Tips for preventing silly re-write errors...

[SuzanR808]

In doing the homework, I’m finding that a lot of my silly errors are from incorrectly re-writing some aspect of the equation (writing 4 instead of 14 and leaving off that “1”, writing 15 instead of 1/5, etc), either when re-writing the original equation from the book onto my paper, or as I go through simplifying an equation. Any tips on how to prevent this?

[NishantB347]

I'm sure this is happening because you tend to write in an unclean way on your scratch pad.Try to write as clean as possible and these kinds of errors will definitely reduce.It happened with me.
Mostly errors in quants happen in DS questions.Candidates tend to overlook some specific detail mentioned in the questions for ex x is a positive number; here candidates may also consider 0 or sometimes think that x=1,2,3,4,5...... which is not correct.So read the question very carefully especially in DS questions.

[StaceyKoprince]

Agreed that we all need to practice we're writing very cleanly and carefully, step by step and line by line, on our scrap paper. I'm guilty of getting messy at times, too, and then errors creep in.

A couple of questions / thoughts.

(1) Do you feel constantly pressed to work faster? If so, that rushing is going to lead to you dropping things and making the kinds of careless mistakes you describe. What can you do to alleviate that "rush rush rush" feeling?

Part of that has to do with knowing that you are actually making conscious decisions about what to do and what NOT to do. The goal is not to try to get through everything fast. The goal is to work methodically on the things that are worth your time and to be able to identify when something is not worth your time so that you can bail (and save time for other problems).

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

(2) Was this a problem even when you were in school? Or did you make far fewer of these types of mistakes then? It has likely been a long time since you've done much "paper" math. This is true for nearly everyone studying for the GMAT - at least, at first! Do some paper math, every day, multiple times a day for 5-10m at a time, until your brain gets back into that mode of working. Try doing drills out of Foundations of Math (the book or the online problem sets). Or google drill sheets for any math topic that you want to practice, eg "solve equations drill" or similar. Tons of math teachers have put things like this online. (For their 11 year old students, yes - but they'll still be helpful for you! )

If you did have a big problem with this in school, too, then you will need to take more concerted efforts. I would recommend finding a local middle-school-level math teacher who works with / tutors students who have ADHD, dyslexia, etc. This type of teacher would be able to give you very good recommendations and help you to build habits to overcome these types of errors.

[SuzanR808]

Many thanks Stacey! I think I fall more into category 1, where I feel very rushed. I guess as I progress through the course, I will get more methodical and be able to better discern which problems to focus on vs. which to bail on.

[StaceyKoprince]

Yep, that will be a huge part of it.

Are you still pretty early in the program? It's a bit overwhelming at first because there's just so much you could learn and so many resources and etc. Just take a deep breath and choose some things to concentrate on first - and don't think that you have to do it all. You'll get there!

I'll also add this:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/