After doing any set of practice questions, you must evaluate which questions you missed, and more importantly why you missed those questions. The same approach should be taken for questions that you guessed on (whether answered correctly or incorrectly) and questions that consumed more than 2.5 minutes. The goal of review is to identify opportunities for improvement of your performance, whether that improvement is in speed or accuracy.
For example, your evaluation of a set of Quantitative and Verbal practice questions might look like this:
Quant
Question 2 | Question type: DS | 2 equations given; didn't put the equations in the same form. Takeaway: always put equations into similar forms.
Question 5 | Question type: PS | quadratic equation; didn’t understand how to do it, because I didn’t see a common quadratic equation. Takeaway: commit to memory common quadratic equations and the uncommon ways they are often presented.
Question 7 | Question type: PS | careless arithmetic mistake - added incorrectly. Takeaway: always double check math.
Question 10 | Question Type: DS | required six minutes to finish; overlooked the opportunity to use smart math to expedite calculations. Takeaway: memorize common powers, such as 252 = 625 and 152 = 225.
Verbal
Question 2 | Question type: SC | identified the modifier error; got it down to the correct two but missed the idiom “as much as”. Takeaway: Know your idioms!
Question 5 | Question type: CR | spotted weaken question; both remaining answer choices after POE gave alternative reasons: took a while to realize the difference between the choices: “most” vs. “at least one”.
Question 8 | Question type: SC | guessed (correctly); did not know the different usage for ‘that’ and ‘which’.
When reviewing questions you should always ask yourself two simple questions: 1) what was the point conveyed (or skill tested) by this problem, and 2) what should I take away from this problem that can be applied elsewhere? The goal of review is to further hone your ability to first see similarities between problems, and then identify the connection of those similarities to the broader concepts and approaches. By seeing similarities you’ll be better equipped to answer questions that test familiar concepts in unfamiliar ways. Let’s look at a question:
Number Properties Question Review:
If m is a multiple of 4 and n is divisible by 6, nm must be divisible by which of the following?
- 8
- 12
- 18
- 24
- 32
Concept: Divisibility
Knowledge: Definition of divisible and multiple
Takeaway(s):
-“x is divisible by more than one number” is another way to tell you the least common factor of x.
-the least common multiple of a number IS NOT the same as the product. Here the LCM is 12, not 24.
-The terms divisible by, multiple of, and factor of convey essentially the same information in different ways.
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