As teachers, we’ve seen it hundreds of times: a student diligently takes practice tests once—sometimes twice—weekly, and finds him- or herself tripping up on the same concepts every time.  Not the same broad content areas, like Geometry or Sentence Correction, but the same specific tricks, like the side ratios of 30-60-90 triangles or the application of the past perfect tense.  There is a simple prescription for this ailment: read your explanations!

The explanations given along with each sample question in a student’s test prep material contain the most useful lessons and most explicit feedback in the battery of information that results from a practice test.  Having every single question solved in the most accurate and timely way is an invaluable resource!  And the explanations in the new 2010 GMAT course revision are better than ever: Kaplan has enlisted its best GMAT instructors from across the country to comb through the entire CAT pool (over 3000 questions!) and revise every explanation to take a student step-by-step through the appropriate methods and strategies.  Every confusing Quantitative question stem is translated to its corresponding equation, every Critical Reasoning stimulus is properly untangled, and every point-boosting and time-saving strategy is meticulously detailed.

So remember that your practice test doesn’t end after you confirm your answer for Question 41 of the Verbal section.  Take time to read through the explanations for all the questions that led you to the wrong answer choice or took you more than a couple minutes to solve; even take a glance at the questions you got right, to make sure you didn’t just make a lucky guess or pass up a method that would have saved you some precious time!  Then, take the lessons you’ve learned and apply them on your remaining practice tests, and, most importantly, on Test Day.  Your score will thank you for it!