Realizing that you made a mistake at a time that is too late is frustrating, we’ve all been there. We’ve all had those moments, right? Those palm to forehead situations, the “aw man! I should have known that!” circumstances. We all don’t want to be guilty of those silly makes on the GMAT especially. We have our hands full with the GMAT as is, but the risk of making mistakes on GMAT and being privy to GMAT errors does not help the situation.
Careless mistakes can be teeny tiny mistakes but can prove to be a pretty powerful negative punch. There’s no partial credit on the GMAT; a teeny tiny mistake is the same as a completely wrong answer. Accidentally being off by a decimal will provide the same outcome as being off by 10,000 decimal points; both will yield a wrong answer. The GMAT Integrated Reasoning section is only twelve questions. Each question is a critical component of your answer. We want to help you minimize those careless mistakes on GMAT integrated reasoning.
The only way to combat careless mistakes is through preventative and proactive measures along with lots and lots of practice. We have gathered the top 15 careless mistakes on the GMAT integrated reasoning section to help you prepare for the exam and protect you from making those silly mistakes on the GMAT.
GMAT Integrated Reasoning Overview
The GMAT Integrated Reasoning section is intended to test your analysis and insight-gathering skills. The GMAT Integrated Reasoning section is the newest section of the GMAT. Created in 2012, the GMAT integrated reasoning is the section that is most applicable to the real world. It is designed to figure out how well you can process information–it is designed to measure what can you glean from charts, tables, graphs, emails, written logic, etc.–graphics and data that you would find in a typical business situation. You will be presented with some information and be asked some questions about that information; it is your job to analyze correctly the information and answer the problem. Now after taking so much time and care to understand and answer each question, it would be such a shame if you got the answer wrong due to a silly mistake. Go through our guide to help you prepare you against careless mistakes on the GMAT integrated reasoning.
15 Careless Mistakes on GMAT Integrated Reasoning
1. Misreading charts
There is no question that you will have to know how to read charts, graphs, and tables to do well on the GMAT integrated reasoning.If you are familiar with charts and graphs,then this section should not be a large issue, but it would be helpful to do some practice and brush up on any format that is unfamiliar to you.
Chart formats should not be overlooked; depending on which type of chart is used to showcase the information, a different relationship is revealed and highlighted. That should provide some context for what the question is looking for. For instance, pie charts look at shares or components that make up a whole; line charts usually look at some relationship over time; bar charts look to compare closely data.
The integrated reasoning section gives you all the information that you need to solve the problem. The answer comes from how you manipulate and process that data given to you. This is why reading charts is incredibly important. To process the data, you need to get the data.
Can you understand the meaning of the chart in the Albert.io problem below? Click here for the full example.
2. Offhand Mistakes
We’re all guilty of those silly mistakes: not realizing which units the question asked for, leaving off the zero at the end of the solution, even just marking the wrong answer on the exam. The only solution to these careless errors is to take the time to process things carefully. It is a delicate balance though because you are only given thirty minutes for twelve questions. This means you have to read the information given, digest and process the data, interpret the data, and answer the question, all in 2.5 minutes. However, haste will be your worst enemy as you need to read through and answer questions thoroughly and carefully. There is lots of risk for those silly mistakes but by paying attention, you can minimize the risk.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
3. Misunderstanding the problem
The integrated reasoning section will test how you read things. Reading the question is not only about the information that is presented, but also HOW that information is presented. If you’re not able to understand what the information is telling you and how to process that information, then you will need to do some more practice work on analyzing information. Remember to read closely, pay attention to detail, and look at how the problem is presented for context clues. If you are finding that you are spending a lot of time on reading the information, and you are not getting the right answers on your practice exams and not understanding why the correct answer is correct, then it is time to do a deeper dive into integrated reasoning problems.
4. Misreading the question
Let’s look at this scenario. What if the question at hand is, “What is 5 x 5?” If your answer is “planets,” that doesn’t solve the question at hand, does it? If you misinterpret the problem, how are you supposed to get the right answer? You would be pretty much doomed from the onset so protect yourself from those circumstances by taking the time to read the problem statement thoroughly and internalize it. Misunderstanding the problem will lead you to waste time and energy, not to mention a wrong answer.
Play close attention to what the question is asking. If the question calls for the number of Democrats that voted in the election, don’t give the percentage of voters that were Democrats. The answer choices will include those scenarios to trip you up so be very cautious about the wording of the question.
5. Not providing an answer that solves the problem
In the same vein as #4, if you are providing an answer that does not solve the problem, then you’re not going to get that question right because your answer is wrong. It’s as simple as that. If I ask for how many puppies Liz has on her farm and you give me the number of cats she has on her farm, then you will not get the correct answer. Make sure your answer is answering the problem question and makes sense with the problem statement. The GMAT integrated reasoning problems give you a lot of data so don’t be thrown off by that confusion.
For instance, look at the example below. They are asking you to find how much money would be CUT from social programs. Make sure you are not providing the total amount of money that the social programs would require, but the DIFFERENCE.
