The WORST Mistake You Can Make in GMAT Studying
Has this happened to you? Youre reviewing a practice test, and you look at a question you got wrong. That was just a stupid mistake, you say, I should have gotten that one right. Ill get it next time.
Thats not a big deal; we all make stupid mistakes sometimes momentary brain lapses, skipping steps, or just writing down the wrong thing when we knew the right answer. The problem is that unlike in high school, when your teacher might have given you partial credit, on the GMAT theres no distinction betweenalmostright and completely wrong! You understood the question, solved it all correctly, but then just clicked the wrong answer? Too bad, thats still a wrong answer.
Careless errors are the #1 cause of score drops on the GMAT!They cause you to miss easier questions, hurting your score a lot more than not know how to solve the harder ones. The biggest mistake that GMAT students make when studying is nottracking errorsfrom the very beginning.
If you want to improve your score on the GMAT, its not enough just to know which problems you got wrong. You need to knowwhyyou got them wrong. Think about it this way if you were just learning to play baseball, and every time you got up to the plate you swung and missed, you wouldnt just say, oh well, my mistake, I missed it. Youd want to analyze exactlywhyyou were missing it. Did you swing too early? Too late? Above or below the ball? Is your batting stance wrong?
You need to apply that same analysis to your misses on the GMAT. Because trust me, those dumb mistakes are not as random as they seem! Sure, sometimes youll get a fluke like why did I say 11 4 was 8? Obviously I know how to subtract! Thats probably not a mistake that youre likely to repeat. But Im willing to bet that some of your careless mistakesareactually habitual.
As I said, we all make mistakes but were all prone to different patterns of mistakes. The only way to know which mistakes youre prone to is totrack your errors!(Full disclosure: my #1 stupid mistake is forgetting to flip the sign with inequalities. But I didnt know this until I started tracking and noticed a pattern!)
How to track the Error Log
In order to track patterns, you need to record every mistake youve made while studying for the GMAT. Sure, this adds extra work, and it seems really tedious, but its really important! Your practice exams and OG Archer can track what youve gotten right and wrong, but only you can figure outwhy.
Keep an Error Log to record these mistakes. You can do it by hand, but I prefer a spreadsheet, so that I can sort it by problems type (Data Sufficiency or Problem Solving), or by topic (ratios, probability, divisibility, etc).
What to track:
- Problem Type (DS, PS, SC, CR, or RC)
- Topic (polygons, modifiers, assumption, etc)
- Problem # and source (OG, practice test, strategy guide) this is important to track so you can revisit the problem later
- What kind of error careless or conceptual?
- Describe the errorin detail.
Its important to distinguish between careless and conceptual mistakes, because they require different fixes. Be specific about the mistake its not enough just to say oh, that was just a stupid mistake. Whatkindof stupid mistake was it? Or, I didnt understand.Whatdidnt you understand? Whatshouldyou have seen/connected?
Heres a list of some mistake types, though there are definitely others.
Conceptual mistakes:
- didnt understand what the question was asking
- didnt rephrase the right way (or thoroughly enough)
- didnt know/remember the rules
- mixed up rules or applied the wrong rule/formula
Careless mistakes:
- read too quickly / misread the question
- solved for the wrong variable / question
- made an arithmetic error (got the wrong sum, product, etc)
- performed the wrong operation (multiplied instead of divided)
- misread your own handwriting
- skipped a step
- got it right, but clicked the wrong bubble
If you start tracking from the very beginning, youll start to notice patterns before they become bad habits!
Once youve identified a recurring mistake, do drill sets to practice employing good skills in that problem area. If, for example, you skip steps in algebraic translations and end up with the wrong answer, practice solving a few dozen equations by writing outevery single step. It seems elementary, but you wont make those mistakes again.
Remember, practice, practice, practice makes perfect!