make a mistake
idiom.idiom. To do something incorrectly or get something wrong.
idiom. To perform an action incorrectly or produce an erroneous result. This is a common delexical verb construction where 'make' verbalizes the noun 'mistake'.
Everyone makes a mistake sometimes.
I made a mistake on the form and had to fill it out again.
The pilot made a mistake in his calculations, a small error with potentially catastrophic consequences for the flight.
The verb 'make' is the fixed collocation; 'do a mistake' is a common learner error.
Drill this as a fixed chunk, contrasting it with 'do your best' or 'do a good job' to highlight the arbitrary nature of make/do collocations.
I did a mistake on my test.I made a mistake on my test.The correct verb to use with 'mistake' is 'make', not 'do'.