Error Review Strategy for Practice Test/Practice Question

[3gmater]

Hello BTGians.

I Need some pointers about reviewing the weak areas.
I plan to take my test in 2nd/3rd wk of july.

Here's my progress so far:
Kaplan Online Free Test - 660 (Q45 V40)
PR Cat 1 - 660 (Q47 V35) ===>very mean scoring algorithm!
MGMAT CAT 1 - 660(Q46, V34)
PR Cat 2 - 670 (Q50, V33)
Kaplan Cat 1 - 580(Q38, V32)
Gprep 1 - Scheduled for Next week

My current review strategy (only for Verbal):
-I go through the incorrect questions and I try to get the answer, before observing the actual solution.
-I log the type of error commited in a particular section in a formula driven excel file.
-I review my concepts for those question types that I frequently get wrong.

Weakness Observed(I need pointers to overcome these):
RC - Specific questions (According to the passage...., Inference based etc)
CR - Inference qstns, Weaken the arg., Except type qstns
SC - Comparison, pronouns

My question to the group is:
- how do I efficiently analyze my weak areas?
- how frequently I should review the weak areas and
- what is a good methodology(if not the best) to achieve the above two objectives

I am a GMAT veteran (this will be my 3rd attempt). I have seen some huge discrepancies between my practice scores and my actual scores in the past (I have consitently scored in the 7xx range in GPrep tests but I tanked in the real exam)-Especially Verbal. My practice scores in verbal ranged from 35-44, while the actual exam could only fetch me a sub 20 score!

Like most of the MBA aspirants, I am aiming for a 7xx score. I was just wondering if anyone could cleanse my error-reviewing strategy. Besides, in each of the tests that I mentioned above, I ran out of time and got a lot of simple qstns incorrect. I dont want to guess for more than 2 questions per section. Any pointers towrad effective time management is highly appreciated!

As always.......Thank you for your help/support.

Best,
3G

[mayonnai5e]

I have a few thoughts. First, your strategy of marking the categories of questions that you got wrong then reviewing the general concepts for those concepts is akin to you shooting at a bullseye and being satisfied hitting the outer edges. You need to aim sharp and hit at the heart of the target instead of just being satisfied hitting the target at all. To be more clear, studying general concepts repeatedly is unlikely to raise your score in a significant way. Aim to find the very specific, very particular mistakes you are making and discover ways to overcome them. See my blog in my signature for examples of what I mean - I did this and saw very steady (but upward) improvements.

The problem with just logging a category of problem that you got wrong is that you will not gain any information from the context of the problem and will probably lose the lesson to be learned, instead replacing it by a mark in a spreadsheet that gives you no information about the problem at hand.

You should try to review your log for at least a few minutes before every study session (if your log is big, break it down into 15/30 minute sections). In addition, before every cat test, you should skim through your notes again, paying attention to any particular ones you have marked as important; this will help you mentally reinforce your lessons just before each cat.

By the way, in my opinion, spending hours tracking your statistics on types/categories of problems is an inefficient use of time and wasteful. All you need to really know is that you got the problem wrong and you need to get it right. That's it!! "I got it wrong and I need to get it right...I got it wrong and I need to get it right..."

[3gmater]

Thank You Mayonnai5e.

These are valuable tips.
I do spend a lot of time with the stats that i have generated (given my Engg background).

I will let you know, how this transpires.

In the mean time, I am looking at ways to cut down on my mistakes in RC - especially realted to specific questions such as "According to the Passage...","infererence", "The author states X for.....", "According to the author...." etc.
Ditto for CR. My hitrate is low for those questions where I have to make a conclusion or infer.

Is there a better way to attack these type of questions?

Thank You.

Best,
3G

[mayonnai5e]

Hmm that is a large number of question types that you are having trouble with. My suggestion would be to go back to the fundamentals for those question types and reinforce your understanding of these topics. What is your current attack strategy for these?

[3gmater]

Hi Mayonnai5e:

I have tried several RC strategies between my previous attempts and I reliased that I was wasting time, writing down the points related to the passage. Hence I adopted a strategy where I first identify the scope of the passage (using the first few lines). After this I try to understand whether the author is arguing or just describing somethig. This is followed by understanding the structure/organization of paragraphs.

My RC problems become apparent, when I have to look for some specific detail in the passage. I, sometimes, get lost in the verbiage and end-up choosing the option that I "Feel" is good (which may not necessarily be the case). I dont have enough material to practice with (I have exhausted most of the material during the build-up toward previous attempts). I need more practice in short passages, which are tough to obtain from the practice materials floating around. Iam less confident about my answers in RC's compared with my answers in CR or SC. I need to develop this confidence in the coming weeks ( I have 17 or so days for my test....approx).

In the mean time, I took a couple of tests this weekend. PR Cat # Q44 V42. (I was slumber during quant section). I also took Gprep 2 and scored 710 (Q49 V 39). Quant was better (considering the fact that I have not practiced much with quant). However I am a bit concerned about my verbal score. This reason for this concern is that I saw 3 CR and 2 RC passages, during the practice test, that I have read before and I knew the answers too. (But I made sure that I read the passages and I delibrately spent more time, an act that lead to shortage of time during the latter part of the test). After I reviewed my test, I realised that I have got only 9 incorrect questions in verbal. I calculated that I encountered 8 questions that i had solved in the past. (but still ended-up making 2 mistakes among the repeated ones). I know that I stand in the 30's zone in verbal, but I dont know whether it is above 36 or below 36.

-3G