This article presents a critical discussion of the repercussion of overshooting effects on element tests and finite-element simulations. For exemplification purposes, three advanced constitutive models for sands that had already achieved a certain level of accuracy in the simulation of monotonic and cyclic loading were carefully selected; namely, a bounding surface plasticity model, a hypoplastic model with intergranular strain, and a hypoplastic model with elastoplastic anisotropic intergranular strain. Cyclic loading laboratory data and scale tests on Karlsruhe fine sand were considered to support the analyses. The obtained results suggest that the overshooting issue is one of the most serious limitations of the selected models and has a major impact on elemental and finite-element simulations. Therefore, models' end-users should be aware of this drawback when performing simulations under certain conditions involving unloading–reloading episodes with different strain amplitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]