the time the exam approached I was overthinking concepts and my brain was just fried. I ended up with a 71..which was my worst score of the 4 times I have taken the REG exam! I was actually shocked I scored that well–every concept, every sim, nothing came easy in that exam. I just felt like my brain was mush. The only reason I probably got a 71 was because I had memorized answers and there are MANY similar answers on the exam as there are your study material.

I don't attribute my failure 100% to overstudying, some minor tweaking in my approach and study schedule and I probably could have fixed the issue. Also, I went into studying by just grinding out mcq questions with no structure to my studying. I purchased ninja and randomly did sets of mcq's until I completed them all. In my opinion that had just as much to do with my failure as my fried brain!

FAR - 78
REG - 72,74,71...please just go away REG nobody likes you!
BEC - 82
AUD - Aug 16

[RobertJason]

I got to a burn-out point on REG too. I took a couple weeks off then started scoring much better. The good news is your trending scores are great. I strongly believe in writing notes (flashcards or notebook) and lightly reviewing the big picture concepts closer to exam day. This can provide a break–remember in college writing an essay was always more work than editing/rereading it. I don't think burning out on the specifics of something like UCC merchant warranties is productive if you're burnt out. I'd focus more on general concepts like homeowners exclusion, etc. Trust that the knowledge you've gained from weeks of study will be recalled. Make sure you're well rested. I believe that's why some people say don't cram the day before, because for some people, that is exhausting. For others, they have tons of energy so cramming the day before doesn't harm their test performance.

You got this! Good luck.

[Author]

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