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I have always been surprised how many people let their mistakes just slide, go away, and disappear, only to make them again. If you have allowed your mistakes to not bother you, this post is for you!
1. Some will do questions only and skip theory/tips/lessons. It is definitely possible to learn how to drive a car without anyone telling you which pedal does what, but it sure is not a very pleasant one. Why not let someone give you a tour and overview first? Not only it is faster, it will also save you from missing a lot of questions since learning solely from questions/quizzes is only good enough when you encounter similar/same questions. When you meet a new question, you will be stuck.
2. Taking too many questions - taking thousands of questions and becoming a machine at pattern recognition (waste of time frankly - i believe that doing 1000 or questions total including quizzes and tests is sufficient). More is not always better. Do you really need to solve 400 of the same arithmetic or geometry questions? probably not, it would probably be much more useful if you were able to solve 40 word problems questions.
3. Not doing the mistake analysis on the questions and that's what the focus of this post is on. Many will classify their mistakes in a pretty error log and stop right there. That's not enough! Make sure you review your mistakes and underlying material from time to time (e.g. a month later)
Introduction:
There are 2 primary ways we learn and prepare for the GMAT: 1)by studying theory and 2)by taking tests/quizzes. What we learn in those two approaches actually differs. Often when we read a book or watch a lesson, we observe and soak in - we see the big picture. Think of someone explaining you how to drive a stick shift - they tell you how to release the clutch and give gas to the car. Then the quiz part is when you actually sit down to drive the car and realize you don't know how to shift gears, you don't know which gar comes first, how quickly to release the clutch and all other questions you forgot to ask during the "big picture" overview. Thus to soak in the most from each lesson, you need to combine the passive learning with the active testing/quizzing... just one or the other does not work.How to Analyze Your Mistakes:
- Always time yourself. If you are not timing yourself, don't bother reading further.
- Save every question you miss/get wrong/guess - my suggestion would be to print every one of them out and build a binder you can grab at any time. You can also look into using an online solution of sorts or an error log and expand it. GMAT Club forum has its own error log that contains every question you practiced on the forum. (Guide: How to use GMAT Club's Error Log)
- For every test/quiz question that you miss or guess, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- Why did I make this mistake?
Write a reason for making a mistake - figure out exactly what it is! For example:- Is it not knowing something?
- Forgetting a formula?
- Confusing concepts?
- Not reading the question carefully?
- Not following a strategy?
- Making a silly mistake?
- Rushing?
- What did it teach me? What did I learn from it?
Each error is a learning opportunity - use it. Don't just say - it was a silly mistake or I made a calculation error but turn it into something more meaningful. Here are a few examples:- You learned that you tend to make calculation mistakes when you do math in your mind or you tend to miss some important words in PS or CR questions
- You forgot not know the Triangle area formula
- You learned a shortcut for arithmetic
- You understand inference and assumptions now and see the difference
- You hate RC
- What do I need to do so that I never make it again?
The next step is to turn it into an action item. Here are some examples:- How do you ensure that you never make that silly calculation mistake? Well - you always do all math by hand.
- Still does not help? You double-check your math when doing word problems or you backsolve to make sure.
- Are you skipping important words in CR? You should make a rule to always check for keywords in questions on your CR.
- Are you not sure why C or D answer choice in CR? Don't leave the question until you know - most likely that question is discussed in the forum - find it and figure it out. If you can't tell a difference in a CR or RC question answers - that's a sign of a much bigger problem that you need to address ASAP
- Why did I make this mistake?
Other Suggestions For Mistake Review:
- Periodically go back to the questions you got wrong, esp. the hard mean ones that you did not know how to even approach and make sure you can solve them and know the path to solve them and the key to the solution.
- Most likely you know there is a dark little secret about your mistakes, for example, you always miss DS questions or struggle with Word Problems - that's where you need to camp out and dig until your hand bleed.
- Don't get overwhelmed. You may have a lot of ground to cover; try to stick in one area as much as possible before moving on
:!: Next Steps:
After you have done analysis of your recent CAT or Quiz mistakes and patching holes, it is a good idea to test if you have really learned what you think you have learned.- You can head over to Question Banks or Forum Quiz and practice 5-10 questions on each topic you messed up and see how good quality of patching you have done
- Alternatively find similar questions and practice them using the same concept tag such as Probability or Assumptions.
What do people usually do wrong:
1. Some will do questions only and skip theory/tips/lessons. It is definitely possible to learn how to drive a car without anyone telling you which pedal does what, but it sure is not a very pleasant one. Why not let someone give you a tour and overview first? Not only it is faster, it will also save you from missing a lot of questions since learning solely from questions/quizzes is only good enough when you encounter similar/same questions. When you meet a new question, you will be stuck.
2. Taking too many questions - taking thousands of questions and becoming a machine at pattern recognition (waste of time frankly - i believe that doing 1000 or questions total including quizzes and tests is sufficient). More is not always better. Do you really need to solve 400 of the same arithmetic or geometry questions? probably not, it would probably be much more useful if you were able to solve 40 word problems questions.
3. Not doing the mistake analysis on the questions and that's what the focus of this post is on. Many will classify their mistakes in a pretty error log and stop right there. That's not enough! Make sure you review your mistakes and underlying material from time to time (e.g. a month later)
What mistakes are you making?
Report what mistakes you make and what worked for you in the past! OR let me know if something is not working and where I can help you - post your specific issues here and I will be happy to provide my recommendations
12 Apr 2014, 22:37
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Very important post here. I would add that when reviewing a Quant problem it is often helpful to rework the problem, while keeping in mind that on the challenging problems, seeing through to what makes the problem challenging is important. Are you asked to be creative in a specific way with basic knowledge? Is there a less common number property at play here that tests the breadth of your knowledge? etc.
