Careless mistakes when doing questions!

[kasra138]

As I have been doing tons of questions, I realized that every time I go over my mistakes a good 1/3 of them are really careless mistakes that I could have gotten right because I either didn't read the question compleletly or understood it completely or maybe even because I was debating between two choices and I was just not sure. So far I have done half of UW and half of Elsevier step 123 questions. I have 3 weeks left to the test.

I apologize if this question of mine seems very trivial but I am very frustrated with these "stupid" mistakes that I make and I would like to hear anybody who can help me. Your advice is truly appreciated and taken seriously. If you have any ideas how to get rid of these careless mistakes, please let me know.

regards

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[Femtochemistry]

We share a common misfortune. Almost every question I miss on UW is due to a "stupid mistake"-- like misreading a word or not reading a word entirely; I do that a lot....

Trying something new: spend more time on the question before hitting the stem; figure out what the possible answer is first might help? Any other suggestions on avioding these "stupid mistakes?"


cheers

 

[blz]

the only way to stop making stupid mistakes is to clearly identify WHY you are making them. until you sit down and really analyze your thought processes and find out where you went wrong and how to correct it next time, you're gonna be stuck at your score. so next time you make a stupid mistake, ask yourself why you made it and how to fix it.

 

[usmletutor]

The key as stated previously is to find the source of your careless mistakes:

1) If missing or misinterpreting words or sentences -> use the highlight feature to focus on the relevant information!

2) If unable to "visualize" what the 3 paragraph long questions is asking you -> again, the highlight feature for focusing on the main question!

3) If clicking the wrong circle (yup - I was going through the answer choices so fast, that I would inadvertently click the wrong circle when making my final selection)

4) Clear your mind of previous questions/answers before proceeding with current one - this is huge!

Good luck and study hard!

 

[Bankai]

usmletutor - that's really good advice

I have the same problem but it's because i try and rush things and skip through questions. It's a bad habit probably brought on by my own laziness and being in IT, i read a lot of text books that are padded out so much and all i want is 1 command or something.

 

[kasra138]

The key as stated previously is to find the source of your careless mistakes:

1) If missing or misinterpreting words or sentences -> use the highlight feature to focus on the relevant information!

2) If unable to "visualize" what the 3 paragraph long questions is asking you -> again, the highlight feature for focusing on the main question!

3) If clicking the wrong circle (yup - I was going through the answer choices so fast, that I would inadvertently click the wrong circle when making my final selection)

4) Clear your mind of previous questions/answers before proceeding with current one - this is huge!

Good luck and study hard!

Thank you all very much for your support. I think one of the reasons I make those mistakes, as I was looking through some of them, was because the choices given (especially in UW and most likely on the real test) "sound" alike. So until I know that specific detail EXACTLY I will keep making those mistakes. Considering that you are under some time pressure and some stress it is reallly easy to pick lets say epithelium as opposed to endothelium or some thing like that.
Moreover, around 100th question straight, my ADHD starts to kick in. I literally get distracted/tired and do not read the questions carefully. But I guess if I push myself not to get distracted and focus, I could get a grip on this aspect perhaps.
I don't know what else causes this besides these two point. I think if I make sure that I TRULY understand the concept among those "stupid" careless mistakes, I bet I won't make those mistakes again. We will see. I would appreciate if you have more input.
kindest regards

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I think an important thing to keep in mind is that your mindset will be different for the real thing than it is for these practice questions. That's not to say that you shouldn't *try* to reduce your careless errors, but be mindful that you may be rushing through to get done rather than being super careful because you know this one doesn't really count. So, what I'm trying to say is, these careless errors might not be an issue on the real thing, but of course that's no comfort because it's impossible to know how things will be different on test day. Clear as mud, no? 😉

One mistake that I kept making early on is that I would rush through the questions thinking I would get done early and then have time to double check my answers..only to find that when I read them over again, I tended to read things the same way the second time through rather than identifying my mistakes. It served me much better to slow down and read carefully the first time through, leaving a bit less time for double checking at the end.

 

[Law2Doc]

You will make stupid mistakes on the real thing. There is no way to avoid that. But you want to try and minimize it. The best advice is simple. There will be things on the test you don't know. Don't let that freak you out or fluster you such that you don't pick the right answer on the things you actually DO know.

 

[kasra138]

You will make stupid mistakes on the real thing. There is no way to avoid that. But you want to try and minimize it. The best advice is simple. There will be things on the test you don't know. Don't let that freak you out or fluster you such that you don't pick the right answer on the things you actually DO know.

Thank you very much for your advice. It is certainly true what you are saying but the thing that frustrates me is that I make mistakes on questions that I know. So that I am clear: lets say I make 15 mistakes, from these 15, 10 questions I really didn't know but there are those 5 other ones that I knew but picked the wrong choice. I would like to minimize those latter 5. What you are saying is more pertinent to that former 10 questions that I actually didn't know. For those 10 questions, I know that I have to study more but I would like to know what to do about those 5. But you are right about what you are saying. Thank you
regards

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

This technique only works if you're a speed fiend during testing.

I try to blow through the first pass through as fast as possible, clickikng first instict. If I don't know it immediately, skip it.

Then I go through and answer all the ones I didn't know on first pass, giving them a good enough think through, but enough time so I can do the third part.

Third part is I go through every answer, ensuring that I put in the corect box for what I intended, and also that my answer makes sense by reading the question and reading my answer and ensuring it's correct. This has really cut my error rate down, but it's a personal technique and may hinder others rather than helping.