See Albert.io for the full problem here.
6. Not learning from your mistakes
The age old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” is somewhat appropriate in this situation. The only way to get a better score is through tons and tons of practice. The only way you’re going to get better with practice is to learn from your mistakes. Nail down the topics and issues that stump you and take a deeper dive into them. You need to identify and isolate the problems that you are having recurring trouble with and take the necessary actions and steps to correct them. You need to mindfully practice problems when preparing for the GMAT. It is like exercising a muscle incorrectly. If you keep repeating the wrong exercise you could be weakening the muscle, not strengthening it. Make sure you learn from your mistakes so you can strengthen your GMAT integrated reasoning game!
7. Misinterpreting the graphics
The GMAT integrated reasoning questions could be tricky. Make sure you are reading the graphics correctly. Pay close attention to the units and the entire problem statement to understand the context of the problem. There may be questions that have different units displayed to test your attention to detail. An area that we see many students have problems with is the pie chart extraction of a pie chart. Make sure you read everything carefully to have all the information you need to make your assessment.
Make sure you know all the different types of graphs. Check out more practice problems on graphs at Albert.io here.
It is important to read units carefully and understand the context to each of the variables and the relationships.
8. Barking up the wrong tree
The integrated reasoning section is the most problem-solving-like section of the exam. The problems are more complex, and the questions are less straightforward. That means that there are many diverse perspectives on reading the problem and endless possibilities on approaches to the question. It is very easy to get thrown off and start going down a path to the wrong answer. A way to prevent that is to take a step back while you’re going through the problem to reassess the problem statement and your approach. Does that make sense? Are you making progress? It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the information given in a problem and start off on the wrong foot.
Many people face this specific issue with the multi-source problems. Check out some sample problems at Albert.io here.
9. Overlooking the detail
Details are incredibly important to the GMAT integrated reasoning section. Make sure you read through the problem and pay attention to all the details that are given. There needs to be a delicate balance between detail-orientation and time management so take a lot of practice tests to find your fit. Paying attention to detail does not mean that you re-read everything and progress slowly. Adopt a strategy that allows you to acknowledge detail while staying efficient. Remember the goal in the integrated reasoning section is to be efficient and effective. Make sure you are not overlooking the small critical items in your approach.
Can you catch all the detail on this Albert.io problem here?
10. Not knowing the right information
Everybody is pressed for time on the integrated reasoning section. The GMAT is not generous on time on any of its sections, this section in particular. Don’t be privy to one of the most common issues for students on the integrated reasoning section: hasty reading. Hastily reading through the problem’s contents and the problem statement itself can lead to confusion and wasted time.
11. Calculation errors
The IR section does provide an onscreen calculator, but that tool is very cumbersome to use. For those quick calculations, it may be better to use mental math. In this case, it is very easy to make a calculation error. How many times have you missed a zero or put the decimal in the wrong place? After getting your solution, do a quick check on your calculations to make sure they all lineup and tie out. Checking over your calculations should be relatively speedy. If you are one that does not like to do your calculations, we recommend writing all your calculations down and then inputting them quickly into the calculator after finishing the problem, to validate your work is correct.
12. Organization issues
If you process problems better by writing things down, take notes on the scratch pad and do your work there. It may be easier to process the right information if you write it down. One approach here is to designate or allocate space to each question ahead of time on your scratch pad so you’re not writing calculations in every nook and cranny and can easily follow your work. You can use rows, columns, or boxes, whichever suits your preference, just stick to one. Similarly, you can take to standardizing a set of symbols to denote next to calculations, such as a ‘*’ to symbolize an estimate, a “!” to denote “Double-checking required,” and shapes around final answers, major calculation answers, etc.
13. Overthinking the question
As with everything on the GMAT, there needs to be a sense of balance. Don’t spend too much time thinking about the question. You want to understand what it is asking, but you don’t want to waste time on trying to analyze deeper into the question when you already know what the problem is. Time is a huge factor in the IR section, so you want to assess the problem statement thoroughly as quickly as possible.
14. Too many liberal assumptions
One problem that students tend to have when they do a lot of practice tests is to make assumptions on the official GMAT, based on the practice exams they took. All the information that the GMAT gives you should be enough to solve the problem. Don’t start making liberal assumptions on what the GMAC meant and what should be the case. Assess and analyze based on what’s in front of you.
15. Not double checking
You don’t always need to double check, but you do always need to ask yourself if your answer makes sense. It is helpful to double check quickly to catch any issues or mistakes last minute. Remember; the GMAT is not assessing how you work; they are assessing the correctness of your answers. It doesn’t matter how you got the right answer but that you got the right answer. Double checking can save you points in the long run.
So, what now?
You can minimize the amount of mistakes on GMAT by using our guide. Make sure you are taking the precautionary steps you need to during practice to minimize risks of careless mistakes on the GMAT integrated reasoning section on your official test. Hopefully, you can learn from other students’ mistakes to know how to approach the integrated reasoning section. Good luck!
Let’s put everything into practice. Try this GMAT practice question:
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