Error Logs for Verbal - Suggestion?

Question

So far, I have been completely relying on GMAT ToolKit to track my errors. I don't have a formal error-log for anything. Although I have a stupid spreadsheet which I created off of GMAT Toolkit export. But seriously, I have not done any error-logging yet.

Now I am pretty confident in all the subsection of GMAT's verbal section: SC, CR and RC). Now I think I have sorta improved everything to a point that I can focus on my weaknesses per subsection.

I want to know: What is a good strategy to maintain a  simple and not too complex error log , which could tell me what are my weaknesses?

For instance, in verbal, I want to know what kind of SC and CR questions I am screwing up in. I just have hunches for what I am good at and what I am not, but not certain about my weaknesses.

ps. For RC, I think there is no use of error-log; maybe I am wrong and I would love to hear if somebody thinks otherwise.

mohater · Answer

The error log you use needs to work FOR YOU.

My error log was a paper and pen where I had a legend for tracking things such as:

Problems I got incorrect, problems I guessed on, problems I spent too much time one, etc.

mourinhogmat1 · Answer

My way would be to write down the concept from each problem. Point by point. Once I have got a LARGE enough number in the sheet of paper. I would try and categorize them according to topics. e.g. SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT etc. Then review them later.

walker · Answer

Here is my 2 cents.

I had very low verbal score (I can't even tell you but it was 25% success rate in SC after 2-month GMAT intense prep course). I've found keeping e-log an extremely useful thing that helped me to get V40. So, here are what worked and what didn't for me.

Worked:
+ keeping wrong/right e-log for every single question I solved.
+ spending a lot of time on questions I got wrong (thinking about all answer choices and why I got it wrong, browsing GMAT Club's forum, reading books to find the answer to the particular question)
+++ paying extreme attention to questions that I got wrong twice. It meant I actually hadn't improved my skills and just wasted my time and hadn't learned anything. I call it "taking a cold shower" to wake up from "fake" improvement when you see improvements only because you actually remember some questions from tests/forum and unconsciously tend to answer right with higher probability second time.

Didn't:
- general stats. Knowing that I have 35% success rate in SC Modifier problems didn't help me at all. Only if I keep in mind a specific problem and is looking for the answer, that could help but just reading theory - not much. So, I haven't found useful all those fancy graphics. It just didn't work for me.

So, I would recommend not to dive too deep in theory or statistics and base your study plan on questions you got wrong. If you have learned every concept behind those questions and are sure that next time you are able to apply the concept successfully to other similar questions, you will see improvement.

Hope it helps

Best,
Walker

abhicoolmax · Answer

Thanks a million Walker. This is the best piece of advice I have ever received for my GMAT prep. Today (DAY 1), I will have my error-log ready. At-least for SC.

For the rest, CR and RC, I guess these error-logs are not of much use - please Walker, feel free to disprove me and I will lover to hear. However, I will try to maintain one and will see if that helps at all. Do your suggestions also apply to CR and RC? At high level, I have realized CR is more about 3 things in order: 1) understand and keep revising different types of question fairly well, 2) practice and read explanation for every question very thoroughly, and 3) identify and perceive the patterns in these types of questions. Using these 3 principles at high level and practicing the strategies from Powerscore CR, over-time one can get a feel of the CR pretty well. However, RC, I guess, is all about practice and coming up with ones own strategy such that he or she can get the most questions right under 2.5 mins on avg.

pankgarg · Answer

for every test, it's good to keep track of the areas

you are spending lot of time in solving
you are getting wrong answers

if you see some pattern. Do more practice and check your performance in that area in the next test.
e.g My week areas
inequilities, coordinate geomatry, stat etc :-)

vinayrsm · Answer

Thanks Walker!..

Abhi, for questions from OG (using OG Tracker) and MGMAT CATs, you do get a detailed feedback on questions you got wrong - so they can serve as error log. Indeed for questions from other sources such as SCGrail - you will have to maintain them.

For me, I try to keep track of every question that I answered incorrectly (it goes into a very simple spreadsheet with columns - Section (Q or V), Sub-section (PS, DS, RC etc.), Source, Area (probability, modifier etc.)). I think the focus should be not just on listing down all the questions you got incorrect but blocking slots in your agenda to review these problems and perhaps strike off ones that you got right the second time and keeping the ones you are still getting wrong.

abhicoolmax · Answer

Thanks Vinay. Yes I have created my own error log. A very simple spreadsheet that contains question I get wrong w/ timing and also some comments on why I missed. I also categorize them as Careless/Logic error/Confusion/Too fast/Too slow, etc.

One tip: Sometimes while reading the explanation I realize I marked the question right not for the right reason, then I list that also.

MDF · Answer

For my verbal error log, I would do 20 SC, 20 CR, and 10 RC. Trying to complete all 50 questions within 1 hour.

So once I was done with the 50 problems, I'd go back and check my answers. If I missed a question, or if I notated on my log that I guessed for that particular question, I would write down what I had trouble with in the comment column of my error log.

So for SC, my comments would be something like: Parallelism, idiom: unlike x, y, etc.

For CR, same thing. In the comments column I would write down something like: weakness, strengthen, assumption, etc.

And then rinse and repeat for RC. I'm really not sure how effective an error log is for RC. However, it did force me to keep practicing RC--something I would have probably avoided if it weren't for my error log.

Once I started using an error log for quant and verbal my score really started taking off. During my final month of studying I was completing 1 verbal error log and 1 quant error, and reviewing my mistakes, every day. This took a lot of time but I think it was the key to my success.

However, the key to all of this would be that I'd spend a couple hours each week going through my past error logs, analyzing my comments, and identifying problem areas. I would review each of my wrong answers from the week prior, and if I noticed a pattern (i.e. I'd keep missing weakness questions), I would spend as long as need be to gain mastery of that concept.

abhicoolmax · Answer

Thanks MDF, this is really helpful. I started logging my errors in all sections this week.

I liked the idea to review the comments from previous error logs to make you still understand. I plan to do the same this week. Spending a lot of time on my incorrect and also a significant time in my correct ones to make sure I marked it correct for the right reasons. In next 3-4 days when I give my next test, hope this boosts my score.

Quick Question: In CR/RC, what kind of comments would you add other than the question type? Unlike SC, CR (also RC) is so subjective.

MDF · Answer

I think I was just writing down the question type for CR/RC question. I would be sure to identify the question type based upon the question stem and not based upon the description of the question type per the official guide. For example, if the question stem states something like 'Which of the following most seriously weakens the argument,' the question type is definitely 'weakening.' I say this because sometimes the OG answer section will identify a question type as something that doesn't make any sense.

There are only a handful of different CR question types (think weaken, strengthen, assumption, inference, boldface, and a few other more rare ones). And for me, once I really mastered my approach to each question type I could nail just about any problem of that type no matter how difficult it was. However, to really master these questions it would sometimes take me hours of studying and hundreds of practice problems. The error log was huge in helping me identify exactly what type of CR questions I needed to review and practice.

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