GMAT Error Log

Ultimately you want it to be usable. If it is too hard/complicated to figure out, you won't use it.
Your goal is to have a record of all the questions you did wrong (maybe even the ones you did right but that's not as important).

There is also an auto-error log built into GMAT Club - see more here:
time-yourself-with-a-new-gmat-club-timer-v-96251.html

Umm..pardon my ignorance.

How to log the "questions" and the answer descriptions? Questions in verbal run along for pages. Their explanation consumes another chunk of space. Where do you guys log all this information? If I put it in the excel cell it doesn't look readable. It even doesnt work for questions with images.. Instead I've tried to write the description in a notepad and embed it into the spreadsheet. But even that gets very annoying.

I've logged OG11 and GMATPREP1 errors with just pointers to the questions I got wrong. But now I've forgotten the details about those questions. So every time I need to look back, I need to go to the open the book/software and check the questions again.

This seriously takes a lot of time and is very inefficient. I feel the best method is to keep handwritten logs but even that doesnt work for verbal. Cant write information that runs along for pages!

Can please someone shed some light on how to make efficient use of the error logs?

what is the "db" sheet in the error logs? database? for what?

I think with error logs, the best way to use them is to put in the question number and book name and then write down why you got the answer wrong. If not, what you CAN do is, if you're doing these questions online, just make a list of questions that you got wrong by copying and pasting them in a Word file. You can review these later.

Yes, it is the Database. If you want to add a source that's not there in order to include it in the drop-down menus or add some sort of mistake that you make which is not mentioned, etc you update the required column in the database.

Thanks Whiplash.


After a lot of contemplation, I am doing my logging in the following manner:

For all verbal questions that I get wrong (except RC), I put all the errors and the description in a simple ms wordfile.

For quant questions that I get wrong, I make handwritten notes for each question - write down the question, my answer, where did I falter, area tested - how to solve etc. So this also acts like a disincentive to do lesser errors

Thanks guys.

BB, here is the simplified version of the 'Friendly' log without fancy buttons, but with WORKING formulas.
I also added the 'date' column. The reason for this is that I want to take reports every two weeks (Pivot table will help) on how am I performing and if there are substantial changes in the performance.

In Saruba's friendly error log, please explain with example, the various types of "Issues" such as Careless, Guess, Not sure, Tough, Knowledge Gap, Read the Q

Thank you!!

I am sorry, but what exactly is the problem here?

I think the terms are fairly self explanatory? Careless means you messed up stupidly. Guess means you guessed and either got it right or wrong - possibly wrong, if you're putting it in an error log. Not sure means you got down to like two choices, maybe and picked one. Tough means it was hard and you took too long or something. Knowledge gap means you didn't know how to attack the problem at all and Read the Q refers to you missing a crucial detail in the question and hence getting everything wrong.

And the moderators are here. We try to answer everyone's questions but you've gotta give it a bit of time. Try thinking about stuff rather than just post things immediately. Personally, I didn't really understand what your question even was.

Hello,
Before I posted this question, I tried to read through this thread and figure out if other people had this issue. Many do, but no clear answer (at least from that I was to see).
The way I see it, these error logs are only mostly valuable if you are solving ALL questions and logging your answers.
This does not seem to correspond to what was explained in all-about-the-error log post
all-about-the-error-log-11754.html
I was under the impression that the best practice promoted by most members of forum is to log all incorrect, difficult, and/or timely answers for future review.
As I have just started studying and am still trying to get organised, I would appreciate if the more experienced members share teir error logging best practices and how they use the above tools for that, or if you can link to the appropriate threads.
Regards,
Fadi

How to Use:

I have a question and an answer for those who aren't sure. It would definitely be helpful for anyone who has used/created the error log (I am just referring to the "winner" error log for this particular post) to provide a quick insight on how they have demonstrated to use the excel. I just downloaded it and here's my take.

Simply put as you take practice exams, and check your answers as you get answers wrong you can enter them into the error log. All of the categories are pretty self explanatory, and as you build the data the graphs automatically update to give you a visual representation of how you are doing. However, taking this approach I have a big question about the columns "Choice" and "OA".

It appears that the answer you chose should go under "choice" makes sense. I'm not sure what OA stands for, but it appears it refers to the correct/actual answer? Do I have that right? If you play around with the data, it appears that way, as if you mark both colums with the same letter, the visual graphs change too (Ex. For any questions under "Area" noted as arithmetic, if you set the "choice" to a different answer than "OA" you'll notice the graph goes to 0.

HOWEVER, if this is an error log, then can someone who has used it explain why you would put an entry of something you got the answer CORRECT to on the error log? It certainly provides good stats, but would mean you'd have to go put the entry in for every question. If that's what you are supposed to do, then ok, but can someone clarify? Or does "OA" stand for something else?

LASTLY, what is confusing is that I would think the "#" column would correspond exactly to the number of the question on that particular test ("source"). Is that correct? If so its a little misleading that the numbers in that column are sequential, it would make more intuitive sense if they were random. (not criticizing of course, just looknig for clarity).

Thanks for the help, and thanks for an awesome and very clever (once clarified) error log.

Thanks for putting together such a wonderful Error Log!

However do I use this error log only for questions that I get wrong or should I log for the ones I get right too? The reason I'm asking is because the winning error log (sauraba's) has a graph "Accuracy by Area of Knowledge" that gets plotted only if I log my correct answers.

Thanks!

I think this goes along with my question. The graphs are not really making sense, and I think that is because I am only putting in answers that I got wrong because I thought that was what an error log was for.

Yes that's correct. I just read your question. I'm thinking of doing away with this error log and come up something more simple; excel graphs are a no brainer. While it's nice to see the statistics of what you are good at, it's equally time consuming to log EVERY question into error log. I prefer not to do that.

Could one of you excel gurus out there or maybe the creator himself please add in the data tables and corresponding graphs to show accuracy by verbal and quant sub areas for the awesome error log V3. It would be helpful to me and I'm sure to tons of people out there to be able to pinpoint their areas of weakness to the exact sub-areas within the areas. Say you have an area of geometry and you know that geometry is your weakest area but within geometry what should you focus on? Is it triangles, lines, circles, coordinate geometry? Maybe you have an area of arithmetic but is your biggest weakness probability, combinations and permutations, or number properties.

I will be SOOO grateful if anyone decides to take on the challenge. I've played a bit with the sheet and customized the database and even figured out how to add in the verbal time tables to show the verbal time graphs, but adding in the sub areas is just too much for my level of excel expertise.

Thanks so much!

I saved it in the .xls format but there were 12 compatibility issues found (mostly concerning date format and "links to a closed workbook"). I also edited this whole thing on a mac, so I don't know what effects that will produce. Either way I hope it's helpful. By the way, I ended up making the stats for subareas as well. Hope that's useful to some folks out there. I'll post the file saved in the other excel formats as well.

Here is the macro-enabled workbook format, which includes my modifications to the Awesome Error Log V 3.0 by Saruba, Spoilt, and Trianglock. The modifications include adding in the verbal time tables and graphs plus extra sheets to show verbal and quant subarea accuracy and timing. I hope the original macros stayed in tact, as I can't be sure because I am working on a mac. The macros are just bells and whistles anyway. I would say this should count as Awesome Error Log V 4.0 but I'll leave that up to the original creators to decide.