Keeping an error log that actually changes your scores

You made the same mistake in Write from Dictation three times this week, and you could not say what it was. That is the gap an error log fills. A log will not lift your score by itself, but it turns "I keep getting these wrong" into a short list you can act on.

What to write down

Keep five fields for every entry:

• Task: where it happened, for example Read Aloud or Reading Fill in the Blanks.
• Error: what went wrong, using the actual words if you can.
• Type: one of four labels, explained below.
• Cause: why it happened. Did you not know it, know it and rush, misread the instruction, or tire late in the session?
• Fix and redo date: one concrete action, and a day within the next three when you will try again.

Four labels are enough for the type. Content covers a missed point, a misread instruction or an answer to the wrong question. Language covers grammar, word choice and spelling. Sound covers pronunciation, stress, pauses and restarts. Process covers running out of time, slow typing and lost focus.

The cause is the field people skip, and it matters most. A gap in knowledge needs study. A habit of rushing needs slower practice. A misread instruction needs a checking routine. If you record only the error, you will give all three the same treatment.

Three sample entries

These are made up for illustration. Each one is a single entry in the log.

Look at the fixes. Each one is small and specific, and none of them says "be more careful".

Keep three errors active

After a week you may have fifteen or twenty entries, which is too many to work on at once. On Sunday, put a tick beside every entry that happened again. The three with the most ticks are next week's drills. Everything else stays in the log and waits its turn.

A tally might read: missing endings in dictation, four ticks; "number of" agreement, three; the pause when comparing bars, two; a misread instruction in Reading, one. The first three become next week's drills, and the misread instruction waits.

Turn each active error into something you can do in five minutes a day. For the endings, that is a handful of short dictation sentences, typed and then checked ending by ending. For the "number of" mistake, it is ten sentences with long subjects and the verb checked against the first noun. For the comparison pause, it is describing three charts aloud, using one new phrase on each. Three drills of five minutes fit into most evenings. Fifteen errors do not.

When an error stays away through two mocks in a row, retire it and promote the next one. If one keeps coming back, change the drill, because the first one was not working. Using mock tests well shows where the log fits in the review after a full mock.

Paper or spreadsheet

Paper is quick, and copying the mistaken sentence by hand makes you look at it properly. It is hard to count and search. A spreadsheet sorts and tallies easily and shows patterns at a glance, but only helps if you open it. Choose the one you will actually fill in. A good compromise is to scribble on paper during practice and type the week's entries into a spreadsheet on Sunday, which doubles as your weekly review.

Start with one page tonight. Take your last practice result, pick the three errors that annoyed you most and write each up with all five fields. The practice tests on this site give AI-estimated feedback that makes useful raw material for the log.