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GMAT 1: 770 Q47 V48
GMAT 2: 730 Q44 V47 ![Verified score](/forum/images/verified_score.svg)
GMAT 3: 750 Q50 V42 ![Verified score](/forum/images/verified_score.svg)
GMAT 4: 730 Q48 V42 (Online) ![Verified score](/forum/images/verified_score.svg)
GRE 1: Q168 V169
GRE 2: Q170 V170
The Benefits and Limitations of GMAT Question Classification
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06 Jul 2016, 17:02
On the GMAT, it's natural to think: "OK, so if I got this question wrong, then I should also look for similar questions and try those as well." In fact, this strategy can be quite helpful at times.
The problem is, the application of this concept can be more difficult in reality than it is as an ideal.
Two main issues are at play here:
1) The reason why you got a question wrong could be related to, or completely unrelated to, its classification.
2) GMAT Questions, while certainly classifiable, can fall into several different categories at once. For example, a single GMAT Quant question could involve Fractions, Estimation, Statistics, Properties of Numbers, Operations on Rational Numbers, Computations with Integers, Tricky Wording, etc..
GMAT Club has a nice feature where you can "tag" a question (upper right-hand corner) in order to add multiple categories. Not enough users take full advantage of this feature! When posting a new question, please try to keep in mind that the more categories you can tag, the better, because of the multifaceted, challenging nature of the GMAT exam. (It would be nice if other users could also add tags, but this is not currently a feature as far as I can tell.)
However, when preparing for the GMAT, I would urge you to focus less on the type of question you got wrong, and more on the precise reason why you didn't succeed on that particular question. Was it your recognition of certain elements that was lacking? Your reading of the question? Your strategy or technique? Or maybe a fact that you didn't know? These are all possible explanations that the question categories cannot tell us on their own.
By all means, go ahead and try similar questions, but before you do so, try to glean all the possible learning from the questions you have already tried.