Improving accuracy in Problem solving and DS

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achieve_dream: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 33; Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 8:49 am

Improving accuracy in Problem solving and DS

by achieve_dream » Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:01 pm

When I do the tests, I can solve almost all the problems in time but I make a lot of silly mistakes because of which I, get low score. When I review the tests, I realize that I made simple/silly calculation mistakes at the rate of 5 questions/test.

I have this issue mostly in Problem solving and some times in DS as well.

How can I avoid this issue?

Experts: In your teaching career you would have come across many students who have the same problems. How do students avoid making these silly mistakes? What are your suggestions to these students?

Can you please suggest few tips I can follow and improve accuracy

-Venky

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:01 pm

pesfunk: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 286; Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:36 pm; Location: Kolkata, India; Thanked: 11 times; Followed by:5 members

by pesfunk » Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:15 pm

I have pretty much the same issue.....

Experts, could you please help ?

achieve_dream wrote:When I do the tests, I can solve almost all the problems in time but I make a lot of silly mistakes because of which I, get low score. When I review the tests, I realize that I made simple/silly calculation mistakes at the rate of 5 questions/test.

I have this issue mostly in Problem solving and some times in DS as well.

How can I avoid this issue?

Experts: In your teaching career you would have come across many students who have the same problems. How do students avoid making these silly mistakes? What are your suggestions to these students?

Can you please suggest few tips I can follow and improve accuracy

-Venky

Quote

Brian@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1031; Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:23 pm; Location: Malibu, CA; Thanked: 716 times; Followed by:255 members; GMAT Score:750

by Brian@VeritasPrep » Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:02 pm

Hey guys,

I think the most important thing is to go back to analyze your mistakes to see if you can find a pattern in them. My guess is that there is - if you're making the kinds of mistakes that lead to wrong answer choices, you're probably making systematic mistakes that the GMAT is trying to trap you with...otherwise you'd end up with a non-answer (they only get 4 wrong "trap" answers, so they'll tend to create them by anticipating the kinds of mistakes that multiple people would make). So I'd see if you can figure out what your common mistakes are so that you can jot down a quick checklist to keep in front of you on test day. For example, my checklist was:

Positive (I'd assume that a number was positive without considering a negative value)
Integer (I'd assume that a number was an integer w/o considering nonintegers)
0 (I'd forget to consider 0)
Sufficient (I needed to remember that "Definitely No" as a DS answer was a SUFFICIENT answer)
? (I needed to double check the question stem to ensure that I had solved for the correct variable or answered the right question)

After double-checking this checklist (which I just wrote down during the AWA essays to have in front of me) on the first 10 questions or so I didn't have to look anymore...I was just conditioned to checking for those mistakes. Your errors may differ, but you can probably find patterns. Maybe you:

-Take "a" percentage but don't take the correct percentage so you need to slow down to set those up properly
-Write 4s that look like 9s or 7s that look like 4s when you make quick calculations
-Forget to distribute the negative when multiplying out parentheses

Whatever your mistakes, if you're getting wrong answer choices out of them they're probably systematic, so pay attention to them and just give yourself a checklist. That should help you cut down on them pretty significantly...

Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep

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