How do I stop making absent minded mistakes? Forum

[roranoa]

The thing is, for LG, I would sometimes misread a question or forget one of the rules even though I had it written down.

For LR, after I grade my pt and reread the question I got wrong (without knowing the answer bc someone else grades it for me) I would immediately have an epiphany as to what was wrong with the argument or what the question had intended.

I always think to myself 'Why didn't I see this the first time?', but see myself do it again and again.

What do you suggest I do to fix this?

[forum_user]

I've had the exact same problem. For LR, usually I would read through a stimulus, make my prediction, and then read through all the answer choices like normal, but nothing in particular would jump out at me. For me, this is almost always an indication that I've misread something in the stimulus--overlooked a word or made an implicit assumption in my head that the argument didn't provide. If I noticed that this was the case, I start the whole process over with rereading the stimulus, and usually I'll realize my mistake. It might lose you a bit of time, sure, but if you're generally efficient it'll be worth it to make sure you score that point.

It always helps to tell myself to focus too--it's a long test and I tend to get distracted, which can lead to missed questions.

tl;dr if the question seems particularly difficult and you're not sure why, try rereading it.

[december1205]

The thing is, for LG, I would sometimes misread a question or forget one of the rules even though I had it written down.

For LR, after I grade my pt and reread the question I got wrong (without knowing the answer bc someone else grades it for me) I would immediately have an epiphany as to what was wrong with the argument or what the question had intended.

I always think to myself 'Why didn't I see this the first time?', but see myself do it again and again.

What do you suggest I do to fix this?

I do that too when I'm anxious. I think just continuing to do a lot of drills and doing a thorough review (as opposed to just checking that your new answer is correct-- I did this initially which ended up not being helpful = still got the same questions wrong when I try them in the future) will help us get rid of that bad habit. Practice makes perfect!

[paradigmshift]

the biggest mistake one can make when reviewing preptests is knowing which ones they got wrong. if you go back to a question during review and know that you got it wrong, you're wasting your time, and might as well not even review it. I presume that's where your "epiphanies" come from -- you narrowed it down to two possible answers choices during your first pass, and when you realize that the one you selected was wrong upon review, you look at the others and lo and behold it all makes so much sense!

stop doing that. when you take the test (i only did this on LR and sometimes RC) you should be circling every single question that you weren't 100% sure on why every single choice was absolutely wrong AND 100% sure on why the correct one is correct. you may find that you have a lot of questions circled after you're done with the test. when you review, don't even grade it at all. go back to every single question you weren't 100% sure on and sit there (untimed of course..) until you figure it out. after you go back to every single question, make sure you differentiate between the original answers you put down and the ones you changed it to. the main goal here is to realize the mistakes you're making and actually learn the material so that you have those "epiphanies" on the first pass.

this is called "blind review" -- i didn't start actually improving my test score until i did this. it's tedious, i know, but it's what makes you actually understand the material/reasoning, and will help you from making the same silly mistakes in the future.

i hope this helps