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Solve the CR question, keeping the following in mind:
Situation 1: You get the question WRONG!
Let’s say you selected option B while the correct option is E.
You have committed at least two reasoning mistakes:
It is quite likely that your reasoning for rejecting other options is also INCORRECT.
Commonly, people try to understand the correct reasonings for options B and E. However, they don’t go beyond this. This is a SERIOUS DEFICIENCY in the learning process.
What is very important yet commonly not done is that you try to understand
Unless you CLEARLY understand the above two points, you haven’t understood your mistake. As a result, you will likely repeat the same mistakes again.
However, many people don’t do this kind of analysis because it is very time-consuming. It’s quite easy to see an expert explanation and understand why option B is wrong and why option E is correct. However, it takes a lot of effort to figure out why your reasoning is wrong.
You must understand that practice leads to a better score only if you learn from practice. And you learn from practice only if you analyze your mistakes. Without such analysis, practice is just mental satisfaction.
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Situation 2: You get the question CORRECT, but your reasoning is INCORRECT!
Not only understand the correct reasoning but also understand why your reasoning is incorrect.
Unless you CLEARLY understand why your reasoning is incorrect, you haven’t understood your mistake. As a result, you will likely repeat the same mistakes again.
However, many people don’t do this kind of analysis because it is very time-consuming. It’s quite easy to see an expert explanation and understand the correct reasoning. However, it takes a lot of effort to figure out why your reasoning is wrong.
You must understand that practice leads to a better score only if you learn from practice. And you learn from practice only if you analyze your mistakes. Without such analysis, practice is just mental satisfaction.
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Situation 3: You get the question and the reasoning CORRECT, but you took more than ideal time to solve the question.
There are two potential reasons one could take more time in a question.
If you reread parts of the text multiple times or went back and forth between the passage and the options (which is also rereading), your process was deficient. The right process is that you read it correctly the first time. You may read slowly, but you read in a way that you understand it in one go. Rereading wastes time.
The reason for taking more time could be skills. If you were not clear about certain parts of the passage or the options even after reading them more than once, the problem lies in your skills. If you were down to two options and had a hard time figuring out the correct one, your problem lies in your skills, i.e., clarity.
The way to improve skills is to learn as much as possible from every single question – spend a lot of time analyzing your mistakes, write them down, and revise them at regular intervals. Also, try to find commonalities in your mistakes.
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Learn GMAT the right way – through common sense and logic. There’s no shortcut to a well-deserved success!
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