I have a question about the best way to review practice problems. As of right now I am doing the EK series and for all the tests and practice problems I take I right my awnsers down in a book and then highlight the ones I get wrong and right a short little note next to them as to why I got them wrong so I can skim thru to see my weaknesses....HOWEVER I do not look at the awnsers/explanantions to the questions I got right...is this a bad habit or would it just be a waste of time?
Reviewing Practice Problems
- Thread starter Jentwisl
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General Guidelines for Reviewing:
- Go over EVERY question. Both the ones you got right and the ones you got wrong.
- Reviewing should take 2-3 times longer than taking the timed practice problems.
- If your tests are fluctuating, it is due to the different topics on the various tests. In other words, you have some glaring weaknesses that when targeted, nail you, badly. You have to find out what those weaknesses are because they are evident by your scores. Do NOT dismiss any wrong answer as a "stupid mistake." You made that error for a reason. Go over your tests again.
Some things to go over when reviewing:
1. Why did you get the question wrong? Why did you get the question right?
2. What question types get you?
3. How is your mindset when facing a particular passage?
4. Are you stressed for time?
5. Where are your mistakes happening the most? Are they front loaded? Are they at the end? All over?
6. What was your thought process for both the questions you got right and the ones you got wrong?
7. For verbal, what was the author's mindset and main idea?
8. Did you eliminate all of the answer choices you could from first glance?
ex. You know an answer should be a positive number so you cross out all of the negative number answer choices.
9. What content areas are you weak in?
10. How can you improve so you don't make the same mistake again?
- Go over EVERY question. Both the ones you got right and the ones you got wrong.
- Reviewing should take 2-3 times longer than taking the timed practice problems.
- If your tests are fluctuating, it is due to the different topics on the various tests. In other words, you have some glaring weaknesses that when targeted, nail you, badly. You have to find out what those weaknesses are because they are evident by your scores. Do NOT dismiss any wrong answer as a "stupid mistake." You made that error for a reason. Go over your tests again.
Some things to go over when reviewing:
1. Why did you get the question wrong? Why did you get the question right?
2. What question types get you?
3. How is your mindset when facing a particular passage?
4. Are you stressed for time?
5. Where are your mistakes happening the most? Are they front loaded? Are they at the end? All over?
6. What was your thought process for both the questions you got right and the ones you got wrong?
7. For verbal, what was the author's mindset and main idea?
8. Did you eliminate all of the answer choices you could from first glance?
ex. You know an answer should be a positive number so you cross out all of the negative number answer choices.
9. What content areas are you weak in?
10. How can you improve so you don't make the same mistake again?
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SN2ed has a really nice list there. Obviously, sometimes you'll just be able to skim the right answer explanations, as you'll be able to tell right away that you got the right answer for the right reason. But sometimes (and it probably won't be a tiny percentage), you'll find that even though you got the right answer, it was by luck, or because your logic was double-backwards and thus you would have missed a similar question.
So it's definitely worth reviewing all the answers - definitely skim, at least.
So it's definitely worth reviewing all the answers - definitely skim, at least.
