With the first SimCET behind us, we need to look at the process of analyzing a SimCET. Most of the times, aspirants simply take the test and the performance is not analyzed critically. They simply look at the score, feel happy/sad if it’s better/worse than their earlier score. This leads to a situation where the student knows where he/she stands, but doesn’t know what went wrong and how to get to the next level. This post will dissect the process of SimCET analysis and help you derive the maximum benefit from the entire exercise.

Once you’re done with a full-length test, generally you’ll be exhausted to solve anything immediately. So, take a break for some time and do not solve anything. Make a note (preferably written notes) of what went wrong. It could be something like this: Changed my section attempt order and could not keep a track of time or Spent unreasonable amount of time on one LR set based on arrangements or it could simply be I panicked midway because the attempts weren’t as per my expectations.

After you’ve settled, look at your mock score (let’s call it ‘A’) and also note your total attempts. Go through the questions that you could not attempt, and try to solve them (with or without any time limit). The idea is to figure out two things from here:

1. Questions that you could have solved but couldn’t due to time constraints
2. Understand issues (if any) with respect to question selection

Once you’ve completed this exercise, calculate how much you scored from these questions (let’s call it ‘B’). Add ‘A’ and ‘B’. What you have now is your potential score based on current level of preparation. Over the course of subsequent SimCETs and analysis of those SimCETs, your aim is to increase A and reduce the gap between A and B, ensuring that you perform at the optimum level, in line with your level of preparation.

This completes your first step. You know what went wrong and what could have been corrected. The next step is to get into specific sections. Go through each of the sections, and note down your attempts and accuracy. Pay attention to the average time taken per question and marks per minute. These data points (available in the Performance Analysis section of myIMS) are extremely critical. The average time taken per question should be as low as possible (under 1 min) and marks per minute should be as high as possible (above 1). This ensures that you’re gaining marks at a faster rate, which will save some crucial minutes that can be used for difficult and lengthy question types.

The next step is the most time consuming yet the most rewarding. Go through all the questions (1 to 200) and answers. From analysis perspective, pay attention to:

Set 1: Questions that you had no clue about. This includes new concepts, new question types, unknown/unseen logic, etc.
Set 2: Questions that you solved incorrectly due to silly mistakes or conceptual gaps or any other reason.
Set 3: Questions that you solved in a better/faster manner compared to the official solution.
Set 4: Questions that you solved correctly but had a longer method to arrive at the answer than the official solution.

Set 1 and some part of Set 4 will be added to a formula/concept book. Start maintaining this book which will be a repository of all the formulas and concepts that you come across over the next few months. Set 2 goes to an Error log where you note down all your mistakes.

And finally, identify the question types that are pulling you down. If it is arrangements, solve more arrangement questions before your next test. If it is grammar, go through all the grammar rules and practice more grammar questions before your next test. SimCETs and content improvement must go together. Without dedicated effort at improving the content and fixing strategy gaps, there won’t be significant improvement in the mock score.

For a 150 minutes mock, the analysis will take nearly double the time. And that’s worth the effort. The insights that you will gather from viewing your own performance (objectively) will make you realize that there is a huge scope for improvement. That’s what great athletes do. They record their own performances and watch those videos again and again, make notes and get feedback, watch performances of other great athletes, and fix their technique. In a similar manner, if you do this exercise for every single mock, you will be in a much better control of the outcome.

I hope this helps! If there are any queries, please leave them in the comments below and allow me a few days to get back. Share this with your friends and co-aspirants. Happy prepping! 🙂