Mocks to be online.

[soberjansucks]

Mocks were to be start of January but obviously cancelled.
Full on back to school with lots of new work.
So today our secondary school day announced mocks to be online in one weeks time.

How could this be implemented?
We have been told no details and probably told now so kids can study this weekend.

Have your children done online mocks.
This is a secondary school that are not providing a great online learning experience as in no zoom lessons.

How could they roll this out?
My teen now reeling as downed tools at Christmas when looked likely would be not back to school

How did your DS think he was going to be assessed? On work he has done so far?

Many teachers just don't have enough info on the kids this time round for CAGs so they have to carry on working! Interesting that they are doing online mocks as some will cheat. If I were their head I would do late mocks and hope they will be back at school by March. But either way they can't just down tools! How irresponsible of your DS. You should have been encouraging him to carry on working.

Never mind slagging her ds - how on earth are online mocks acceptable?

Ours are doing them. They are sent papers, and have to return them within a certain time. Well aware there will be some cheating.

My DS is immature and lazy. He has been encouraged in every way possible. I've sat beside him, tutored him, printed notes, bought study books, hired tutors.
He has never had to work. Always coasted and worked the night before and scored highly.
A half hours work will take all day sadly.
I know the way this years students get their grades are much better for the constant workers but my child will definitely not perform well. He will only work very last minute no matter what support/shouting/ tutoring he gets!

I wondered if others had exams delivered this way? Surely all kids will get excellent results with their notes beside them

@fiveoldteddies thank you.
How did you child manage them? Surely it's just like homework with everyone using their notes

Yes, but there is a time constraint. Eg maths: if they don't understand it, it will be difficult to complete the paper in time. Essay based subjects: I m guessing they could look up some facts etc but when they have to write whole essays they don't have the time to look up too many things.
I am guessing it works in favour of those who are quick to understand their subject but too lazy to learn the boring details.

I have also heard many will have mocks when they do get back to school.
I don't think their final grades are going to based on just these mock exams, there is already talk about a "mini exam" and there is course work for some subjects (arts, some sciences, etc).

fiveoldteddies I've heard that too. Basically a GCSE paper with teacher marking it.
This year actually has been super stressful for them as constant testing as teachers obviously anticipated this happening.
Teachers have such a hard job this year. Teaching during these times and trying to engage reluctant students like my DS. Then go back with catch up classes then assessments and tests then assigned grades with the expected black lash that will more than certainly follow

Just had the same OP

School said mocks cancelled, emailed today about mocks in some subjects tomorrow! (to do online)

Umm ok a bit short notice.

Mine has just done online mocks. They can print out what they need, or complete them online etc. They have used a system called Exam.net I think which makes it harder to cheat and is timed.

Seemed an acceptable compromise. I dare some some will cheat, but I would imagine most teachers will have a good idea of who has done that.

Ours are being done online, camera on at all times, you have to show whole room and under desk etc before you start and have microphone on.

It's all a bit odd given that originally they were going to let them take sheets into the exams and give them topics etc

Hmmm interesting

My DD should be taking her GCSE this year

Was expecting 7/8/9 s

For some subjects they have done less than half of the course content

Will the mocks be set by the school? ( and therefore presumably not include entire models that they simply have NOT covered?)

Honestly my DD is SO disillusioned, they really do need to come up with a fair system

Neighbours child had a pupil with covid in the exam hall in December. Whole year was sent home with papers in envelopes.
They had to sign into a team meeting, with cameras on, open envelope, and timed to complete the papers. Immediate photos of papers uploaded to teams after end of exam (given about 30 mins, I think).
Papers returned at end of isolation.

Will the mocks be set by the school? ( and therefore presumably not include entire models that they simply have NOT covered?)

But that is not new from previous experience. Many subjects were not completed by Jan so mocks not covered all topics.

Ds school doing online mocks now. They have to show a 360 view of the room before they start and have a camera on their keyboard and face the whole time. There's an invigilator. Papers are online only and they have to photograph their answers and send them to school within 10 mins of the exam ending. There were concerns about cheating as a number of pupils openly cheat in class tests, so pupils could opt out and choose either to do them under exam conditions but the teachers won't be marking them or not do them at all. Ds opted to do them under timed conditions but it's not the same and I wasn't happy that all the pupils weren't doing the same thing. However, cheating has been rife. It's the main topic of conversation amongst those boys who have opted in. It's grossly unfair on the honest ones. The school should have waited until they got back because these results are definitely not representative of what they're capable of.

@Svrider

Hmmm interesting

My DD should be taking her GCSE this year

Was expecting 7/8/9 s

For some subjects they have done less than half of the course content

Will the mocks be set by the school? ( and therefore presumably not include entire models that they simply have NOT covered?)

Honestly my DD is SO disillusioned, they really do need to come up with a fair system

In England, there is no national system of mocks. It is entirely up to the school if and when they do them, what they set, and how they mark. They are entirely variable school to school.

@howitworks that's terrible! How could they actually cheat if they were being watched the whole time. Seems impossible really
We have had that with class tests being sent around so the 2nd class to do test has seen it and can prepare! It's awful.
Must be that the invigilator can't watch 30 all at the same time.
It's horrible to think it's not an even playing field but nothing about our kids' education during this time has been. There are always winners and always losers.

We adapted December assessment papers in maths into Microsoft Forms for those who couldn't get in (100% of mine as I was isolating)

They went surprisingly well. I allocated 20 minutes on top of the allocated 1.5 hours as they had to upload pics of their working out / drawings for some questions.

Marking and feedback was way easier too.

University students did online exams for 2020 summer exams.

My two did them - DD final year had mostly real time exams which were 'open book' ie it was know they could access material. One of her exams was 24 hours - so was more like coursework type. Hers were essay subjects so used Word on laptop and then submitted. One of her exams was timed multiple choice.

DS (1st year) had 8 real time exams so 2 or 3 hours long (again 'open book') - at a prestigious university. As he has much chemistry/ maths content then he wrote down and then used a mobile scanner on his phone and uploaded to a site within a certain time frame.

It all worked very smoothly.

@soberjansucks there were lots of ways they found to cheat. The most simple was to not set up the camera on the phone the way they asked i.e. so they could see your face and computer screen. They angled it so that their faces were visible and then just googled the answers.

They knew that one invigilator couldn't watch everyone in the class, or sometimes two classes, at a time all the time It was a great way for the cheaters in the year group to improve their grades and a disaster for the honest, hard working kids. Ds knew this would happen and chose not to take part for this reason and I feel angry that he's missed out on the proper mock experience. The school said they know who cheats in exams but Ds said they don't because some of them have never done an exam in school without cheating, so they consistenly get good grades.

I'd say they can look up.what they want but in a timed exam, that is of very limited use and if everyone is allowed to do it open book ( something universities often allow) then it is the same for everyone and is accounted for in the sort of question set.

If you think about it lots of uni work is coursework - we used to work in groups.

My son has been doing his since the 11th
And has more next week
They don't give us the results which is weird!

Our school did them for the end of term tests last summer too