How everyone uses the Error Log

If you are using a book, simply circling the ones you want to go back for review can be helpful.

With online question banks such as the Practice Pill Platform, you can see the level of difficulty based on the percentage of other users getting that question correct. The screenshot below shows how many views, what % got it correct, your answer, and the correct answer.

So if only 42% of people are getting a question correct - and you also didn't get it correct - then you likely got a difficult question correct. Also, the likelihood if you seeing a question that hard will likely only happen if you have been getting many correct questions before - so the algorithm knows to give you a difficult question.


Error Tracker for Online Question Bank

You can also see what type of question it is --such as is it an X&Y consistency question, or the usage of the word "being" - etc.

You can also see the OG Tracker here: https://www.gmatpill.com/official-guide - which operates similarly.

Hi HKD1710,

Thank you for your kind advise.

I see, I have only been keeping track of right/wrong and the time in my OG tracker on the toolkit...It's great to know that I should also comment on "why" I got it wrong and what I learned from it.

I will look into the spreadsheet as well and try to customize this!


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Hi Rich,

Here is my situation.

1) 2 months
2) OG and MGMAT books
3) Never tried CATs yet
4) 720 and above
5) Around May
6) 1st and 2nd round this year
7) Top 10 2 year US schools

I look forward to hearing from you!


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Thanks for your advise.

Wow, this is wonderful!

Keeping track of the difficulty along with a detailed problem type like this seems perfect for my needs.

As for the books, I will keep track by simply circling the important problems.

I will look into Practice Pill!


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I think it's more important to write down why you got the question wrong, time taken, and in some cases how you eliminated what you considered 'definitely wrong' answer choices. From my understanding, an error log is most useful when you want to analyze why you got particular questions wrong and not what question difficulty you got most answers wrong. A wrong answer is a wrong answer whether it was easy or hard. I mean you might get several hard questions correct by chance but you still don't fully understand the concept because you randomly selected answer choices and you were lucky that you get them all correct. In this case it doesn't show in your error log. But that's just my opinion.

Hi adogatemyhmw,

Since you have not taken any practice CATs yet, I strongly recommend that you take one of the Official GMAT CATs sometime soon (perhaps this weekend) and take it in a realistic fashion (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, take it away from your home, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, etc.). Once you have that score, you should report back here and we can discuss how best to proceed. Unfortunately, given your score goal - and without having any prior CAT scores as a reference - it's likely that a May Test Date will be too soon. Thus, you might end up needing to consider pushing back your Official Test Date.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your advise.

I tried the GMATprep right now, and scored a total of 720 (Q48 V40), which was good news and bad news for me.

I thought I would do much better in quant, whereas it seemed like I did well on verbal.
My study up to today was focused on verbal, so it seems like I really need to do some catching up on quant...(especially because I'm a Japanese applicant, and Japanese applicants often do very well in quant)

It would be great if you could advise me with this score in mind.

Thank you so much.

Hi adogatemyhmw,

This is an exceptional performance, especially since you claim to have never taken a CAT before. With this type of score, you don't appear to have any big 'weak spots' in the Quant or Verbal sections, so you're going to want to review this performance with a focus on determining WHY you got questions wrong. How often was it because you made a little mistake and how often was it because you honestly had no idea how to answer the question? At higher and higher scoring levels, the GMAT becomes really 'sensitive' to questions that you get wrong that you SHOULD have gotten correct, so you will likely have to work on your 'precision' (general note-taking, attention-to-detail, etc.) to raise this score.

I have a few questions about how you took this CAT:
1) Did you take the ENTIRE CAT (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take it at home?
3) Did you take it at the same time of day as when you plan to take your Official GMAT?
4) Did you ever do ANYTHING during this CAT that you couldn't do on Test Day (pause the CAT, skip sections, take longer breaks, etc.)?
5) Had you seen any of the questions before (such as in the forums here)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Thank you for your advice Rich.

Please refer below for the details of the environment in which I took the CAT.

1) No, I skipped the Essay and IR.
2) I took it at a nearby cafe (With a LOT of noise...)
3) I took it at the same time of the day as the GMAT according to your advice.
4) I skipped the essay and IR, but on the other hand, took no breaks b/w Quant and Verbal.
5) All these questions were the first time I encountered them.

Regarding the review of my mistakes, I heard that I should not correct the answers if I want to use the prep again.
Should I ignore this and start finding out how I made mistakes?

I realized I just get completely stuck on some quant problems whereas I can at least give some educated guess for the verbal.
I think I made around 10~15 mistakes (maybe more, I will check again) for both these sections, so I am surprised with this score.

I hear that the preps' score comes out much higher, and since I was stuck on some quant questions and didn't do well in time management, I had to guess on many answers, so I assume I will do much worse on a real GMAT test.

Since I live in Japan, I am considering taking some online courses (not live) for both verbal and quant (Maybe 2 different services for each), and studying using some Kaplan and MGMAT books (I have only used the verbal ones so far).

Hi there ,
I maintain a note book , with all my mistakes for the verbal section and i go through them before taking a mock. i hope this helps.
I never needed anything for quant , but again when some tough DS question appears , i make a note of the trick involved

Regards,
HK

Hi adogatemyhmw,

Test Day is a rather specific 'event' - the details are specific and they matter, so you have to train as best as you can for all of them. The more realistic you can make your CATs, the more likely the score results are to be accurate. The more you deviate, the more "inflated" your practice scores can become - and that's what happened here. By skipping the Essay and IR sections, you took a shorter, easier Exam that required less effort from you. In addition, you didn't face any of the typical endurance/fatigue issues that you will likely face on Test Day. Thus, you didn't properly face the FULL GMAT 'experience.'

Thankfully, this is a relatively easy set of problems to fix. You just have to be more rigorous about how you take your practice CATs in the future. This means that you have to take a NEW CAT each time (NOT a CAT that you have already taken) and you have to take the FULL CAT (with the Essay and IR sections). I suggest that you study as you see fit for the next week, then take a NEW, FULL-LENGTH CAT. Once you have that score result, we can discuss how you might adjust your studies.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi,
You may want to consider an error log by GNPTH. I found it really useful but it is a bit time consuming. On positive side it incorporates difficulty level and accuracy for each Q.
Let me know if it works for you.
WR,
Arpit.

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