Well, I'm about as ready for tomorrow as I'm going to be.  By 1:15 p.m. I should know whether I'm still a candidate for the CFP or am on the road to expulsion.  It's been a very discouraging and frustrating couple of days.  I may have mentioned earlier that I was told that 3 hours of reading and study for the exam tomorrow would be sufficient.  I've already put in more than triple that.

To be fair, I did finish my first read of the 250+ pages of material in just about 3 hours.  But then I tried the practice exam and couldn't even get past first base.  So I did a second read and this time had better luck, but far from perfect.  The reading material itself is actually quite straight-forward.  But the practice exams are an entirely different matter.  Some of the questions are very basic, others extremely difficult, no consistency at all.  Some of the questions can be answered just by reading the headings.  Others cannot be answered at all by any means short of memorizing the entire book.  Then there are the questions that go beyond extreme -- it's not that they're so terribly difficult, just so very detailed, and in some cases of these extreme questions, questions on details that are not even in the book.  So they can't be answered even if you do memorize the book.

Since the first meeting three weeks ago, it's been the question that has hung over me like a blade.  Just how detailed are these little exams going to be?  The mentor claims that it's just for the purpose of making sure you're reading the material in the first place.  He just doesn't want to waste his time if you're not doing the assignments so he's reserving the right to boot you if he comes to that conclusion.  With over 250 pages of material to cover in less than ten minutes, this little exam can either be extremely easy or extremely difficult.  I have no idea how much detail he'll be looking for so, to avoid being booted on the very first class session, I've had to assume nothing and study like mad.  By 1:15 p.m. tomorrow I will know what's expected of me.  Until then, I'm taking nothing for granted.  And I had better find out that the original 3 hour read was more than sufficient to prepare me and allow me to stay in the program.

An example of how crazy these practice exams are is the question on the Series 65 licensing exam.  They give you four multiple choice options and then ask, "Which of these are NOT on the Series 65?"  The only way you can answer that question is to memorize the paragraph where they discuss the Series 65?  It's not enough to know what's on it, you have to know what NOT on it!?  This is driving me crazy!  One paragraph out of over 250 pages and you have to have it memorized to answer that particular question.  And why do we even have to know about the Series 65?  CFPs don't do the 65, they do the Series 7!  Why not any questions about the Series 7?  But as I've said, none of this is nearly as frustrating as the questions on topics that are not even in the book.

So I will see how it goes tomorrow and hope I'm still in the program the next time I write a post.  I'm really just looking for a realistic assessment of how burdensome this is going to be.  I spent less time studying for some of my finals in college.  Three hours for each session?  Really?  Well ... maybe.  When I finish up tomorrow, I will let him know that the practice exam was a great deal more difficult than the reading material itself.  Is this what the future holds in store?  I'm hoping to feel a great deal better about all this tomorrow at this time than I do right now.  Right now ... I'm already exhausted.

Exhaustion!  That's a nice little segue into how investors are doing these days.  Today oil prices went down again and so did the rest of the market with the Dow slipping 86 points as the market fatigues itself on more data, particularly this Friday's employment report which everyone is hoping will disappoint so that the Fed won't announce the next rate hike on the 15th.  The good news includes consumer spending up more than at any time in the past six years (so why is U.S. News reporting that spending is down?) and the S&P enjoying its third consecutive month of gains.  Volume was above average at 8.2 billion.

Markets | Tue May 31, 2016 4:37pm EDT

Wall St. ends May with whimper as energy shares slump

BY LEWIS KRAUSKOPF

DJ:  17,787.20  -86.02       NAS: 4,948.06  +14.55       S&P:  2,096.96  -2.10  

REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID/FILE PHOTO

The S&P 500 wrapped up its third straight month of gains on a flat note on Tuesday as weaker energy shares countered a rise in safe-haven utilities.  The Nasdaq closed higher on Tuesday, and ended up 3.6 percent for the month, the best performance of the three major indexes. The Dow eked out gains for May to notch its fourth straight positive month.

Data on Tuesday showed U.S. consumer spending recorded its biggest increase in more than six years in April as households stepped up purchases of automobiles, while another report showed an ebb in consumer confidence in May.

Consumer staples .SPLRCS ended down 0.49 percent, while consumer discretionary shares .SPLRCD fell 0.11 percent.

Energy shares .SPNY were the worst performing sector, dropping 0.57 percent, as oil prices settled lower. Utilities .SPLRCU rose 0.56 percent, leading all sectors.

"There’s nothing out there today bringing money off the sidelines," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 86.09 points, or 0.48 percent, to 17,787.13, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.11 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,096.95 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXICadded 14.55 points, or 0.29 percent, to 4,948.06.

Investors will be parsing through economic data, including Friday's employment report, to gauge whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as soon as its June 14-15 meeting. The central bank caught investors off guard earlier this month when it signaled its next rate hike could be just weeks away.

"The market is getting used to the idea of potentially higher rates and the Fed hiking this summer," said Aaron Jett, vice president of global equity research at Bel Air Investment Advisors in Los Angeles. "It’s been an amazing change in sentiment compared to the middle of February where people were ready to jump out of the window."

After a rough start to the year amid jitters about the global economy and volatility in the oil market, the S&P 500 notched its third straight month of gains, its first such streak in two years. The benchmark index is up more than 2 percent in 2016.

On Tuesday, Dow component Disney (DIS.N) fell 1.1 percent. The studio's latest release, "Alice Through the Looking Glass," received poor reviews.

Celator Pharma (CPXX.O) surged 71.6 percent to $30.08 after agreeing to be bought by Jazz Pharma (JAZZ.O) for about $1.5 billion. The Nasdaq Biotechnology index .NBI rose 1.3 percent.

Great Plains Energy Inc (GXP.N) will buy bigger rival Westar Energy Inc (WR.N) for $8.6 billion, the largest deal in the U.S. electricity distribution market so far this year. Westar jumped 6.4 percent, while Great Plains fell 5.9 percent.

About 8.2 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, well above the roughly 7 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,648 to 1,395, for a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,591 issues rose and 1,250 fell for a 1.27-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 81 new highs and 21 new lows.