First and foremost you need to go back to your highschool and kick your teachers for not teaching you how to spell license.
Next, I'd follow the seaschool route. Home study will work, but the class will teach you what you need to know for the test among other important info.
3rd, your days can be estimated if you have info on the boat or boats you logged it on. i.e. Registration papers and a signatures from the owners. That held me up. Then while I was getting my paperwork together I got a DUI (Roll Tide U), and they increased my days needed to like 800 or something.