I dunno any Java or C++ and I made an LFS in a few days. Not a very *good* one, but I can boot and connect to the net and all. I've got it on hda11 and I created an identical hda12, so I'm just going to LFS LFS back and forth until I'm happy.
Had to cheat to get my LILO and BSD-style inits and so on, too - I really wouldn't like a 'straight' LFS at all.
'Two months' use of Linux doesn't mean much regarding whether two months will be enough to build an LFS. If you're terrified of the command line or can't follow directions (or even understand them), you're screwed. If neither of those are true and you just want a system, it's a cakewalk. If neither of those are true and you want to *learn* and experiment, then it's a crapshoot.
I started out intending to learn (and did some) but ended up needing some serious distraction due to some... bad... stuff, so ended up plunging through faster than I'd have done otherwise.
I dunno, though - how does LFS equal a masters degree? Cuz I'll take one.
-- Oh, your 'host platform' would probably make a difference. I built LFS from Slack but it might be different from Mandrake.
-- And your hardware. Mine's kinda middlin, I guess - 1.1GHz Athlon/512MB RAM. On a slower machine/less RAM, it'd slow things down. A faster box; faster.