August 17, 2016

So I just "finished" my week 3 day 1 case...

I didn't finish... :S Eek.

Stakeholder preferences
Me:
- wants to be a CPA badly, BADLY!
- willing to endure the feeling of 1,000,000 deaths for my future children.
- will move out if I pass the CFE.
- will lose all the rewards of passing the CFE. There are numerous!

Primary issues: I didn't finish because I didn't have enough time to cover all the operational issues or provide good recommendations. Nor did I have enough knowledge to get through all the issues fast enough.
 
Major Issues:

- Insufficient preparation; I didn't prepare enough.
(Pros: - It's really fun not preparing haha it's also emotionally exhilarating
Cons: - Significantly higher likelihood that I will brain fart during the exam and fail. - It's in my best interest to pass the CFE and not preparing enough is detrimental to my success)

- I spent WAY too much time right before I wrote this exam on the phone. WAYYYY too much. Yup. ex.
(Pros: - I'll get laid. - She might become my wife. - I really love the girl I was talking to - the phone is a useful communication tool. I can use it to talk to my mom, and ask her to buy me groceries.
Cons: - Significantly higher likelihood I'll be a loser for the rest of my life
- girl is also hated by my family, so I may live an unhappy life.
- girl will also hate me for failing CFE, and not becoming a certified professional)

- I spend a lot of time playing games, watching anime/breakdancing vids, also doing "other" stuff.
(Pros: - Really fun! - it takes away my stress. It's a great form of relaxation.
Cons: - Lowers my probability that I will pass the CFE due to lack of time - I would be playing better game, watching better anime, actually being the person breakdancing in those videos if I actually became a CPA )

- I spend a lot of time sleeping
(Pros: - both my brain and body need sleep - sleep is essential - sleep helps with memory.
Cons: I'm wasting time where I could be studying - I may be getting in the habit of sleeping past the time I'm supposed to wake up and write the CFE) 

Recommendations:
- Prepare more for the CFE
- limit time on the phone to 5 minutes or simply turn off the phone.
- allocate a certain time to do "other" stuff, play games, watch anime/breakdancing videos. For example, before you go to sleep give yourself 5 minutes to do whatever other stuff, play games, watch anime/breakdancing videos.
- keep track of your sleep for 1 week and then start using an alarm to ensure that you don't sleep over your statistical sleep requirements.

Operational Issues:
- I had to go to the bathroom during the beginning part, which apparently took me a few minutes.
(Pros: going to the bathroom is really good for your body; you can get rectal cancer if your feces stays in your intestine too long. Cons: - Interrupts exam writing process - takes up exam time.)

- During the beginning of the exam, when I wanted to do some ratio analysis, (I usually like to stare at my calculator for hints on how to perform a good ratio analysis interpretation) I couldn't find my calculator. It had been lost for a week or so, because I didn't need to use it. I've been using excel instead.

- during the exam, my brain and/or stomach wanted to take a break, so I took off my ear plugs, took off my shoes, grabbed hummus + bread + watched a short show while I ate, came back downstairs. Wore ear plugs, put my shoes back on. (Pros: - it felt great to take a break. really cooled my brain off; Cons: - less time to write my exam.)

- during the exam, I wasted a lot of time covering SWOT points, which was for the most part useless. They didn't even mark me on SWOT. So why did I do it. I could've saved sometime there. I thought maybe it might add to the quality of my situational analysis. I'm sure it did, but I had to sacrifice my other time in other areas of the exam.

- during the exam, I highlighted everything I read. Which was a lot!

Recommendations:

- I recommend allocating 15 minutes to go to the bathroom before you start writing your exam. Or if it's a real exam, and you're not able to go to the bathroom before, hold it in and keep writing. I suppose I can try to get used to holding it in by doing exams at 9 AM. Smart... Yet odd! Some research on how to induce a poop: - have a high water and fibre + fruit/vege/nuts (e.g. chia + flax) + (probiotic food like kim chi) diet and get lots of sleep! <-- already implemented. Do some exercise (movement helps strengthen the colon muscles  For example: do a 5 minute walk, walk up and down the stairs, then go to the toilet, and massage your perineum/choda, also try moving ur butthole with kegals).

 - having my calculator handy. I should just always keep my supplies in a zip lock bag. Just like in real test scenarios.

- I recommend using the thin edge of the highlighter or only highlighting key facts. Or highlighting down the left side. That is SUPER fast, and I still can retain some valuable info.

- I recommend allocate sometime before I beginning to write a case to Eat hummus + bread + glass of water. I should buy a TON of water bottles. I'm sure you're allowed water during the exam. You can also buy some snacks or something. I'm going to try and find a berry trail mix bar at the local super market, I'm sure I can bring this into the exam as long as it doesn't make too much noise. It will help with my hunger needs/wants. (Here's a list of potential brain snacks)

- I recommend filling out the SWOT last, if you're not explicitly asked to do it. First fill out the parts that have been required, THEN work on the parts that may seem less important. GOOD PLAN!!!!

Implementation plan:

- EVERY DAY, time your study sessions, and aim for MAXIMUM DAILY STUDY TIME, this will accomplish the recommendation of preparing more for the CFE
- To solve the problem of spending too much time on the phone, I put a sticker on it with big letters saying "5 Min. Max!" Or if you're getting multiple calls, simply turn off your phone.
- EVERY DAY, give yourself less than 30 minutes (preferably 5 minutes) to do "other" stuff, play games, watch anime/breakdancing videos. 

- Go grab a zip lock bag now and prepare your materials (calculator included! Also drivers license because in a real exam scenario they will want to see it. Pack with pencils + highlighters)

- Print out a sleep schedule. Here's a file (WARNING: This file needs to be adjusted if you're like me and you take naps every now and then! Honestly, I'm not even gonna bother with that file I thought this was a good idea, and in theory it sounded cool. In actuality, once I recognized a sleeping pattern, there were sometimes where I needed extra sleep and you really just gotta sleep whenever the body wants to because you can get sick if you don't listen to your body or if you cut your sleep off at let's say 7 am when your body wanted to sleep until 9 am, your body will stop you in the middle of a good study session later in the day to get those two hours back! lol This is why I'm not fond of the file) I created to help with recording sleep pattern.

I'm tired. I'm off to bed. I'll continue writing some other implementation of my recommendations for later. Or I'll just straight up implement the recommendations in this post.

It looked like you were dreaming for 2 seconds there. A fight between the very best is a struggle for those decimal points. In other words, after you smashed into the ground, I killed you twice.

Study start time: 6:18 PM

Have yet to buy water and the other stuff... When should I do that? When I need it! I just ate a bunch of food before I started to study. So I doubt I'll go hungry. Going to aim for 10:18 PM at least. Let's do this!  
 7:40 PM stopped - took a whiz. Meditated. Grabbed some food. Came back and put my ear plugs back in. Ready to roll. Kept those shoes ON! :)
8:00 PM started again. 
I don't remember how long I studied for after 8:00 PM but it must've been at least an hour... I went on a walk, run, cartwheels, walk, self-talk, then came back home. Fell asleep on the couch in an awkward position.