GMAT- How to learn from mistakes effectively when studying

In the last five practice CATs I told you about, I have been consistently getting around 42 scaled score in Verbal. It's terrible I desperately need to get up.

But, yeah, I have been sticking to the "3-rounds" strategy.

Incidentally, I just took the day off today and read through this forum. I need a new strategy quickly. Someone in this forum said "it's just as tough to get from 600 to 700 as it is to get from 710 to 760". I don't know if that's true but if it is it means I need a new strategy quick!

I am going to put together all the tough question banks uploaded by Bunuel (for Quant) and Whiplash (for Verbal) and systematically solve each. I know I am not going to be able to cover all but my 3-rounds strategy ensures I do a good job of how much ever I do.

Good people, really, now is the time to step up and help!!! Please help me with advice on how to get from 710 to 760!

Yeah, the quote was from GMATLA!

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Are you keeping an error log? This is honestly the best way.

I am. But I think I need to focus on new, 700+ level question bansk now. Go through the toughest quant and verbal problems. Lots of help on this forum: Bunuel's quants and Whiplash's verbal materials, for example. I am going to sit tight and cover as much of this new material over the next few wks.

What do u think

Doing problems may or may not prove useful. I replied recently on the few same issue. The whole point of the error log is to resolve why you're making mistakes. Simply doing more advanced problems rarely works (per my observations of from the replies people post on GC).

Hey guys,

Great article on learning from your errors by Manhattan GMAT instructor, Stacey Koprince: https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/index ... ur-errors/

Best,
Matt

Mohater, I hear you. And I think I will do just that. I do have error logs for my OG12 study as well as for each of the 5 practice CATs I took (MGMAT and Kaplan). I think, like you say, I need to dust off those error logs and see precisely what I am doing wrong and where.

Question for boudablasta:

When you go over your problem set 3 times, don't the questions become too familiar? If I repeat a set of questions too soon after looking at the answer (within the same day) I find that I remember what the correct answer was. So instead of solving the problem again I just choose the answer I know was right. Do you have any tips on how to avoid this?

Cheers.

Try to target your exact weaknesses as specifically as possible. I know that it sounds simple, but a micro focus is fairly critical here. I was fortunate enough to know before I began my preparation that combinatorics, visual geometry, and sentence correction would be my core weaknesses. After a bunch of reading and preparation, I've come to realize that parallelism is by far my biggest weakness in the verbal section. Reviewing an error log AND finding new questions that target your weak areas are likely the way to see tangible improvement...

Yup, good point. The questions become familiar. But when I am doing the question the third time in the same day, I resist jumping to the option that I remember is the right one and moving on.

Instead, if it's quant, I take in all of the information in the question again and try to solve it in the fastest approach. I also try to eliminate at least 2 options. In quant, the answer has to be arrived at through calculation, in most cases. So I actually solve the problem again, only faster.

In verbal, I read through all the options and eliminate all 4 wrong ones, across all sections - RC, SC and CR. Because I am doing it a third time, I catch finer nuances in the wrong options.

Yerkut, here's what: The real, ignoble reason is that I am scared that I may not have the time in subsequent weeks to come back to the question set I did today.

Anyway, now that we have talked about this and I have had the opportunity to actually think about it, I think it would be better if I did the third round two weeks later. Not on the same day.

Yup, Mohater suggested the same thing. I am going to put the brakes on my plans to plough ahead with new, harder questions. Instead, I am going to analyze my weaknesses and fix them first.

SC. I am not supposed to be weak in SC. I know all the rules. I have the "ear". It is the one section I am most "comfortable" in. Not supposed to get any wrong. But I do. I don't know. Maybe because in a live practice CAT, I don't go through all 5 options as carefully as I should. Parallelism, like you said. Exactly. I know it is not something I should get wrong but I still do. I need to redo my test-taking strategy on SC. Henceforth, I need to read through all 5 options and eliminate 4 options. I am going to do this in my future practice CATs.

CR. Again, CR is not something I am "uncomfortable" with. Like SC, I get some wrong and some right. In a live practice CAT, I don't "stay near the text". Henceforth, I am going to change my test taking strategy to do that. In CR passages, there is often a lot of cause and effect, correlation, etc. I need to be very clear on these relationships, even in the heat of a live test.

RC. If the passage is easy, I get all correct. If the passage is dense, I get worried that I am spending too much time and start skimming through the second paragraph. Then towards the end, I realize that's no way to write GMAT. So I go back and re-read the second paragraph. In that confusion, I have forgotten what the first paragraph said. Hell on earth. I go back to the first paragraph. Terrible RC strategies, I have!!! From now on, in live practice CATs, I am going to study the question stems first and then read the RCs carefully searching for answers to the stems. That'll take a lot of practice, I now.

Quant. Algebra, absolute inequalities, fractions, positives and negatives - All the question types you typically see in the first 10-15 questions. The "meat and potatoes" of GMAT Quant. I need to be rock-solid in these question types. So, I am going to improve my "application of fundamentals" by steadily and carefully solving through a large number of medium-to-hard questions.

Confession here! The moment quant starts, I panic! Seriously! I have no clue why! I look at the algebra or inequality and I freeze. I get it right but I am not calm. And later, in my analysis, I find that it was a 500-600 level question. Geez!!!!!

Mohater, big shout out to you. I am going to be studying your thoughts on test-taking strategies and apply them to my weak areas!

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