careless mistakes

[doctor-to-be]

First general GRE is this coming Sat. I've been using Magoosh, Kaplan, and Manhattan. Despite having taken 6 practice tests over the last several weeks, I continue to occasionally get questions wrong which, after the fact, seem very easy to me whereby I think to myself "wow! If I had double checked this and gone slower I would've gotten it correct!!!" What's really creepy about such mistakes is that they can be the difference between meeting my goal or not. 

Because I have an anxiety problem, I've been taking a little klonopin before each of these, and have to do this of course for real thing. I've been taking a lot of slow deep breaths, etc. Any advice about anything else I can try to stop making such mistakes? The amount of time allowed (especially for math) is REALLY stringent!!! 

[random_grad]

It's obviously not the moment to try new techniques for focusing and rigor. So I would suggest getting enough sleep, drinking lots of water, taking some nuts with you to the exam, and refueling at the breaks so that your mind is at its sharpest. Then if you have enough time at the end of each section, double-check your answers. But at least pick some answers for all questions so that you don't end up double-checking perpetually on a question, and if you don't have time, at least you have a probably correct answer for each q rather than no answer.

One thing that I keep mentioning as advice: when clicking "next" do not click twice. Wait for it to load. I was kicked out of a section like this, because the very last "next" is in the same location as "submit", so by clicking again because I thought the system did not get my first click, I ended up submitting. (it was OK though, I got all the answers correct on that one, but imagine the stress for the next section!).

[Brent@GreenlightGRE]

If silly mistakes are hurting your score, then it's important that you identify and categorize these mistakes. Some examples might include:

- sloppy writing causes a 7 to mysteriously turn into a 1

- you fail to notice crucial information such as x is an integer or w < 0

- you calculate Pat’s current age when the question asked for the Pat’s age 5 years from now.

- and so on

Once you have identified the types of mistakes that YOU typically make, you will be able to spot situations/questions in which you're prone to making errors.

I write about this and other strategies in the following article: http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/articles/avoiding-silly-misteaks-gre

Regarding your anxiety, check out our free video on handling that - http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/module/general-gre-info-and-strategies/video/1252

Cheers,

Brent - Greenlight Test Prep (a free and comprehensive GRE video course)

 

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by Brent@GreenlightGRE

[DrZoidberg]

I made a lot of those mistakes during practice tests where I didn't really read the question, assumed something that was wrong, answered the wrong thing, made an error, even if it was a fairly easy question. Then I started freaking out and read the questions several times but never really read them, which took a long time and made me really anxious. During the test I sort of forced myself to read the questions very focused and a little slower, making sure I understood each word and sentence before answering. It might take a little longer initially, but for me at least it was a lot faster and calmer overall than panic reading the question 10 times or going back and forth to double check. 

Good luck! 

[phillyhed]

On 11/10/2015, 11:50:21, doctor-to-be said:

 

Because I have an anxiety problem, I've been taking a little klonopin before each of these, and have to do this of course for real thing. I've been taking a lot of slow deep breaths, etc. Any advice about anything else I can try to stop making such mistakes? The amount of time allowed (especially for math) is REALLY stringent!!! 

I have anxiety issues too and seriously considered taking a xanax before the test but I wanted to be as sharp as possible. Instead, I very deliberately used deep breathing to help keep me calm and focused. I think the adrenaline helped me during the test. Of course, that's a personal choice but I wanted to share my experience.

[gughok]

1 hour ago, phillyhed said:

I have anxiety issues too and seriously considered taking a xanax before the test but I wanted to be as sharp as possible. Instead, I very deliberately used deep breathing to help keep me calm and focused. I think the adrenaline helped me during the test. Of course, that's a personal choice but I wanted to share my experience.

This. Clonazepam/klonopin and benzodiazepines in general will impair your cognition and ability to be attentive to detail. This leads to more careless mistakes. I would strongly advise using breathing methods etc. during the test.

[doctor-to-be]

Thank you!! I didn't score well enough, so preparing to retake. 

[GREMasterEMPOWERRichC]

Hi doctor-to-be,

What was your actual GRE Score (including the Quant and Verbal scores)? How did your Official Score compare to your practice MST scores?

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

[brown_eyed_girl]

Meditation is great for anxiety and focus. I highly recommend it - both in general over time and as prep for a stressful situations like tests. 

[Brent@GreenlightGRE]

On 11/21/2015, 7:09:12, brown_eyed_girl said:

Meditation is great for anxiety and focus. I highly recommend it - both in general over time and as prep for a stressful situations like tests. 

I wholeheartedly agree!

Also, proper mindset will do wonders for your score. If you're interested, I wrote two articles on this topic:

- http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/articles/mindset-and-body-language-gre-destroyer

- http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/articles/junior-girls-volleyball-scoring-big-gre

Cheers,

Brent 

 

[doctor-to-be]

On 11/18/2015, 1:37:45, EMPOWERgreRichC said:

Hi doctor-to-be,

What was your actual GRE Score (including the Quant and Verbal scores)? How did your Official Score compare to your practice MST scores?

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

Doctor-to-be here. Hi Rich. I've been listening to/watching a ton of your videos (if this is the Rich I'm thinking of) on Empower lately. These are very good, but I was so discouraged AGAIN when I scored a combined 294 on a MST this past weekend. Real scores: 149 quant. 148 verbal a couple weeks ago. Prior to this MSTs ranged from 288 to 302. I've honestly been working as hard as possible in this training. I graduated with my Master's in 1997, undergraduate in 1995. GRE work has been a living hell.

[GREMasterEMPOWERRichC]

Hi doctor-to-be,

Not to be too dramatic about it, but I am THAT Rich.

On the GRE, one of the BIG advantages you have is that you can flag/skip questions and come back to them later. Combined with the proper Tactics, you could quickly skip over the tougher prompts, 'nail' all of the 'gettable' questions in each section, then circle back and work on the tougher questions. To keep those little mistakes from happening, you likely just need a bit more time to do the work (and double-check if necessary) - trading away a tougher prompt to eliminate a few silly mistakes is a GREAT trade-off, so you should look to actively take advantage of it.

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

[doctor-to-be]

19 hours ago, EMPOWERgreRichC said:

Hi doctor-to-be,

Not to be too dramatic about it, but I am THAT Rich.

On the GRE, one of the BIG advantages you have is that you can flag/skip questions and come back to them later. Combined with the proper Tactics, you could quickly skip over the tougher prompts, 'nail' all of the 'gettable' questions in each section, then circle back and work on the tougher questions. To keep those little mistakes from happening, you likely just need a bit more time to do the work (and double-check if necessary) - trading away a tougher prompt to eliminate a few silly mistakes is a GREAT trade-off, so you should look to actively take advantage of it.

GRE Masters aren't born, they're made,

Rich

Thank you Rich!  Your support means a lot. Taking general GRE again this Saturday. What's helped to improve my practice set scores in Kaplan, along with a better score on my last MST has been learning to QUICKLY decide if the problem before me is "easy" (quoted because none of this is easy) enough to get correct AND not too time consuming. If this problem falls into this category - do it. Secondly doing the problems that I believe I can get correct that are too consuming. The rest - that's what goofy math, repeated numbers, etc. are for. 

[doctor-to-be]

too TIME consuming that is - another silly mistake.