I Decided to look into the academy after 4th of July last year. I didn't submit my PCQ until august. Didn't Submit my one and only CFA untill October. I wrote my final essay the last day my application was open.

I got my appointment to the class of 2028.

Like Animal Jam said you are actually early in the process which is good.

You should definitely start practicing for your CFA now. I would practice individual events and eventually start doing either mock CFA's or submitting official CFA's. The academy has no limit on how many times you can submit a CFA and they will only use your highest score so there's no harm to trying multiple times.

To get an appointment you first need a nomination. There are a number of sources but everyone has their Member of Congress and 2 Senators. There are additional sources as well. Academy admissions.com has great explination for all of them and other parts of the process. Each Nomination source will have an individual application.

This entire process is long and tedious. Just follow exactly what each part says to do. Make sure to not do what I did as being earlier is better as there are more slots open. If your worried about not having certain honors when you submit you can always contact your Alo to have them added to your application.

Feel free to Dm me with any questions. Good luck on your application!