Mock results

[namechangedforthis1980]

Hi all

Is there a way to know if a child's yr 10 mock results mean they're on track to reach their predicted final GCSE grade?

So for instance if a child achieved a 5 in their mocks, would an 8 be realistic in 12 months time?

Or is it not possible to predict that?

Thanks

That’s a big gap to make up. Not impossible, of course not, but a lot of hard work and commitment required.
Our mocks and the current IGCSEs were only a term apart and the predicted final grades are pretty much in line with the mock results.

(Isn’t it unusual to take mocks and finals so far apart?)

My children's school have mocks in year 10 and 11.

The expectation was different for each subject. Maths was happy for a grade 4/5 for those aiming for grade 7/8. Science expected higher, I think.

@Langrish , thanks. DS's school do 3 sets of mocks . So now, nov and February!

Thanks @ZuttZeVootEeeVro . It's the Maths mock that's thrown me a little . He achieved a 5+ and is predicted a level 8 next year. Maths is definitely his strongest subject but one of his lowest results

I'm really pleased with his results, but as he's hoping to do double Maths A level I'm concerned he's going to struggle to get the level 7 that he needs to get a place

I am probably doing him a bit of injustice though as he was really ill the day of one of his maths exams , which may have knocked his result a bit

There are a few posters calling Year 10 exams "mocks" when really they are just end of year exams, like any other end of year exams and I would suggest that the results of those really aren't relevant to predicted grades. The "real" mocks tend to happen either at the end of the Autumn Term, or start of Spring Term, depending on how much of the curriculum has been covered. Even then, most schools will still be teaching right up to the Easter holidays.

The later mocks therefore are a better indicator of where each child is at. An example would be my DD, who went from a 5/6 in mid Autumn to 8/9 by the time proper mocks were sat.

So to answer your question in two ways, Year 10 mocks are not a reliable indicator of final predictions, but yes, DC's can move grades very quickly over a couple of terms in Year 11.

We typically do a year 10 mock doing one paper, then y11 mock exam is the other paper.

2 grades under target is typical in year 10 if the student is working well. 1 grade under in y11 mocks, usually done between November and January, (if working well) and then target grade or higher in the summer of year 11.

For some students they are 2 grades under at year 11 mocks and they work brilliantly and close the gap.

Each student learns at a different pace and information clicks at different times. I think attitude to learning over time, quality of class work and whether they put effort into their homework is a better indicator of y11 performance than mocks.

No mocks here either, just end of year 10 exams .

For some inexplicable reason my son’s school has started calling year 10 exams mocks too whereas Dd (who took the real thing last year) just called them end of year exams.

Your question is a bit how long is a piece of string? It partly depends on exactly what the school have used for these exams. For example in food tech ds’s school used last years paper in its entirely despite not having yet covered the whole course so Grades were very low. In English they’ve done a poetry & 1 set text paper, in science they might have sat Paper 1 only which covers only certain topics. Or in some subjects the exams are made up by the teacher or an exam board Year 10 set paper.

Grade boundaries they could work out from last year if they’ve used last year’s papers but even if they’ve covered the content they won’t have covered the exam technique.

Last year in her January mocks Dd got mostly 6’s and 7,s (except physics where the teacher wildly under predicted). She cane out with mostly 8,s with one 6, 7 & 2 9’s thrown in.

Just noticed your school is doing this daft plus and minus thing too.

Can you get hold of the actual paper your Ds sat and see what it’s comprised of? Then you can compare it to topics covered and exam board boundaries from last year.

There are a few posters calling Year 10 exams "mocks" when really they are just end of year exams, like any other end of year exams and I would suggest that the results of those really aren't relevant to predicted grades

Maybe, but they are past papers under exam conditions. I think the school call them mocks to make the children take them more seriously. And I think they may help inform who does foundation papers and the triple/double science.

How relevant they are depends on how much of the course has been completed.

Talk to the teachers at parents evening.

They will have an overview of how representative the result was, and how he performed compared to others. Dc's school used old papers - and of course they hadn't covered all the curriculum, so the% marks and grades rose steeply towards the real exams.

It's odd that he got a 5 when it is a string subject and predicted an 8.

I would say they need to be very string in Maths to do Maths and Further Maths A level.

Today 12:12 namechangedforthis1980

@Langrish , thanks. DS's school do 3 sets of mocks shock. So now, nov and February!

Pressed too soon: wow, that’s heavy! Ours is an independent, all done over the course of a month, just a term ahead of the real things, so effectively revision.

To everyone: I cannot stress enough the importance of your youngsters doing past papers when they revise. Our son is mid-IGCSE right now and was absolutely thrilled when he came home 2 days ago, big grin on his face, having just thrashed one of his more uncomfortable subject papers. He had answered almost the exact same 3 questions in previous papers (all available free online) in the past week as part of his revision so smashed the paper.

It's definitely his strongest subject @TheRedBarrows , he was pretty ill over two of the three exams though - one he left school immediately with a temp of 39.6c , so really probably wasn't performing to his usual ability in fairness to him. Hmm. Whilst I know everyone could behave differently in an exam, but for instance his friend, who DS always is at a very similar ability as, got a level 7 for his mocks. So fingers crossed it was just a bad day for DS

We've got parents evening coming up at the end of June so will be interesting to see what's said then. He's my eldest, I find GCSE's so daunting!

Thanks everyone, really appreciate your opinions

@Langrish - where do you get past papers from?

Ah yes just read again- online!

This whole mocks thing is a bit odd. I really don’t see the point of doing a real paper a year before when much of the material won’t have been covers yet. Especially for subjects that have recently changed syllabus - up to date papers are gold and this seems a terrible waste of previous resources. What is achieved in showing. That a child can’t perform well on a question about meiosis if she has never come across the term before. It seems to be a bad pattern to set for them - work hard for your exams and you will be rewarded - oh, apart from the large portion of the material you have never come across before.

On the other hand, DS1’s school had no mocks at all, just the usual summer and November school exams which often didn’t resemble gcse papers at all and were on only 1-2 term’s work. He would never have seen an english language paper before the real one if I hadn’t dragged him through one at Easter (just looking, not doing sadly)

My dd sat GCSE Foundation paper for her end of y10 exam so 5 is the maximum grade for that paper. Your son probably hasn't learned learners some grade 7-9 topics so I would wait until November and see how he's going and ask at the next Parents Evening when they predict to finish the course. Dd is current year 11 and her school were teaching new content until Feb half term ish.

She's predicted an 8 in maths and got 8 in her November and Feb mocks.

Our year 10s typically do badly on end of year 10 exams as it's the first time they have done whole papers in times conditions in my subject. We find year 11 mocks better indicator as timing issues, panic are less likely to impact. And they answer all the questions! I've had kids go from a U grade in year 10 to 5 end of year 12, or 5 to a 9, but that is English so more of a skills learning curve maybe.