I often look at my mistakes and think: “Ugh. That was dumb!”.

Quite common, no? 

I have started looking at mistakes from a different lens now, though.

I’ll explain with an example from cricket. Hope you’re familiar enough with the sport to understand.

I was watching the highlights of an IPL match, and a batsman got out on a ‘reckless’ shot. No timing, no footwork. My reaction was: “What a bad shot!”. Then I noticed at the bottom of the screen that it was the 5th ball of the over. They had scored 1 run in the last 4 balls. The batsman himself had faced 3 consecutive balls without scoring anything. They were chasing a 200+ target and were falling behind on the required run rate. With all that context his shot made more sense to me. 

• Perhaps he didn’t want to let the required run rate slip more. 
• Perhaps he felt responsible for not scoring on the last 3 balls. 
• Perhaps he decided that it is better to get out trying than to not try at all. 
• Perhaps he decided that at this moment he needs to be somewhat reckless. 

If that same batsman sits down later to analyze his game and just tells himself, “I need to stop playing reckless shots. I need to work on my timing and footwork.”, that misses the whole point.

But if he digs deeper – asks why he played that shot – he might realize, “Ah, I panicked because I hadn’t scored yet. I should work on how to deal with pressure, and how to avoid creating a pressured situation in the first place. e.g. If you don’t find a ball suitable to score big, within 1 or 2 balls, take a single and rotate the strike.” 

That’s a better takeaway. That’s an insight with teeth.

Nothing to do with the technique of batting. All about match awareness and mindset.

I make the same mistake in my life a lot too. I too often focus only on the specific mistake. I often do not think deeper to figure out the context – why I did what I did?

And this … this is exactly what happens during GMAT prep too.

When you’re reviewing your practice tests, it’s tempting to just list what went wrong:

• “I misread the question.”
• “I made a silly mistake.”
• “I rushed.”
• “I panicked.”
• “I forgot a formula.”
• ”I solved for the wrong variable.”

It sounds like analysis. But it’s not.

Because without the context, you’re only looking at the symptom, not the root cause.

Take “rushing” for example.

No one sits down and decides, “Let me solve this as quickly and sloppily as possible.”

Rushing is almost always a reaction – to time pressure, to overconfidence, to anxiety, to a question that feels easy.

It doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in context.

And it’s the same for other errors.

Misread a question? Maybe your brain was fatigued. Or you assumed you knew what it was asking based on a familiar phrase.

Forgot a formula? Maybe you were overwhelmed by the setup and mentally shut down.

(Side note: Sometimes the issue starts with misidentifying the mistake in the first place. Did you truly forget the formula? Or, did you not realise that the formula could be applied in the given question? Two different things with different actionables.)

Without the context, you might try to work on the wrong problem, or just hope that the problem will go away in time – e.g. as many people treat silly mistakes (My Quora answer to: How can I avoid silly mistakes in exams?). It is like trying to fix the output without understanding the input.

I’ll share another example.

A few years ago, I’d just bought this book – GMAT Advanced. I was excited to dive in. That night, I tried three Critical Reasoning questions and got all of them wrong. Worse, I did not feel clear about multiple options in each question. That threw me. Usually, CR is a strength.

I thought: “Wow, this book is brutal. GMAT Advanced is really that – advanced! I need to work to improve my CR.”

I tried those same three questions again the next morning. And guess what? They felt like a piece cake. Easy. I breezed through them. Clear about why each of the wrong answer choice was wrong. Clear about why the correct answers were correct. 

So was the issue my CR ability? Nope. I was exhausted the previous night. I did not realize this in the moment. Mental fatique doesn’t manifest with sweat. It starts in subtler ways – misreading, misunderstanding, etc. That night, any question might’ve felt hard.

How to use this information?

For every mistake, 

• Step 0: What exact mistake did I make?
• Step 1: Why did I make that mistake?
• Step 2: What can I do to avoid making such mistakes in the future?

Let me illustrate with a couple of examples.

Example 1:

What mistake did I make? They asked for the price of one apple. I stopped one step short and marked the price of one banana instead.

Superficial actionable: I should be more careful in reading what they are asking for. 

Why did I make that mistake? I had taken the price of a banana as x. And I’m so used to solving for x that when I got its value, I thought I was done.

How can I avoid this mistake in the future? Either take x as the value I need, or clearly write something like “x + 0.5 = ?” and circle it—so I don’t forget what I’m solving for. A more focussed actionable.

Example 2:

What mistake did I make? I misread a statement. It said 20% of students who study history are science majors. I read it as 20% of all students study both.

Why did I make that mistake? Superficial answer – I rushed.

Deeper answer – I may have felt I was doing fine and didn’t slow down. Or, I typically assume percentages are simply parts of the whole set, and not part of a part. Or I was mentally switched off because the section wasn’t going well and I was subconsciously thinking, “What’s the point?”

How can I avoid this mistake in the future? Every time I come across percentages, fractions or phrases like ‘some of’, ‘most of’, etc, I’ll ensure I understand what does the part represent and the what does the whole represent. E.g. 20% of students who study history – what does the 20% represent? And 20% of what? What does the whole represent?

Careless mistakes do not occur in a vaccuum.

Mistakes, superficial fixes, and the context

Common Mistake	Typical takeaway	What ‘Why?’ might reveal (Context)
Rushed through a question	“I need to slow down.”	Felt overconfident because the question looked familiar; trying to make up time after falling behind earlier.
Misread the question stem	“I should read more carefully.”	Mentally switched off after struggling with previous questions; emotionally disengaged.
Missed a constraint	“I need to double-check all conditions.”	Believed I had solved similar questions before; skipped reprocessing the details.
Picked the trap answer	“I need to avoid obvious-looking options.”	Fatigue led to loss of sharpness; didn’t pause to cross-check assumptions.
Forgot a formula	“I should revise formulas more often.”	Stress blanked my recall; hadn’t practiced applying the formula in varied contexts.
Solved for the wrong variable	“I need to underline what’s being asked.”	Defaulted to solving for x because I always do that; didn’t pause to reframe what the question wanted.
Misclicked the answer	“I need to double-check before submitting.”	Time pressure + panic in the last few seconds; motor response rushed the click.
Gave up on a hard question	“I need to build stamina.”	Internal dialogue said, “I’m not good at this type”; confidence issue masked as a logic gap.

How to Handle GMAT Mistakes More Intelligently

1. Don’t just label mistakes – diagnose the trigger.
   Ask: Why did I make this error? You might need to follow that up with multiple why’s.
2. Find ways that can help you avoid such mistakes in the future. 
   The fixes can vary. It could be about changing your process, revising some concept, understanding how the mind works and thinking beforehand about what the right way should be to react in a certain situation. 
   e.g. What should I do if I have 3 questions left in a test with 3 minutes on the clock? Devise such scenarios and think about what the ideal way to handle should be. For this scenario, I would first click random answers on all 3 questions and complete the test. Then I’d come back from the review screen and try the easiest of the 3 first. If time permits, I’d try a second one too. Doing this would help me deal with the anxiety I feel when I know that I might not even complete the section (that attracts a severe penalty).

Try it when next time you practice questions.

Don’t just focus on the symptom. Try to understand the root cause.

That’s where the real learning is.