The Error Log

Thanks 750300 for the creative solution!
P.S. you can also find it here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/guide-to-the ... 71639.html
(look for links to previous versions)

Hi Gmatclub members and moderators,

I have a doubt.

I have a list of 30 questions in CR (across Strengthen, Weaken and Assumption types). I have also written why I got them wrong

1. May be I marked the answer in a hurry
2. May be I couldn't zero in on the conclusion
3. May be I bought external knowledge

Now here is the problem, I made this list on 1st June and I reviewed them again on 7th June. On 7th June, I got 24 correct simply because I somehow remembered the logic.

Now on 14th June, I got 28 correct. This happened because somehow I remembered the same reasoning when I did the question the second time. I mean doesn't this activity lead to inflated scores because i am not learning anything new.

Also when I take a full-length test, there again i see that i got a few CR questions wrong (even though I practiced from Aristotle and Powerscore for 2 weeks).

This approach helps in QA but it is not helping me in Verbal simply because I know the logic for that particular question.

How do you guys take the max benefit out of an error log.

bb Bunuel VeritasKarishma daagh Other moderators and high scorers.

Good job reviewing your error log. However there are some improvements you can make. The biggest one is you are missing the value of the error log.

One big issue is that you were not able to get 6 questions after already having attempted them once. That’s a 20% failure rate AFTER you have analyzed your mistakes and reviewed the correct OA.

As to remembering questions and their answers - I always remembered the answers but that’s not the point.

You need to know why you made every mistake and make sure you don’t make it again. Getting only 80% of questions does not seem to show that you know why you have made every mistake.

Posted from my mobile device

bb - thank you for your response.

I need some further understanding, so i am giving an example CR question.

A moderately large city is redesigning its central downtown area and is considering a plan that would reduce the number of lanes for automobiles and trucks and increase those for bicycles and pedestrians. The intent is to attract more workers and shoppers to downtown businesses by making downtown easier to reach and more pleasant to move around in.

Which of the following would, if true, most strongly support the prediction that the plan would achieve its goal?

A. People who make a habit of walking or bicycling whenever feasible derive significant health benefits from doing so.
B. Most people who prefer to shop at suburban malls instead of downtown urban areas do so because parking is easier and cheaper at the former.
C. In other moderately sized cities where measures were taken to make downtowns more accessible for walkers and cyclists, downtown businesses began to thrive.
D. If the proposed lane restrictions on drivers are rigorously enforced, more people will likely be attracted to downtown businesses than would otherwise be.
E. Most people who own and frequently ride bicycles for recreational purposes live at a significant distance from downtown urban areas.

My approach first time:
Prethink - I need to find an option which somehow helps the downtown biz thrive.
POE -
Reject A - Health benefits - out of context
Hold B - May be if parking is cheaper at Downtown area, it could help the biz
Hold C - This is an example of another city
Hold D - may be this can also help
Reject E - nothing about distance is mentioned

Now out of BCD, I took D but the OA was C. I then realized that the word - "rigorous enforced" made option D wrong.

I noted that i need to be more careful on must be true type of question.

Next attempt of error log after 10 days, I straight away knew that ADE were wrong.
in the next 7 days, i reviewed CR(must be true + Strengthen, weaken etc) from powerscore.

I reattempted this question. I then selected C.

Result - Yay, I got this question right.
May be if this same question comes in mock, I will not spend 2 mins on this question, I will mark it and go ahead.

This would always lead to inflated mock score..


It could also happen, that I still got the same question wrong in my review. this would mean that I really didnt understand the question or it is above my ability level.


this is the kind of thing i want to avoid.

These are the key points to identify:

1. May be I marked the answer in a hurry
2. May be I couldn't zero in on the conclusion
3. May be I bought external knowledge
...

These are your takeaways - places where you make mistakes. You need to remember not to make these same mistakes in any future questions. Review these repeatedly and keep adding to the list.

Hi,
sorry for late reply
Your problem is you are trying to do the question again to check that if you know the logic correctly or not.
Stop doing that, i mean do not repeat the question again, of course in short span of time you will always remember that ( that's how memory works ).
But Try This way

You can mark the wrong questions in your error log as
1-why you did the mistake
2- what kind of is that mistake
3- how often you repeat that mistake

In that way you will find a pattern of doing mistakes( after attempting 100 or so questions) which you must not to repeat in future by actively engaging yourself

Best regards
750300

Hey guys!

Can an extra column of percentage of persons who answered the question correctly at the time I answered the question also be added to the error log. This would help me in classifying the difficulty of questions as per my criteria, and help me better my analysis.

Thanks a lot!