How to keep motivated?

I know what you mean about the motivation.
For the skills levels papers I used to love the study but at the professional level I’ve had a couple of fails that I really felt that I did not deserve (and a couple that I admit that I did! P6 and first sitting of P2 when in the hall I was praying that certain subjects would not be asked… How can one say that they passed ACCA if they passed based on luck rather than well rounded knowledge of every paper taken).
At times now study feels more about learning to pass exams that properly conveying one’s knowledge of the subject matter with exams way too short for the amount of writing that one needs to get down… So it becomes only semi readable and you lose the markers interest when they struggle to read your script even though you may have a great answer you still end up failing.
I do find that with the exception of when I took P2 the two weeks before the exam the adrenalin cuts in and I do an awful lot on the run up but for the 2-3 months before that at times I seem to read but take nothing in.
I set myself goals of (say) a chapter a day of the study text of each paper that I will be sitting but sometimes I need to reread the same chapters the next day as its as though I was only reading to get through the chapter and my mind wandered.
The exceptions to this were P3 and P5 both of which I loved doing and that in a nutshell is what makes all of the difference.
If you love the subject matter then it gets easier as interest sparks motivation
If you feel that you are getting through the paper just to get to the end of the race then it becomes a chore and motivation goes out of the window.
Maybe in order to stay motivated in ones study you almost have to forget how close you are to the finish line.
Personally I had to drop P6 as an option (swapped to P7) as after the first sitting I just could not find the motivation to study it at all.
I think that P6 is unique in that respect as its a calculation paper where what you leant previously has to be unlearnt to move forwards. (I believe that at this level if you have to look at the tax tables in the hall you have already failed as one should know the rates without reference). Actually, I think that the moral of that one is that first sitting of P6 should always be in June so that you are still on the same finance act for the resit if you need to.
Sorry, went completely off piste there.
One way I find to remotivate is to sit the exam using an old paper under exam conditions. It really refocuses one’s attention upon gaps in the knowledge and makes you reference the study texts rather than simply going through them from A to Z (which in itself is demotivating when you are counting how many pages left to the end of the chapter / book).
Also Mikes lectures on here are nothing short of brilliant where you never know when he is going to throw in an anacdote so no matter what the subject it is never, ever dry.
Maybe thats another reason that I couldn’t face P6 a second time as there are no OT lectures for it.
I just had a quick reread of the above and had a bit of an epiphany about motivation.
With the exams we can tend to get focused on only one or two left and just got to get through them.
Thats the same with the books. In the early chapters you take it all in and enjoy the study. By the final few chapters its just trying to ge to the end of the book and can be a real struggle to get through.
Anyone else see the analogy there.
Somehow i our minds we need to divorce the fact that we are so close to the finish line of either the qualification or the book and as much as possible try to think of the paper/chapter as though it were the first rather than last.
Sorry, went off on a waffle there. Hope that you get motivated by something that you read in here and wishing you every sucess in December… And on that note I must go and pay for P7.
kind regards,
Shaun.