Reviewing Error Log Every Week

[JayFara]

Hi Stacey,

First of all, I do want to thank you for your fantastic articles. I've learned a lot from reading them. I use 8 MGMAT books, MGMAT CATs, GMATPrep software (and its extra question pack), etc. etc. My concern is regarding error log. Last week, I read 3 of your articles about making error log. So, for a week now I've been making my error log. Basically, I did not make a spreadsheet kind of error log. Since I make A LOT of careless errors and since your articles heavily focused on finding out why/how/how often/etc. we make careless errors (as well as content and technique errors), I feel like my error log might be a little bit more comprehensive that the error logs that I see other test takers usually use. I am in the middle of my GMAT prep. So, last week, I did a set of fifteen random 600-700 level quant questions every morning for 5 days, and then analyzed them and put them into my quant error log for around 2 hours till my lunch break. After the lunch and a good few hours of resting, I did a set of twenty random 600-700 level verbal questions (8 sc - 7 rc -5 cr all mixed together on gmatprep extra question pack practice mode) every afternoon for 5 days, and analyzed them and put them into my verbal error log. Saturday (the day before I took my 3rd MGMAT CAT), I tried to have a lighter day and just went over these error logs that I'd made during the week. To give you a better picture of how I made my error log during the weekend, I can write an example of sth that I'd write in my error logs.

question: blah blah blah...
source: xyz topic: percents and interests
mistake type: careless error
mistake: I erroneously did this and that silly mistakes, and btw it took me 2:36 mins to solve the q. I should have been faster.
Why mistake: I rushed through the problem, and...
What learned: If I had done this, I would have saved a lot of time. Btw that trick is also cool. Plus, from now on, in order to get rid of the silly mistake that I made in this problem, I need to do this and that.

So, Saturday I printed my error logs, and maybe for some reasons (bigger fonts, etc. etc.), it was 50 pages (quant and verbal together). In order to kind of remember the context of my mistakes, I tried to see if I can solve the qs mentioned in my error logs before taking a look at the notes that I've written under them, to see if I can recognize my mistake before reading about it. And it took me around 3-4 one hour light study sessions to study my error log (no, I did not read EVERY single word written on notes + I highlighted the important parts).

I took my 3rd MGMAT CAT yesterday, and it seemed like doing so (i.e. making an error log) was really helpful. I will analyze my CAT fully the way that you want us to do in your articles today. However, my concern regarding the error log is that, I can predict that if I want to continue making my error logs in the way I described, then I would easily have around 200 pages at the end of a month. And my fear is that maybe that would keep me from going over each problem and see why I made a mistake and such. And I know that in your article you mentioned that the goal is to see if you can find patterns of same or similar errors done in let's say a month. But at the same time, if I am not going to fully review a mistake that, let's say, 3 weeks ago I made in a DS question, then why am I making the error log in the first place? I know that some people are very brief in their error log and summarize everything to just a few words. But if I'm not mistaken, you mentioned in your article that we should know why we made that particular careless/technique/content error, how to get rid of it, etc. etc. So, how do I have to deal with a pile of reviewed questions and notes on my error logs three weeks from now? Should I just skip them and just try to see if I can see patterns of mistakes (like oh I've been making a lot of silly dividing careless errors for the past 4 weeks, let's do sth about it) or should I devote time (as I did on Saturday) to go over notes for each problem and basically spend a minute with each problem and mistake that I've recorded during 4 weeks? I hope that my question and concern are clear. I highly appreciate any advice. Thanks a lot in advance.

[StaceyKoprince]

Yes, that can become overwhelming (already has, sounds like!).

It's good to go through that work / analysis - then your next step is to summarize and consolidate. So do keep doing that, but take another step with it.

Look for patterns a little more frequently and then "retire" an entry when you've grouped that one into a pattern. How many times did you solve for the wrong thing? Group those together and then find ONE remedy that would minimize the chances of making that type of error in general. Put that one thing on a flash card, then mark those entries resolved.

You can also group certain types of math errors together - eg, manipulating an equation. Maybe one time you should've added 1 to each side but you accidentally subtrated 1. Another time, you were multiplying everything by 3 to get rid of a fraction, but you forgot to multiply one piece by 3. These are all errors of "equation manipulation," so now you know you need to do some drills in that area. Now you can "retire" those entries.

One reason you mentioned is that you made a mistake because you were rushing. Why were you rushing? How can you avoid rushing in future? Fix that, minimize the chances of repeating that error or making any error.

Over time, you'll realize as you make some new mistakes that they actually fit into one of your already-defined categories. And then you know that there's some urgency to fixing this type of error, because you know about it but you're still making it.

Let me know whether this is any clearer!

[JayFara]

Thank you so much, Stacey! I'll start implementing that right away!

[StaceyKoprince]

You're welcome!