Making Silly mistakes on practice test; however, Easy to do.

[bpolley00]

Hey, just looking for an expert's opinion on making silly mistakes during the actual exam. I just reviewed all of my test questions I missed during my GMATprep practice test. I can easily figure them all out on my own after the test; thus, I am assuming maybe this is a time issue or an anxiety on the actual test issue. Does anyone have any advice in dealing with this or have had students who have encountered similar issues? I believe if I cut out the silly mistakes (for example missed a DS question that asked about consecutive numbers in a arithmetic mean situation and I did not catch it said consecutive) I believe I could get a 700+ as it is not the content that I do not understand, but merely these silly errors I keep making. Any advice is always appreciated as I know your time is valuable. Thanks so much![/b]

[Tommy Wallach]

Hey Bpolley,

This is, of course, a very common issue. The thing to remember is that the GMAT is more of a trick-based test than a knowledge-based test, so silly mistakes are often more common than simply not knowing how to do a question. What's important is to recognize that silly mistakes are actually based on more fundamental issues than you might think.

The most important issue is process. If you're making silly mistakes regularly, the odds are good that your process is not yet solid. Are you approaching every single Data Sufficiency question the exact same way? Do you use the same notation system? Can you look back at your notes and see your process in motion?

This is issue #2 for the silly-mistake crowd. Oftentimes, silly mistakes get made because your work isn't clear, even to yourself. If your handwriting is tiny, or gigantic, or all over the page at different angles, or you try to squish way too much into every page, that could have something to do with all your errors.

Finally, there's the possibility that your arithmetic skills aren't quite up to par, so when you try to speed through what should be easy calculations, you make a mistake. If you were a student in my class, I'd hand you our Foundations of Math book, which is really just a book with hundreds and hundreds of little arithmetic/algebra questions, and tell you to do every drill until you never made a SINGLE mistake on them. If you ever made a mistake, I'd have you redo the ENTIRE drill.

Let me know if that all makes sense, or if you have any follow-up questions!

-t

[bpolley00]

Tommy,

Apparently you have been teaching the GMAT for awhile, because I think you summed up my issue with the paragraph on handwriting. My Mathematical aptitude is up to par I believe; however, my handwriting is pretty sloppy. I do approach every single data sufficiency question the same except I will cross off Either I or II if I can recognize immediately that it is incorrect. For example, I will take a look at statement two sometimes rather than statement one if I can figure out in about 15 seconds if it is obviously not sufficient. Perhaps I would be better suited by, like you said, having a uniform way of doing each question.
I am currently about a month out and scoring in the upper 600's on the practice test and my timing is on point when doing problems. I will purchase your math overview for a good last month refresher to make sure I am missing 0 of those questions.

Thanks so much for your advice Sir, it is greatly appreciated.

[Tommy Wallach]

Hey Bpolley,

Glad to help. Actually what you do on DS is GREAT! That's what I meant by a common process, so feel good about that. In terms of handwriting, I know it's a tall order, but if you can make it more clear/organized (imagine you want someone ELSE to be able to follow your entire methodology), I do think it would help.

Good luck!

-t

[David@VeritasPrep]

Let me say that you ask a very important question. It is one of the first topics that I mention to students and something I write about frequently. Let me add to what Tommy has already mentioned.

Here is an article on the types of procedures you might want to put into place to help avoid those Silly mistakes: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/10/ ... -handrails

And here is an article that deals with the importance (to your score) of not missing those easy questions: https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/12/ ... n-the-gmat


The following is from an earlier posting that I made here https://www.beatthegmat.com/best-practic ... tml#554834

"Not all errors are created equal.

When you see that you need to review fundamentals - like formulas or equations that is actually a relief! GMAT Test-takers are pretty good at memorizing things since that is something that is encouraged in college. So if you missed the question because you did not know a formula or a point of grammar or something you will likely learn this and not make the same mistake twice or at least not more than about 3 times.

There are two other kinds of errors: First, errors in applying the formulas and techniques - such as "I did not see that I could use the difference of squares on this question!" With these errors you have to learn to see the GMAT in terms of WHAT YOU DO KNOW and apply that knowledge. For example, when you a see a circle there are a limited number of things that you could do with that circle. Learning what to apply when is the part of the GMAT that is never-ending! I am still seeing new ways to do things years and years later.

And finally there are the Bad errors. You mentioned making "dumb errors" or as they are called: "Silly mistakes." These YOU MUST ADDRESS and the sooner the better.

Not only do "dumb mistakes" really hurt your score, but they also undermine your practice sessions and tests as well. Think about it, the test is adapting to you, right? So if you miss questions you should get right on those practice tests then you are never going to see questions that are as difficult as you would see without those mistakes. So you do not really get a chance to fully see where the holes in your knowledge are or how well you can apply your techniques to the toughest questions.

I have written an article on the three types of errors. The first half is on the Veritas Prep Blog here: https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2013/01 ... -the-gmat/

Once you have stopped making the silly mistakes you are in the enviable position of being able to learn from each mistake that you make on a practice test!!! This means that if you have a lack of knowledge you can simply find the formula or other information. If you did not know that you could apply a certain technique - well now you do know! This is when the GMAT gets to be fun.

[bpolley00]

Those articles are all very well written. Thanks for your candid advice David, I will have to take that into consideration as I form my strategy for my last month of studying.