Hi takethetest,

I’m glad you reached out, and I’m happy to help. So, 165 is an awesome start. Regarding your careless errors, the real question you should ask is WHY you are making silly mistakes on the GRE. The reality is that there are a multitude of reasons why you may be making silly mistakes. Those reasons range from not reading carefully to messy writing to making mental math mistakes to feeling nervous. In fact, I wrote an article that discusses [url=(https://gre.blog.targettestprep.com/imp ... -accuracy/]those and more causes of careless errors and how to fix those issues[/url].

While it’s quite possible that your careless errors are due to some of the reasons I’ve already mentioned, it’s also entirely possible that your careless errors are due, in some part, to a relative lack of GRE quant knowledge. Yes, you have been scoring extremely well on practice exams; however, on the GRE you must answer difficult and convoluted math questions in a timed and pressure-filled environment, so if you don’t know GRE quant like the back of your hand, careless errors are likely, right? Take the following example:

14! is equal to which of the following?

(A) 87,178,291,200
(B) 88,180,293,207
(C) 89,181,294,209
(D) 90,000,000,003
(E) 91,114,114,114

Upon seeing this question, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Grabbing a calculator to add up the values in the expression? If you are able to quickly recognize that using the “5 x 2 pair rule” will allow you to attack the problem quickly and efficiently (see the solution below), the question becomes very basic, and you can avoid having to perform tedious calculations that are likely to result in a silly mistake.

Solution:

Notice that there is at least one (5 × 2) pair contained in the product of these numbers. It follows that the units digit must be a zero. The only number with zero as the units digit is 87,178,291,200.

Answer: A

This is just one example, but hopefully you can see that by a) recognizing what the question is asking and b) properly attacking the question, your propensity to make a silly mistake greatly decreases.

Feel free to reach out with any further questions.

Good luck!

Hello from the GRE Prep Club BumpBot!

Thanks to another GRE Prep Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.