Stuck at the same English exam score? Stop taking practice tests.
Updated: Sep 17
Practice test.
Check score.
Feel disappointed.
Take another practice test.
Sound familiar?
Maybe you're getting roughly the same score every time. Perhaps you're just a few points away from your target. Maybe you're further away than you'd like.
So what do you do?
Another practice test, of course.
And then another.
But if your score isn't changing, doing more tests isn't necessarily the answer.
The better question is:
Why are you losing the marks?
Once you know that, you can stop practising randomly and start working on the things that could actually move your score.
1. Look for patterns in your mistakes
Start with the questions you got wrong.
Are you making the same kinds of mistakes again and again?
grammar
word formation
collocations
phrasal verbs
vocabulary
understanding words in context
You don't need to fix everything at once.
In fact, trying to improve everything at the same time is a good way to make studying feel overwhelming.
Instead, look for patterns.
If you keep getting questions involving the same grammar point wrong, that's useful information.
Your mistakes are telling you where to focus.
They're not just mistakes. They're data.
2. Find out what's dragging your score down
Your overall score doesn't tell you everything.
You might be doing well in most parts of the exam but consistently losing marks in one particular task or section.
Perhaps:
your reading is strong, but one question type keeps catching you out;
your listening is fine until the final section;
your writing is good overall, but accuracy is costing you marks;
you know plenty of vocabulary, but struggle to choose the right word in context.
So don't just record your final score.
Look underneath it.
Which parts are costing you the most marks?
If one task is consistently causing problems, focused practice on that task may be far more useful than another complete test.
3. Check whether it's your English — or your exam technique
Not every wrong answer means you have a language problem.
Sometimes you know the English but still lose the mark.
Maybe you:
spend too long on one difficult question;
don't read the question carefully enough;
change a correct answer;
miss information that could help you in the question;
choose an answer without first eliminating the ones you know are wrong;
run out of time at the end.
That's a different problem from not knowing a word or grammar rule.
And it needs a different solution.
Good exam technique isn't about learning hundreds of clever tricks.
It's about making better decisions consistently.
4. Diagnose every mistake
This is where a practice test becomes much more useful.
When you check your answers, don't just look at the correct answer and move on.
Ask:
Why did I get this wrong?
A simple way to do this is to put every mistake into one of four categories:
Type | What happened? |
Language | I didn't know the word, grammar or expression. |
Task | I didn't understand what the question was asking. |
Strategy | I knew the English, but approached the question badly. |
Accuracy | I knew the answer but made an avoidable mistake. |
Now your score starts telling you something useful.
Imagine you get ten questions wrong.
If seven are language problems, you need more language work.
If six are strategy or accuracy problems, doing more vocabulary exercises probably isn't going to fix them.
Your score tells you that there's a problem. Your mistakes tell you what the problem is.
So what should you do before your next test?
Don't immediately start another one.
Try this instead:
1. Review
Go back through your last practice test.
2. Diagnose
Categorise your mistakes:
Language · Task · Strategy · Accuracy
3. Spot the patterns
Identify the mistakes you make repeatedly.
4. Pick your priorities
Choose one or two things to work on.
5. Practise with a purpose
Do focused practice on those areas.
6. Test again
Take another practice test and see what has changed.
Now you're not just practising.
You're checking whether your practice is working.
Don't practise the test. Practise what you're getting wrong.
Practice tests are useful.
They help you understand the format, practise under time pressure and see how you're progressing.
But they're also diagnostic tools.
If you only use them to get a score, you're missing half the point.
Instead, use each test to answer a more useful question:
Where am I losing marks — and why?
Once you know that, you have something you can actually work on.
And that's the shift from doing more practice to doing better practice.
It can feel like you're running on a treadmill: lots of effort, lots of practice, but you're still ending up in the same place. The problem isn't necessarily that you need to work harder. You need to know what to change.
If you want help working out what, book a free Exam Strategy Session with Doable.
We'll look at where you are, where you want to get to, and what to focus on next.
No pressure. Just a clear game plan.
Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/hKPtAx652M4
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