When reviewing a Verbal problem, it is very helpful to analyze the incorrect choices deeply. On a Critical Reasoning problem, figure out why the choice you selected (or considered selecting) is incorrect. Use the stimulus to help you see why that choice does not do the task at hand. This will help you work the choices on similar problems more effectively.
When reviewing a Verbal problem, it is very helpful to analyze the incorrect choices deeply. On a Critical Reasoning problem, figure out why the choice you selected (or considered selecting) is incorrect. Use the stimulus to help you see why that choice does not do the task at hand. This will help you work the choices on similar problems more effectively.
Updated on: 13 Dec 2017, 01:31
Originally posted by CrackverbalGMAT on 10 Oct 2014, 00:45.
Last edited by CrackverbalGMAT on 13 Dec 2017, 01:31, edited 2 times in total.
Last edited by CrackverbalGMAT on 13 Dec 2017, 01:31, edited 2 times in total.
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Whenever a student comes to us asking for more material because he has exhausted all the available GMAT prep material, we have an "Uh oh!" moment.
The OG has ~900 questions. The Verbal and Quant Reviews put together have ~600 questions. Plus, we give our students a collection of ~2000 official GMATPrep questions to practice from. This itself comes to about 3500+ official GMAT questions. So if you have solved all of this, and still your performance is not improving, then more practice is NOT the solution.
Analysis is.
You need to go through the questions you have solved and track where you are going wrong, what sort of mistakes you are making, why, what happens to you as you solve questions in a timed environment...
This discussion is much-needed and some excellent points have been made. So I thought I'd share the Error Log that we recommend to our students. (Attached with this post) If you use a notebook or diary to keep track of the questions you solve, it maybe difficult to review later. At the same time, you don't want to overcomplicate things by capturing too many details.
So it is best to keep an online tracker that captures the following:
For e.g. let's say you solved CR #11 from the Verbal Review. You picked E while the OA is B. You then tag this question as one of the following: N, M, G, T or S.
Nailed it (N) - Yes, you got it right. Good work! Make sure that you got it right for the right reasons, that you know exactly how to tackle it.
Missed it (M) - Aargh, made a silly mistake. Knock yourself on the head and tell yourself to be more mindful!
Guessed it (G) - Had to guess this question. On a good day, the guess would have paid off, but on a bad day, it need not. So make sure you understand the question thoroughly now.
Timed it (T) - Spent far too much time on the question! Remember, it doesn't matter whether you got a question right if you have spent more than 2.5 minutes on it!
Screwed it (S) - Didn't know what hit you when you saw this question.
That means there could be something basic that you don't know about such questions.
Since you got this question wrong, it is not going to be tagged "N".
The advantage of having such a tracker is that you can sort the sheet by concept or by type of mistake to see which specific topic/area you need to work on.
Another important aspect of keeping such an error log is writing down a takeaway for each question. Ideally, the takeaway should be not just for that one question but for all similar questions. These notes you make will come in handy when you are on the last leg of your prep or in the last week before your test date.
Hope you find this useful!
Learn proven strategies to get an MBA through GMAT in 2018! Join our free 4 part MBA Through GMAT Video Training Series
https://gmat.crackverbal.com/mba-through-gmat-video-2018
CrackVerbal Academics Team
The OG has ~900 questions. The Verbal and Quant Reviews put together have ~600 questions. Plus, we give our students a collection of ~2000 official GMATPrep questions to practice from. This itself comes to about 3500+ official GMAT questions. So if you have solved all of this, and still your performance is not improving, then more practice is NOT the solution.
Analysis is.
You need to go through the questions you have solved and track where you are going wrong, what sort of mistakes you are making, why, what happens to you as you solve questions in a timed environment...
This discussion is much-needed and some excellent points have been made. So I thought I'd share the Error Log that we recommend to our students. (Attached with this post) If you use a notebook or diary to keep track of the questions you solve, it maybe difficult to review later. At the same time, you don't want to overcomplicate things by capturing too many details.
So it is best to keep an online tracker that captures the following:
- Question details
Your answer and the OA
The concept being tested
A tag to understand what sort of mistake it was
A takeaway from the question.
For e.g. let's say you solved CR #11 from the Verbal Review. You picked E while the OA is B. You then tag this question as one of the following: N, M, G, T or S.
Nailed it (N) - Yes, you got it right. Good work! Make sure that you got it right for the right reasons, that you know exactly how to tackle it.
Missed it (M) - Aargh, made a silly mistake. Knock yourself on the head and tell yourself to be more mindful!
Guessed it (G) - Had to guess this question. On a good day, the guess would have paid off, but on a bad day, it need not. So make sure you understand the question thoroughly now.
Timed it (T) - Spent far too much time on the question! Remember, it doesn't matter whether you got a question right if you have spent more than 2.5 minutes on it!
Screwed it (S) - Didn't know what hit you when you saw this question.
That means there could be something basic that you don't know about such questions.Since you got this question wrong, it is not going to be tagged "N".
The advantage of having such a tracker is that you can sort the sheet by concept or by type of mistake to see which specific topic/area you need to work on.
Another important aspect of keeping such an error log is writing down a takeaway for each question. Ideally, the takeaway should be not just for that one question but for all similar questions. These notes you make will come in handy when you are on the last leg of your prep or in the last week before your test date.
Hope you find this useful!
Learn proven strategies to get an MBA through GMAT in 2018! Join our free 4 part MBA Through GMAT Video Training Series
https://gmat.crackverbal.com/mba-through-gmat-video-2018
CrackVerbal Academics Team
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File comment: Simple, intuitive error log for GMAT takers.
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