GCSE Mocks - How Accurate Are They?

[ShellingPeasAgain]

Just that really. So if your DC did really well in mocks did it follow through to A level results or did they then decide to piss about and not do so well; or if they did badly did they pull it together and achieve good grades or not do so well.

I've read on other threads that schools mark harshly for mocks. Is that the case? Would be grateful for a teacher's input in this.

Just to add, teachers' input for marking not the rest.

A lot of teachers also mark the real exams so are programmed to stick with marking scheme! Mocks (in my experience as a secondary teacher of 2 GCSE subjects) tend to be graded lower as students only do limited if any revision so it is often a wake up call for them. For teachers it is also a useful exercise as it is very clear what areas students are really struggling with and we need to cover again.

If your DC has achieved lower than target, use it as an example of what will happen if they don't get organised, don't revise properly (I have also found that looking at entry requirements for courses, jobs etc if they achieve their mock grades in the summer a useful tool .

If your DC achieved target or higher, then use it as a motivator "see what you can do; imagine with revision, harder work what you can achieve"; again entry requirements for college, uni etc helps

V interested in this - thanks Shell! DS1 has just finished his gcse mocks (eternally grateful for that small mercy!), so breath is bated to see how he's done/what more he has to do to do himself justice!

DD failed most of her GCSE mocks.

She got 8 A*s in the real thing, good A levels and is at her first choice university.

DS is hoping they're all accurate apart from Latin literature :)

I marked exactly according to the mark scheme (external marker) but I did set my grade boundaries a little higher (5%) than the real thing.

I expect students to come up at least 1 grade by the real exams when they realise they need to do some revision.

We would find that students usually improve by 10% between the mock and the real thing, which in my subject was worth just over a grade. This was a pretty consistent finding year on year.

I agree with an earlier poster that students often do very limited, if any revision for mocks. But this will actually impact on the real thing. If students were regularly revising throughout the course they would have a much more secure knowledge of the material.

Students will often, however, try to emphasise that they did no work for the mocks and will do so much more for the real thing. But (i) leopards rarely change their spots and (ii) after the mock there isn't usually that much time to effect a huge change.

There will always be exceptions to any generalisation - students that improve vastly beyond expectations.

Oh and re marking harshly for mocks I think there are cases of this, cases of marking generously to encourage students and probably mostly cases of marking accurately to the mark scheme.

I hope your dc has done well in mocks and keeps focused for the real things!!

I remember getting 28% in English and 18% in English O Levels many years ago having done nothing and turning that into two As come the real thing.

Not that I have told that to DS1 who revised quite hard for his mocks and looks to be getting mainly As and A*s with a B and a C in the mix also.

ds1 did very well in GCSE mocks, all A*s for the actuals, did very well at AS level, currently has very high predictions for his A Levels and just got an offer from Oxford.

Decent mock grades didn't cause him to become complacent.