Walking talking exam

[RedskyLastNight]

DS has come home with a list of key dates in Year 11. Some of these are walking talking exams. He has no idea what they are and I have never heard of them! Can anyone enlighten me?

A teacher going through past exam papers (exam paper usually up on a projector with students having their own copy) giving ideas of techniques, underlining and annotating key points, talking through what the marker is looking for and how to answer. Basically a revision session.

A walking talking exam is a type of mock exam. Candidates get a blank past paper. The teacher reads each question and verbalises his/hers thoughts about how to respond. The teacher might say, “Question one is worth 10% of the exam so I need to spend 10 minutes on this. The question says ‘compare’ so I need to ensure that I don’t just describe each thing but write about the similarities and differences”. The teacher makes sure that everyone understands the requirements of the question, then sets the timer for 10 minutes and the candidates answer the question. When time is up, they all move onto the next question. Anyone who doesn’t spend the full 10 minutes writing knows they probably haven’t done enough and anyone who hasn’t finished knows they need to speed up.
It is really useful for exam skills, highlighting key words in texts, recognising command words etc. But I find it most useful for timing. It gives the kids a real boost in my experience.