I took the Manhattan Prep 9 week course and the instructor of course emphasized the need for a regular review of a redo (aka error log).
Is the assumption that one would put not only missed OG questions and CAT exam questions into the error log but also missed Study Guide end of chapter questions in the log valid??
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- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Re: Error log
You can put anything you want into your error log. I would suggest several things:
(1) Call it a Review Log, not an Error Log. You're going to put things in here that you think you need to review in future. Whether you got it right or wrong this time actually doesn't matter.
(2) In fact, some stuff that you got right should go in your log. For example, you may have gotten something right but did it a lot slower than you could have (maybe you could have estimated on quant, or maybe you got distracted at first by the wrong part of the passage on an RC problem). Or you might have gotten something right but feel like you might not necessarily get that same thing right in future—you got a little lucky on the math, or you were down to 50/50 on verbal and chose correctly...but realize you could have just as easily chosen the other one.
(3) Don't put every missed question in the log. Only put something in your log if you think there's something to learn from it in future. If, for example, you knew that you had no idea how to do the problem and you bailed immediately (guessed quickly and moved on), and then upon review you determined that you made the right decision and you would do the same thing the next time you saw a similar problem...then there's nothing to put in your review log because you already handled it correctly—at least as far as the GMAT is concerned, since getting everything right is not the goal.
(4) If your log gets too big, you'll get overwhelmed and it'll seem like you can't possibly learn it all. (Plus, you'll spend way too much time creating the log in the first place.) So be choosy about what you put in the log and how you put it in. You're looking for some kind of opportunity to get better at *something* related to taking this test. Sometimes, that opportunity is, "The next time I see something that has characteristics X and Y, I will guess immediately and move on." In that case, do still put this in your log (to see whether you recognize next time that you should bail), but don't spend a bunch of time writing out what the takeaways are or how to do the problem. All you want to be able to do next time is recognize how to know that you want to bail.
That all make sense?
(1) Call it a Review Log, not an Error Log. You're going to put things in here that you think you need to review in future. Whether you got it right or wrong this time actually doesn't matter.
(2) In fact, some stuff that you got right should go in your log. For example, you may have gotten something right but did it a lot slower than you could have (maybe you could have estimated on quant, or maybe you got distracted at first by the wrong part of the passage on an RC problem). Or you might have gotten something right but feel like you might not necessarily get that same thing right in future—you got a little lucky on the math, or you were down to 50/50 on verbal and chose correctly...but realize you could have just as easily chosen the other one.
(3) Don't put every missed question in the log. Only put something in your log if you think there's something to learn from it in future. If, for example, you knew that you had no idea how to do the problem and you bailed immediately (guessed quickly and moved on), and then upon review you determined that you made the right decision and you would do the same thing the next time you saw a similar problem...then there's nothing to put in your review log because you already handled it correctly—at least as far as the GMAT is concerned, since getting everything right is not the goal.
(4) If your log gets too big, you'll get overwhelmed and it'll seem like you can't possibly learn it all. (Plus, you'll spend way too much time creating the log in the first place.) So be choosy about what you put in the log and how you put it in. You're looking for some kind of opportunity to get better at *something* related to taking this test. Sometimes, that opportunity is, "The next time I see something that has characteristics X and Y, I will guess immediately and move on." In that case, do still put this in your log (to see whether you recognize next time that you should bail), but don't spend a bunch of time writing out what the takeaways are or how to do the problem. All you want to be able to do next time is recognize how to know that you want to bail.
That all make sense?
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
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