Hi, I'm erika one of the senior curriculum managers here at magoosh
gmat expert. If you watched my video on how I got a seven seventy on the
gmat you know that one of my top tips is to never make the same mistake
twice, which is great advice, but how do you do that? And this video I'm
going to walk you through exactly which steps you can take to make each of
your gmat mistakes a one and done these are great practices to implement if
you're also aiming for a seven seventy, but I've seen them work wonders for
students at all levels, so no matter your score goal stick around if
you're looking to maximize the value of your gmat study, now right off
the bat you're going to want to commit at least half of your study time to
reviewing your mistakes--and this may seem like a lot, but this deserves
time and attention so you're not going to get to as many problems in your
study and that's okay, because you're going to get more out of each one.
Remember drilling without learning from your mistakes can often be actively
harmful as you build bad habits by making the same mistake over and over
again, so this stuff is worth the investment and will save you time in the
long run. Now that you set aside the time for reviewing your mistakes, make
the most of it with an error log now, when most people think of an error
log, they think of it as a place to answer where was the question that I
missed. Where did I make this mistake, but actually I would prioritize three
other questions. What why and how? Let's talk through of us. So what asks what
mistake you made in this problem? Did you make a miscalculation? Did you
misread the question? Did you pick an answer choice without reading the
others, first et cetera, et cetera, now the next one on why it's about? Why
did you make that mistake? Did you make the mistake because you ran out of time?
Did you make the mistake because you weren't actively reading? Did you make
the mistake because you were trying to do too much math in your head? When
really you should have been jotting, something down on your paper and so on and so
forth and then, finally, how is a two-parter. So how do you recognize the
potential to make that same mistake in a different problem and then how do
you avoid it next time know again, when most students are keeping an error
log, they are primarily focused on the where and, then maybe a surface level
what, if we're lucky, but it those later questions why and how that really
help. You interrogate the mistake that you made learn something from it and
then translate that learning to other problems. Now how in particular
is going to be the really valuable one, I really recommend formatting it as
a prompt response. So what's the clue in a problem that I might make
the same mistake again and then what is the action that I take in response
to that? Now if you maintain that error log throughout your study
through your practice sessions through your practice test- that's great, but you're,
only getting half of the value out of it, because the rest of the value
comes from reviewing that error log. The time to review your error log is
at the beginning of each of your study session, so sit down and read through
the strategies and your how column and then make a commitment that you're
not gonna make any of the mistakes you just read through in that study
session. Now this part isn't as big of a time commitment, maybe five minutes at
the beginning of a study session, but it holds huge value because what it
does is brings those mistakes so strategies to the forefront of our minds so
that, in our practice, we're recognizing them we're more likely to act on them
and we're less likely to make those mistakes that we made before now. This
reasoning is why the how column of your error log is going to make the
most incredible personalized study guide before each of your practice tests
and test day itself now by the way, if you're wading through all of the
practice tests out there and aren't really sure which ones to take check out
my video on the best gmat practice test. Alright so you set aside the
time you've made your error log you're reviewing your error log you're doing
everything in your power to not make the same mistake twice. But what
happens when you do? When you do end up making the same mistake twice, which
will happen because it happens to the best of us. The universe has given you
a really great clue that you need to prioritize fixing this particular
mistake. So at this point, you're going to want to double down on error
logging to address this particular mistake. So first thing you're going to
want to do is highlight- or in some way mark that particular entry so it
stands out in your error log, the next time you're revealing it then you're
going to want to go back and revisit that entry. Is it just that you didn't
actually follow your own how strategy, in which case you might want to
adjust how you're approaching your review sessions, or is it that the
strategy didn't actually work? So dig deep here is your why actually
accurate? Is that really the reason you made that mistake and then okay, if
it is, let's look at your how, is that actually gonna work? Did your clue apply to this problem?
By following these steps you can get the most millage out of your precious gmat study time.