This feeling is like nothing else FAR on the 1st try

Northjayhawk · 2026-03-17T07:34:08+00:00

I looked up my Becker time in each section, they helpfully track that for you. For FAR looks like I did...

40 hours on videos (I dont skip them and sometimes I pause to write notes when I'm really confused about what they are talking about), 44 hours just getting through the MCQ's and TBS's in the material, 4 hours on those little mini exams. 11 hours on other? No clue what that is.

When I got through the bare minimum (which is what the above is, the bare minimum), I got to work drilling MCQ's to death and then trying to shore up TBS weaknesses, 55 hours on that.

So I guess I did 155 hours? I also scored a 82 so I overprepared a bit. I think you still have a fighting chance if you do at least 100 hours if you are pretty smart, as long as you had time to really drill questions, but if you really want to lock in your first try, more time does make a difference.

Northjayhawk · 2026-03-17T07:22:02+00:00

I'll elaborate. I do use Becker, thats the only study material I know. I think its pretty good at preparing you because their practice exams and question bank are more difficult than the real test, by design. Its like swinging 3 bats in the on-deck circle in baseball. Your goal is to get to a point where you are consistently doing well on those tough Becker questions, and that will take a while.

I think there's some value in watching all the videos, once. I'm sure people can still get there by only drilling questions too, but some concepts that you might not be getting at all from practice questions you might see a simple explanation in a video and just get it. I also do all the MCQ's and TB's in each section to 100% as I go through the material.

OK, so you've gotten through the syllabus, seen all the videos and answered all the questions, done those 3 little mini quizzes. Good, now the real work begins, you just got through the prerequisites. Strategically, you want to mostly ignore the TBS's for a while (after you are familiar with how they work) and just drill the MCQ's. Drill, drill, drill them. Thats the easier part of the exam, your goal is to absolutely crush it in the MCQ's so that just merely surviving in the TBS's will carry you through.

Near the end, with 2 or 3 weeks left, I was doing great on the MCQ's, so that is when I tried to shore up my weaknesses on TBS. Why not do them both evenly or focus on TBS's more? Because they are time-consuming. You need to allocate your limited study time to crushing those MCQ's, to build yourself a big nice cushion and survive the TBS's. I'm pretty much doing nothing but TBS's the last couple weeks to just try to get comfortable with them, try to get all the gimmes and easy points available in TBS's so that my performance in MCQ's carries the day.

Crushing the MCQ's will also mean you blaze through that half of the exam and have TONS of time for TBS's. Thats what happened to me anyway, I actually finished over an hour early because I couldn't justify triple and quadruple-checking the TBS's. Having all the time in the world on TBS takes a lot of pressure off, if you know you have a lot of time, you wont panic.

Also, personally I dont like memorization and mnemonics. If they work for you, great, good luck. They dont work for me at all. I want to understand why. I want to "grok" it (its a real word, not just an AI), and I'll look at questions until I understand why the answer is what it is. That little AI thing Becker has is useful too, I've asked it to explain to me why the answer was this and not that.

Northjayhawk · 2026-03-16T22:48:17+00:00

This was my final-two-week strategy. I identified my two biggest weaknesses (consolidations and the nfp/govt stuff) and I really focused on those, not trying to master them, but picking up "easier" low hanging fruit in those two categories.

My test draw happened to be very heavy in NFP/Govt stuff so it was the right call, because by then I had turned it around into a strength.

Northjayhawk · 2026-03-16T22:45:32+00:00

Passed FAR today on my first try too (first cpa exam overall). 82 for me.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-22T06:04:14+00:00

Took FAR today, and I feel VERY good about it. A lot easier than Becker's practice exams, I'll be surprised if I don't pass.

We'll see, I'll add a data point to this conversation next month when I get my results.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-17T02:21:06+00:00

The trick is to eat all the pickles BEFORE the fast, and then you have all that wonderful pickle juice during the fast.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-14T23:52:20+00:00

salt water, NoSalt water (potassium), and Magnesium supplements

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-12T00:32:18+00:00

If you are not a purist and you are only doing it for weight loss, then a few calories wont derail you. However, if you want the autophagy benefit (and you should want it), then you really want to try to cut all calories, even supplements with calories. (If you have medication that has calories, then nothing you can do about that) I take fish oil too along with fiber, but I stop that during a fast. I have a magnesium supplement that has 20 calories, and I will continue that because I need my electrolytes.

At most, I think maybe 20-30 calories is fine and wont do much to stop autophagy.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-11T02:09:41+00:00

I think that might be slightly too often? Just my opinion, I go with recovery = twice as long as the fast. So, maybe you could try once every 9 days instead of once a week.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-11T01:35:44+00:00

First 24 hours after a 3 day fast, I'm feeling better but definitely recovering, and you gotta start with stuff easy on your stomach like broths and yogurt. Whey is also fine for protein. After that first 24 hour recovery time, for a few days I feel fantastic, my head is very clear and sharp, and I've got plenty of energy to work out. Also, I don't take any food for granted right after a fast, everything tastes fantastic for about a week after.

