Year 11 mock exams

[Flyhigher]

Do most state schools do mocks for year 11 in December?
Ours does and I think it's awful. January is much better giving them time to revise over Xmas.
What you most schools do?
Is dec or Jan better for mocks in your view?
What do 6th form colleges do? Dec or Jan? Thanks!

My son starts his in the first week of Dec and then there is a second set in March.

IMO it's better to have them before the Xmas break (my DD had hers the first week back in Jan), so that they can have a break over Christmas before the final push to the real exams. Otherwise they just work solidly from now until June (if they are conscientious) and I don't think it's good for them!

I'm a teacher.

We do Nov/Dec, then another set in March.

I don't know if there's an ideal time, but this works for us.

Ds had some in June (year 10), they've recently done in lesson assessments which will give the predicted grades for college applications, and then another round of mocks in Feb.

Teacher in a core subject here. We had mocks in October (one exam) , again at end of November/December spanning 3 weeks (3 exams) , then again in March ( 4 exams). No we aren’t happy with the amount and would rather there be two sessions. It completely disrupts the timetable and reduces teaching time. Is incredibly intense for students as so many exams over a short duration of time. But, we are a high achieving state school. We’ve made our views clear but the powers that be have the ultimate decision…

Dc's school did year 11 November mocks with results in before Christmas and then February but the end of February so they had half term to revise over. I actually like the two sets as it gets them into the routine of revision right from the start of year 11 rather than later.

Sixth form, year 12 exams were immediately after May half term as they had half term week plus the week before as study leave. Year 13 mocks are 27th November with a 2 week study leave whilst they are on not before.

It would be cruel to do them after the holiday. Lots of parents don't value education that much and would actively stop their child working or make them feel guilty about it. Most families do lots of socials and visits so the hols fly faster than any other. And this is their last break without revision if they care about their gcses, maybe Feb ht but I'd expect some finalisation of revision plans then.

"Cruel"?

Our school do their only set of mocks as soon as they get back in January. I hate it because it means that they don't get the rest and recovery they need before heading into a full on term prior to the exams. The NEED to be able to have this down time and enjoy the Christmas break.

Exactly, and many parents book in lots at Xmas so they can't just not go.

Our year 11s are sitting their maths GSCSEs atm so no mocks yet.

That's extremely risky, ucas usually consider only those taken at the same time. Hence pretty much all schools stopping early entry apart from extra subjects that don't count towards the ebacc like re.
To do maths out of sync is very risky.
The rationale is their marks reflect at least 8 subjects studied and revised for at the same time, or we could all just stagger them and get higher marks.

They do three lots of GCSE mocks at my son's school. They are in July of Y10, late October and February.

Gosh, this is the first I’ve heard about two sets of locks. DS is in y11 and they have mocks just after they go back to school in January. Then the exams in May/June. He is in an independent school in the south east.

English x 2 is 40% coursework, but I think they’re the only GCSEs with a coursework element. I don’t know if this is at all relevant?

Same in our area. My son's mocks were/are last week and this week. He gets the results on 8th December and will then use these to apply for sixth form colleges.

They also do Mocks in late Feb/March as a check to make sure they are all on track for the actual exams in May/June.

It does feel as though year 11 mainly revolves around revision though. Not much time to fit in new content.

They do English Lit in year 10 too. The top 2 sets do the first half of maths in the summer of year 10 and the second half now. The top ones will go on to do additional maths in the summer of year 11. All being well ds will achieve 11 GCSEs and the add. maths.

We’re in Wales if that makes a difference so we still have AS levels for unis to look at.

@ThinkingAgainAndAgain quite a few subjects still retain a "coursework" element but it is now "rebranded" as NEA (non-exam assessment). Music is 60% NEA. We set internal deadlines for this, supposedly to allow time for marking, internal moderation and giving students the raw marks so they can appeal the process in time for them to be uploaded to the exam board by 5th May. To be fair to our y11 group, a couple of them have completed their performances and they have all done one of their compositions, with most having drafts of their 2nd. I guarantee I will be chasing copies of music and signed candidate forms after Easter...!

Yes Wales is a very different system all round!

I’m Welsh, but living in England. I have lots of family members back in wales so I hear about how their children are doing, and I notice big differences between how A levels are assessed.

I think a levels in wales are largely modular, and I think therefore students have more certainty as to what they’ll get on results day, and that they can ‘redo’ parts of the coursework they’ve done over the two years. All of the A levels that DS (we are in England) is looking at are 100% exam at the end of the second year.

I think the Welsh approach is better, it would definitely suit DS more.

DD (year 11) did statistics GCSE in July and started 2 weeks of mocks today.
6th form applications in December.

@ThinkingAgainAndAgain my older DS did Eng Lit A level and they have two pieces of coursework which are part of the overall A level mark, there a few subjects left that aren’t ‘entirely’ exam based but it’s definitely heading that way.

@JustHereWithMyPumpkin that sounds good. I think it depends on exam board, DS’ school seems to favour 100% exam at the end of the second year assessment in the A level subjects that DS is interested in.

DD’s mocks are in early Jan, but she already has her predicted grades based on Y10 exams and some top-up testing at the very beginning of Y11.