handsewnquilts, what review course are you using?  I would recommend you have some sort of software or online course that allows you to practice the multiple choice questions just as they look on the exam.  It is one less thing to worry about on exam day.  Also, the NASBA has sample tests you can go through to see exactly how it will look on the big day.  Go here:

http://www.cpa-exam.org/lrc/exam_tutorial_parallel.html 

• I used Becker as my primary study material and supplemented it with Wiley Free Practice Software, Kaplan (also available for free online) & cpareviewforfree website. These 3 resources were used only during my final review (i wasn't even aware of them before that). I did not use Becker final product.
  
• Overall it took me over 2.5 months to prepare. I studied 1 chapter per week (watched lectures, solved homework problems including supplemental & generally reviewed the material so that i could grasp all info). I agree that 1 week is too long but i used to put in about 3-4 hrs of study per day initially. I made lots & lots of notes for myself - on study material & also certain notes on a rough book (My study material is full of notes; you hardly can see any space empty :P). I use a lot of post-its. Whatever topic is hard/felt would be tested, used to be marked with it
  
• So 9 chapters in FAR took me 8 weeks roughly (i squeezed in 2 chapters during a week), plus i had about 3 weeks to do my final review. During final review, i re-did ALL homework questions from Becker and studied extensively from the material. Each chapter took 2 days to finish. This was when i got some time to even solve a few questions from Wiley & Kaplan. I did each & every question from cpareviewforfree website over a span of 2.5 days. I did just that during those 2.5 days as there were about 571 questions & most of them were time-consuming for me.
• Last week of review was more of taking final exams, 2 from Becker, 1 from Gleim & 1 from Wiley. I also went through the AICPA Sample Tests (but of course, they don't have the full fledged exam online)
• On the previous day or 2 days before my exam, i again went through the entire material quickly (i like to see every topic in the material atleast once before i leave my house. This has been my habit ever since. My post-its & my notes helped me here)

1. Always make a study plan & stick to it. Set realistic goals for yourself & estimate the time you would need to prepare. Blindly following others' plan is not going to help, no matter how good they might be
2. Make a habit of writing down/preparing your own notes (need not be a thesis, could be in the form of short bullet points, topic-wise which can help you retain so much info). Also keep reviewing them periodically so that they just sink in
3. Practice lots of multiple-choice questions as much as possible. If you are able to get any software/book that contains additional MCQs, go for it. Also learn from the mistakes that you make rather than skipping them. In fact, mark all the wrong ones & keep doing them at regular intervals & in random orders so that you remember & know the reasons behind correct/wrong choices
   
4. Use just 1 study material whichever you are comfortable with. Each material is good in its own way & it all depends on you. Also, where you feel that your material does not cover a few topics so well, prepare notes for it from what you learn by solving MCQs/reading elsewhere (i know that Becker just blows off few topics during lectures or they don't cover them so well in the material. Only by making notes on your own & reading them again will help you learn that stuff)
5. No matter how well you prepare, keep a minimum of 2-3 weeks for final review. It really helps & as you study again, things become more clearer
6. Lastly, believe in yourself, stay confident & keep motivating yourself. Focus is the key (more than intelligence for this exam)

Hay CPA0123

Congrats for your achievement in FAR and all the best for your next exams.

I am planning to take FAR & BEC in next May. You had mentioned that there are free practice softwares of Wiley and Kaplan. Could you just paste the direct link to these?

I could not find it from Wiley web site.

Regards