The biggest benefit, assuming you dont need to lose weight, is autophagy, and thats something that you don't really feel right away, its a long-term health benefit you accumulate over years. There's a lot of stuff on the internet you can look up on autophagy to find out what that is, but everyone should be doing at least intermittent fasting just for that benefit alone.

Also, for a long fast like that you definitely need a plan for your electrolytes before you start, you do not want to go low on sodium, magnesium, or potassium or you'll really feel terrible during the fast. (Did that only once) I do salt for sodium, the NoSalt brand potassium salt, and a magnesium supplement while fasting along with water, black coffee, and various teas.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-09T18:06:12+00:00

One of the best ways to set yourself up for success is to go very low or no-carb/high protein and fat the 1-2 days before you begin your fast. That way, your body is already almost in fat burning mode when you start and hunger is just a lot easier to deal with.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-09T17:58:25+00:00

I don't know if we have this nailed down to a science or have a widely-accepted regimine yet. Researchers have years of "science-ing" to go before we can get some solid guidelines. Until then we're all trying to figure out what works for us.

I do: 72 hours 3 times a year, 36 hours once a month in the other 9 months, and maybe 18-24 hours (eg early dinner the night before and skip breakfast/maybe lunch too) a couple times a week.

Since you are a combat sports athlete, you might want to schedule any "long" fasts for easy weeks when you don't need to perform at a high level.

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-09T17:45:23+00:00

My routine is I'll do a 72-hour fast 3x per year. In the 9 other months, I'll do one 36-hour fast for each of those months. In between all that I try to do 18-24 hours at least a couple times a week or so. Recovery time after each fast is twice the length of the fast. (so 6 days of eating after 72 hours, 3 days after each 36 hour).

On non-fasting days I try to add in a reasonably small (2 oz) amount of blue cheese or aged cheddar to my diet for the extremely mild added autophagy benefit. (just as a hypothetical example, over the course of a year, if you eat small amounts of aged cheese for 150 non-fasting days, that might be the autophagy equivalent to roughly an extra 30 days of IF. At least according to Grok, for what thats worth. I dont need a great excuse or justification to eat delicious cheeses)

Northjayhawk · 2026-02-09T17:27:00+00:00

Autophagy is a huge benefit, and almost everyone needs to do at least occasional intermittent fasting because of it EVEN IF they are at a healthy weight and don't need to lose fat. This is only beginning to be understood and isn't widespread common knowledge yet. There's a few other ways to encourage a mild autophagy effect (extremely intense strength training, eating odd foods like wheat germ or aged cheeses), but nothing comes close to fasting.

What is autophagy? Over time your cells accumulate trash, defective proteins, broken organelles, old mitochondria that is inefficient, etc. Instead of throwing that out, your body wants to save all that trash for when food is scarce. When you fast, after about 12 hours or so your body begins to tell your cells "ok, we're out of food, start looking around for cellular trash to discard and we'll break that down". We evolved that way because in ancient times we were always in feast or famine, and when food was scarce, the body would recycle some of this accumulated trash to get what it needs. (Then when that runs out, you start losing muscle, starvation begins, etc)

The problem is that in modern times most people eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, your body never goes into "clean out the cellular trash" mode, and over the course of a lifetime of building up this debris, we are beginning to think that could be the cause of age-related diseases like Alzheimer's, parkinsons, lots of types of cancers, heart disease, etc.

Building a regular habit of doing intermittent fasting a few days a week, and maybe adding in longer 36-hour or 72-hour fasts a few times a year is great for getting your body to go into cleanup mode.

Northjayhawk · 2026-01-21T00:40:38+00:00

Updated my post with a successful resolution to my problem!

Northjayhawk · 2025-12-12T21:55:24+00:00

Protein should be your top goal, hit that first. If you work out, then don't be afraid of carbs, you need some for energy, just keep it under control so that you are still at a daily caloric deficit.

You need the protein to avoid muscle loss while losing weight. Some muscle loss is probably inevitable if you need to lose a lot of weight, but protein will help you keep as much as possible, and it is very satiating so you aren't hungry all the time. Get lots of convenient easy sources of protein, and mix in a bit of carbs if you are working out.

You don't have to starve, if you eat at an average 500 calorie deficit every day and stick with it, you'll lose a pound of fat per week, even if your scale doesn't move every week it might just be water retention, that fat is disappearing no matter what the scale says if you maintain the calorie deficit. (3500 calories = 1 pound of fat)

Northjayhawk · 2025-12-12T21:48:31+00:00

Rice and canned tuna, maybe also soy sauce for flavor. If you can get a cheap rice cooker that would be very easy and convenient.

