Mock exams

The whole point of mocks is to have a crack at a full exam paper. In some subjects it doesn't work to do a whole paper until you've done a certain amount of the syllabus. It might be helpful revision for your DD to go through each subject and list the topics she's studied and how secure she is on each one, then she'll have a revision list, ta daaa!

My son has used howtorevisemaths.co.uk - Lots of past GCSE papers with answers and tutorials. It really helped him with his revision and his confidence.

I do think it's good for students to experience exams as they would actually run before sitting external exams- that's why a set of mocks is important.

It's not important to do this every year of KS4. Many schools can't/don't do this as it would tie up resources like the sports hall/library etc for too long each summer. I promise, the students manage. This was true prior to covid as well!

Not using any past paper questions to assess students in Y11 is unusual to the point of being bizarre, and I would definitely query this, though.

I'm not sure that not sitting an exam under exam conditions prior to mocks is really a "shitty arrangement" (and it's the norm in many schools even when we don't have Covid as PPs have said).

I was trying to point out that not doing this is really not the disaster you seem to be making it. Most children will cope fine. Your school may even have 2 sets of mocks, so 2 sets of doing this prior to actual GCSEs.

Actually mocks are not a very good example of real GCSEs anyway IMO. They tend to be concatenated into a week or so, rather than very spread out. You will often have 1 paper for a subject rather than the 2 (or more) that you'd expect in the actual exam. They will generally be part of the school day, so around other lessons, rather than students just coming in for the exam. And GCSE mocks may be separate to mocks for other years, so there's only 1 subject in the hall at a time, rather than students having to cope with multiple older students taking AS/A Levels/Level 3 BTECs at the same time. and if like my DC's school they will actually get all of the right papers and any accompanying booklets etc out for mocks and start them on time, unlike the real thing

You give them questions all the way through to prepare them. The OP is concerned that they haven't even done this.

Are they not even learning exam technique? It's such a big part of answering the questions - knowing what the examiner is looking for.

There are some really good things on youtube to help as well. Check out Mr Salles for English ds found him very useful and got 8/9 for lit and lang. There are other teachers on there going through maths/science papers etc and even the whole syllabus.

No, you start to assess them from early on in the course

Of course you do.
But not with mock exams.

My ds 15 did Mock Mocks!!! That was in July and they have their official mocks end of November. He's also brought home a chemistry paper recently to be done at home.

They WILL have done exam questions in class. Every assessment my dept sets at ks4 is a past exam question. Most schools do not start "in hall mocks" until y11 - they will be fine.

You can download past papers from the exam board websites if you would like to go through them at home, but I would say not having set a full set of exams at this point is pretty normal.

What do you mean they've never sat any exams 'due to covid'?

The first lockdown affected external exams of y11 of 19-20, and the in school assessments were for y11 of 20-21, which is not your child. Last year's cohort sat exams. Her year group wouldn't have had exams yet even if covid had never happened.

There's 'mock' and 'mock'.

I personally think of 'mocks' as set of exams in every subject held over a week or 2 under proper exam conditions, using real exam papers towards the end of the course. With things like 'end y10 exams' maybe being similar but also sometimes being made up papers based on topics so far taught.

Other people seem to call 'end y10' exams, mocks, plus any other formal test from the start of y10.

Either way it would be highly unusual for a school to not do any practice questions until half way through y11.

No, you start to assess them from early on in the course. You prepare them for questions as you go through the lessons and work on skills builders.
They need constant preparation and interleaving. This is all most strange.

(Sorry!)

They can use as evidence in case of covid/lockdowns etc. And to have nothing? In any of the subjects?

But as a teacher I'd really want you to email in if you're concerned. You sound supportive- which is the dream in a parent. I'd want you hear from you.

OP, that can't be right. The school would have to be insane, and s little weird. Data tracking at GCSE is off the scale at the moment, because of covid risks. They must be having to have

Mock exams are meant to prepare students for the actual exam and give an indication of what they need to work on. That’s why most of the material has to be covered before mocks. This is far too early for that. As others have said, the course is still being delivered. The best thing at this stage is for students to pay attention and work in class and do homework, making a note of what they find difficult and seeking help/clarification from the teacher.

If your DD wants to, she could schedule some time at weekends or on evenings when she doesn’t have a lot of homework and work systematically through the revision book(s).

My DD did her first round of mocks before the end of yr 10.
Next round starts the first day back after half term and then another round in March!

I'd try and get your DD to find some past papers from somewhere if she's not done any. The more practice the better. My DD is predicted 8/9's across the board but she's one of those who excels in the classroom but falls apart in exams so I'm really glad they're doing so many mocks, it will hopefully make the real things less stressful!

DD's school did exams in the hall from y9 at least for core subjects.
I think it is a really important part of exam prep to get used to the environment and doing thing fully under 'exam conditions'. Even basic things like following rules on phones, watches, pencil cases.

Most students don't sit any exams in the hall until Y11 mocks, even in normal years. I know some schools do full exams in an exam hall environment at the end of each year, but many don't due to lack of space.

I wouldn't be worried about this, unless she's unusually anxious, she'll be fine!

I would be worried about the lack of practice of exam technique, though.

There are lots of revision websites where she can find past paper questions/past paper style questions- if they haven't covered the whole course yet, these are often organised by topic, so she can practice the topics she is familiar with, and check markschemes. In general, I think this sort of practice is really worthwhile, as it gets them used to what examiners are looking for.

Are you sure the in class tests don't use past paper questions? It's a lot of work for teachers to write questions from scratch.

I think actual mocks in January when courses are finished or nearly finished are fine. I'd consider her having a go at some full past papers between now and then to work on timing etc, too. I wouldn't force it if she's not keen, but if she is, as others have said you can get past papers for free from the exam board websites.

That happened to every single student last year.
They all coped.

Physicsandmathstutor.com is excellent for past paper questions. They are available in banks of questions by topic in many subjects. It is not just physics and maths! This is just how it started but has become ultra popular and has extended out its subjects. Doing banks of biology questions by topic, for example, gets them used to the key words that get the mark. DC should do a question then mark it in a different colour and make sure they write on the way to get the marks if they didn't get them. Then do the next one on the topic. They will soon memorise the key words that get the mark if they weren't using them originally.

Also it is odd if they haven't done anything on exam questions, my Year 10 class did a walking talking mock on Thursday and we start looking at the style of exam questions in Year 7.