{"id":5084,"date":"2014-09-22T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/?p=5084"},"modified":"2015-09-03T16:20:38","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T23:20:38","slug":"dont-fear-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/dont-fear-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Fear Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the consistent things I hear from students involves making mistakes on the <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/gmat-101\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">GMAT<\/a>. For some reason, students don\u2019t want to make them at all. They avoid doing practice GMAT tests or even doing practice problems until they\u2019ve covered all the basics or watched all the lesson videos or read all the introductory explanations.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing is more detrimental. Well, I suppose I am being hyperbolic; drinking bleach is more detrimental than avoiding mistakes. The point, though, is that avoiding practice problems to avoid mistakes is a nefarious mindset.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to free your mind and allow you to release your preconceived notions of mistakes. Follow me on a journey through mistakes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y8WXnmiID7g?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Mistakes are the Seeds of Learning<\/h2>\n<p>No one ever learns without making mistakes. There is no other way to learn. We have to fail before we can succeed and so when you avoid mistakes, you avoid learning.  At some point, the word \u201cmistake\u201d became a pejorative\u2014a detriment to us all.<\/p>\n<p>The goal with your GMAT prep is to weed out weakness. The first step in this process is finding your weaknesses. As much as reading about concepts may help, only by diving in and answering questions will you truly know your GMAT weaknesses. You will make mistakes and you will miss questions, revealing areas where you need to focus. Awesome!<\/p>\n<p>Keep track of these mistakes. Track your errors systematically. Spend more time understanding your mistakes than actually answering questions. This is the work of learning. You have to commit to approaching your errors head on and really break down the reasons you made the mistake.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>So Many Types of Mistakes<\/h2>\n<p>The smart student knows that mistakes come in many sizes and flavors. Some mistakes are a true lack of knowledge, usually with material never seen before. Other mistakes are due to fatigue and lack of focus. Mistakes come from silly errors or rushing at the end of the question. Mistakes appear when we do things out of order or lose track of what we are asked to do.<\/p>\n<p>When the mistake happens, diagnosis the type of mistake and react appropriately. As you go through this process, you\u2019ll realize that mistakes are not all the terrible. They occur for numerous reasons, and there are numerous appropriate actions to take that correct the mistake. Sometimes you will need to actually learn a new concept, but other times, you\u2019ll need to re-read the question before choosing an answer choice.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>You Aren\u2019t the Mistake<\/h2>\n<p>A mistake is not a reflection of your personality, character, or ability. Mistakes have nothing to do with your knowledge or intelligence. One of the worst things that teachers and parents do is praise a child when they do something right\u2014 &#8220;You are so smart!&#8221; Or conversely, criticize the child when they make a mistake\u2014 &#8220;Why did you do that? That wasn\u2019t smart!&#8221; When really, as parents and teachers, we need to praise or criticize the action. As Salman Khan says, we need to create a learning mindset in children\u2014and in adults\u2014that rewards struggling and making mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>A mistake, a moment of struggle, stretches and grows your brain. It creates new connections that make you smarter. These connection deepen and grow most when we make mistakes, not when we do things right. So praise yourself for mistakes, for struggling through a problem. Your actions of struggling are smart. That\u2019s intelligence. A student is not smart or wrong. A student\u2019s actions are either smart or not, and none of that has to do with the student.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Takeaway<\/h2>\n<p>Don\u2019t wait to do practice problems. Start early and attempt problems that you haven\u2019t seen before or think will be too hard. In doing so, you\u2019ll challenge yourself beyond your normal limits, grow the neural connections in your brain, and ultimately, learn!<\/p>\n<p>Embrace your mistakes! Fear your fear of making them. Only this will allow you to truly improve.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the consistent things I hear from students involves making mistakes on the GMAT. For some reason, students don\u2019t want to make them at all. They avoid doing practice GMAT tests or even doing practice problems until they\u2019ve covered all the basics or watched all the lesson videos or read all the introductory explanations. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13211],"class_list":["post-5084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t Fear Mistakes on the GMAT | Magoosh Study Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Making mistakes is an important part of all learning, and learning from your mistakes can help you improve your GMAT score and study skills.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/dont-fear-mistakes\/\" \/>\n<meta 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He has worked with adults and kids, tutoring the GRE, GMAT, and SAT at Kaplan and teaching English as a Second Language in the JET Programme and at the Intercultural Institute of California. At Magoosh, he expanded beyond teaching, building and managing teams, like Student Help and Content. When he's not Magooshing, you can find him spinning his toddler in circles. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kevinrocci\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/kevinrocci"],"knowsAbout":["GRE","GMAT","SAT","TOEFL","IELTS","ESL"],"jobTitle":"General Manager, TOEFL and IELTS","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/author\/kevin\/"}]},"og_video":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y8WXnmiID7g","og_video_type":"text\/html","og_video_duration":"393","og_video_width":"480","og_video_height":"270","ya_ovs_adult":"false","ya_ovs_upload_date":"2014-09-22T16:00:36+00:00","ya_ovs_allow_embed":"true"},"authors":[{"term_id":13211,"user_id":12,"is_guest":0,"slug":"kevin","display_name":"Kevin Rocci","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f938b61616cc2dd8ae8cd2ab06381f1b8780e3f84546747ac4823074c8e020b4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Rocci","first_name":"Kevin","description":"At UC Santa Cruz, Kevin Rocci began a decade of teaching and tutoring with the <a href=\"https:\/\/catalog.ucsc.edu\/en\/Current\/General-Catalog\/Academic-Units\/The-Colleges\/Stevenson-College\" rel=\"noopener\">Stevenson College Junior Fellow and Writing Assistance programs<\/a>. He has worked with adults and kids, tutoring the GRE, GMAT, and SAT at <a href=\"https:\/\/kaplan.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Kaplan<\/a> and teaching English as a Second Language in the <a href=\"http:\/\/jetprogramme.org\/en\/\" rel=\"noopener\">JET Programme<\/a> and at the <a href=\"https:\/\/iicesl.org\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Intercultural Institute of California<\/a>. At Magoosh, he expanded beyond teaching, building and managing teams, like Student Help and Content. When he's not Magooshing, you can find him spinning his toddler in circles. Connect with him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/kevinrocci\/\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kevinrocci\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5084"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}