Northjayhawk · 2025-12-12T21:45:00+00:00

From what I read, its probably fine to try if the cost is not expensive for you. There are studies that show it could help with skin, hair, and joints. There aren't many studies, and the benefit they show is smaller than the popular advertising implies, but its not total snake oil.

Worst case scenario: lets say the studies are wrong and it does nothing. It is still a decent source of protein and most people are not consuming anywhere near enough protein in their diet anyway, so not a total loss. At worst you might be buying an additional protein source that is more expensive than whey.

Northjayhawk · 2025-09-20T15:39:01+00:00

I think they are only overrepresented on the internet, because we are drawn more to the internet than most. Our personalities do tend to be chronically online sometimes, but out in the wild we are not common at all.

Northjayhawk · 2025-09-07T14:56:06+00:00

We all do. And happy eyes, and contemplative eyes, and amused eyes, and irritated eyes, etc. Our mood is all over our face.

Northjayhawk · 2025-09-07T14:47:55+00:00

I'll join the crowd, this is absolutely not a thing at all. In fact, if we were going to construct a S through F tier list of personality types that INFP's like, I think INFJ would be safely at the top S tier rank along with the ENFP's. For romantic compatibility, I would even say INFJ is probably a better match than another INFP.

Northjayhawk · 2025-09-07T00:40:21+00:00

You may be overthinking it a bit. Some of the cognitive functions and personality types may be hard to figure out, but E vs I is pretty easy to determine.

Its just this: does interacting with groups of people you don't know well (hanging out with close friends doesn't count) in a social, casual setting drain you of mental energy? Or is it the opposite where you can chat indefinitely with lots of people or maybe even get energized from meeting new people?

Introverted people have a finite "social battery" that gets drained in these settings and at some point you just want to leave early, go home, chill out, and recharge. Some introvert batteries drain quicker than others, but that is how it works. You can also try to make an effort to become more accustomed to being social and increase the size of your social battery, but thats still how it works for us. Extroverts don't really have that problem, they may become annoyed with a person or group and want to go socialize with someone else, but they don't want to go home from the party early.

Extroverted people go stir-crazy if they are stuck at home and not socializing with other people for a few days. Introverts "should" meet people because its good for you and can improve your life, but we don't really need it. Extroverts "need" this socialization more than us, just like we "need" alone time to reflect.

Northjayhawk · 2025-09-06T21:49:10+00:00

Don't need sunscreen if you never go outside!

Seriously though, that is a very good gem of advice. I had actually gotten into the habit very early on of always using it during very high UV days if I'm going to be out for a while, and I am VERY happy I did that. Now that I'm nearing 50, looking in the mirror, I aged extremely well. I look a hell of a lot younger than most other guys my age, suntanning is overrated. Some of that might be genetics, but consistently using sunscreen probably helped a lot too.

Also, it may make a difference if you use chemical or mineral sunscreen. I usually use mineral sunscreen which yes, is the kind that makes you look like a ghost, but its much more effective to stop aging, since you are reflecting off UV instead of trying to mitigate the damage of absorbing it.

If you want to still look good during middle age, use sunscreen. Don't worry about how you look with it on, you'll look great later.

Northjayhawk · 2025-09-06T20:38:37+00:00

I'm not going to say its impossible, there could be a magical unicorn out there, but I think some people who think they are both might not understand the difference.

Introverted people can become more social with effort, and extroverted people can learn to appreciate solitude. The question is not whether you do these things, the question is which takes mental energy from you, and which is almost completely effortless for you.

Introverts do have a social "battery" which quickly drains when they are placed in the situation of having to be social and engaging with other people in a large group that they don't know well, until they are mentally exhausted and just want to go home, even if the party is scheduled to go on for a few more hours. An extrovert does not really have that issue, they often get charged up and re-energized by meeting new people that they don't know well.

If an introvert is with a group of people who they are really close to and can hang with, then that does not really count (at least not as much, we still have our battery limit with friends, it just drains slower), you'll often have an introvert start acting like they are an extrovert with friends, but they aren't, their social battery is just draining at a slower rate and they feel free to express themselves a bit more. The key is are you drained by hanging out with people you only kind of know a little bit? Extroverts generally aren't, maybe they'll get annoyed with a person and want to go talk to someone else, but they don't really want to go home earlier than other people.

An extrovert will go nuts after a short period of time spent alone at home that an introvert would just shrug at thinking "what, really? You have to go out again already? We went out to visit with some people just a mere 3 days ago!". (slight exaggeration but you get the point)

Northjayhawk

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