Question

Hello and blessings to his honored Torah eminence, may he live long.
For several years now I have been studying the Babylonian Talmud (“Gemara” in the vernacular), and I still have not gone through all of it.
I want to study Jewish law for two main purposes:

1. To know how to practice and how to issue rulings.
2. To receive rabbinic ordination certification.

Now, for example: I am interested in studying the laws of prohibitions and permissions in kashrut.
I am unsure between two modes of study.
A. To study tractate Hullin in the Talmud and the medieval authorities, and arrive at my own conclusions in understanding the passages, and afterward to study the material required by the rabbinate (Tur, Beit Yosef, Shulchan Arukh, etc.). Advantage: I will get to the root of the Jewish law and develop autonomy of my own. Disadvantage: it takes a huge, huge amount of time.
B. To study the material of the rabbinate (Tur, Beit Yosef, Shulchan Arukh, etc.), get examined, and in the course of life study passage by passage and arrive at independent halakhic rulings only later on in life. Advantage: I will obtain certification quickly (which is what I want). Disadvantage: it will take a very long time until I develop autonomy of my own, if ever.
[Or perhaps there is a middle road or something of that sort…]
 
Thanks in advance for the response and consideration. May the teacher instruct us, and may his reward be doubled from Heaven.