Year 11s and 13s expected to sit multiple mock exams

[Notcontent]

Just read this and I think it’s incredibly unfair to students:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59251962

My dd was pretty exhausted and drained after her year 10 exams. Doing this over and over again over the next few months? I am quite worried.

My DCs school already run 3 sets of mocks for GCSE and A-level under exam conditions. They get to practice in the correct (stressful) conditions so they’re unfazed by the time it’s the real thing. And it flags revision/knowledge weaknesses while they have plenty of time to fix it. I’m in favour tbh I’m surprised more schools don’t already.

I think having multiple exams might be beneficial for some students but others really need the breathing space just to get on with learning and not have to worry about alway having an exam around the corner.

Many schools do two sets in year 11 anyway (and often late in year 10, too). Any more means there will be less time to actually teach them things, which is the point of education. DD's current mocks are taking up best part of two weeks, and that's with only one paper for most subjects. Some subjects do regular "timed questions" too. I can see that they want schools to have enough data in case exams don't all go ahead, but three sets of formal mocks is a lot. In particular, I think there's less than a month between Easter and the start of GCSEs proper. Spending two weeks doing mocks and then getting them marked is not going to help final preparations.

I actually don't mind this although I wish we'd known before dds mocks last week as she might have revised a bit harder

DD in year has mocks at the end of November and end of February- they’ve done this at their school for the past few years anyway.

DS in year 13 only due to have one set of mocks straight after Christmas. Not sure what will happen there.

I don’t really understand the idea that the mocks get in the way. If the students bother to revise for the mocks then that’s not wasted time. It’s only a waste of time if they have the attitude that they’re only mocks so not worth the effort of revising.

This ended up being kind of what happened this year in some schools. My DS had exams in Nov, March and May. It felt like all he did was exams! And there was definitely an element of exam fatigue by the end. But I guess at least there are plans for next year, and hopefully there will be more consistency of approach across the board. Not ideal though.

The big issue over the last 2 years was lack of consistency between schools. I can't see how this will fix this.
The logistics of running multiple sets of exams must be a huge headache for schools.

I think it's ok (not wonderful but ok). Ds1 has mocks starting next week. For some subjects they are only sitting 1 paper, which cuts down a bit on revision, then I guess after xmas they'll schedule further mocks and do the other papers .

It keeps them revising and plenty of practise at exam style questions I guess which should take the pressure off the actual exams.

DD (yr12) has just been told she has mocks this month and that they may count towards her final AS grade or A level grade, 10wks into their courses they are being examined, possibly towards their final grades with very little notice. So fed up with it all, they never get a break after constant assessments last year. They've also missed a lot of teaching already due to staff absence, but are expected to catch up. There are already huge holes in their learning left over from GCSEs.

@SockFluffInTheBath

I don’t really understand the idea that the mocks get in the way. If the students bother to revise for the mocks then that’s not wasted time. It’s only a waste of time if they have the attitude that they’re only mocks so not worth the effort of revising.

Because if they are sitting full scale mocks it means at least a week, probably more, of missed lessons and valuable teaching time. Three sets of mocks could mean a loss of 6 weeks teaching - a whole half term. They've only got 3 and a bit half terms before exams should start! They haven't said these have been cancelled yet .

Mocks are a great learning ground for how to approach the real exams. How well they structured revision, learnt the content, coped with the pressure, approached the questions etc etc. The issue here is that they could form the basis for teacher assessed grades and so are higher stakes than previously.

Take that together with the fact that they are still learning content (and catching up perhaps) while revising and this could be a bit problematic for a lot of teens (educationally and wellbeing).

BUT if they are revising as they go along then that will definitely pay dividends in the event that exams do take place.

Yes, I guess my point is that formal exams are different to the less informal tests they do on a regular basis. To me it feels like year 10 is about learning, and then by the end of the first term of year 11 it’s all about exams.

@notcontent it might be like that this year, but normally in a 2 year course they'd still be learning right up until summer. I think that's fine.

A problem they could face this year is that mocks will be on limited parts of the curriculum. Teachers should be sharing what the broad topics will be. They might teach for the test, and students focus their revision on that too.

On the one hand, that would make sense because this could make up the TAG. BUT on the other, when it comes to having real exams they might have a lot that they haven't covered properly. That's my biggest concern for DD.

@Seeline they mean the revision is spread over the whole year rather than leaving it all until the last minute, which a much more intelligent strategy. It also identifies weaknesses months in advance while there’s plenty of time to reteach or change personal revision techniques.

It's normal to sit mocks, either just before or just after Christmas.

My DC did this pre-pandemic, and way way back I did.

And teaching is concluded well before the exam season starts, giving time for revision. Syllabus would be covered by about February (give or take).

It would be unnecessarily hard on students to go into GCSEs or A Levels under formal exam conditions if they has never experienced them before.

Dd has already done her mocks and will do more in February.

@SockFluffInTheBath

I don’t really understand the idea that the mocks get in the way. If the students bother to revise for the mocks then that’s not wasted time. It’s only a waste of time if they have the attitude that they’re only mocks so not worth the effort of revising.

Because it is 1 or 2 weeks to sit the mocks plus then going over then so nearly 3weeks of teaching. A lot are already behind this will make it harder.

Plus high stakes frequent testing (and they are high stakes as they could count) is very stressful.

Plus the workload on teachers, mocks don't just mark themselves.

Dds school didn't go through the mocks in class. They were marked throughly and they are supposed to go through themselves and ask seperate ly if there's anything they don't understand. So mocks took a week.

@VorpalSword I’ve already addressed the time ‘lost’ vs what is gained. Maybe I see a different aspect as a teacher- for the motivated students they show up where final tweaks are needed, for the unmotivated they find some of it sticks better than if they’d ‘revised’ it. For all students mocks under exam conditions are wearing down the strangeness, stress, and disorientation of walking into that exam room for the first time.

And teaching is concluded well before the exam season starts, giving time for revision. Syllabus would be covered by about February (give or take).

At some schools maybe. Our school is already behind. The mocks invariably have some content that hasn't been covered because of staff absence, or slower teaching. Last year they were teaching right up to and on the day of assessments (which were really just badly organised exams) and still had homework to do on top of revision. In actual GCSE/A levels students have advance warning, will be aware of everything they need to cover, will have quiet properly moderated rooms and will know how the paper is laid out (not some random questions that have been cobbled together) and will know they will get adequate time to sit the exam. They will hopefully have had some study leave beforehand.

I'm always surprised by how wonderful Mumsnet schools are and how conscientious the teachers are who post on here. DD is lucky if she even gets her work marked by some teachers. She took some GCSEs early and actually sat the proper exams, which she says were far and away easier and less stressful than last year's palaver.

My DS has mocks straight after Christmas, then again in Feb. He has had loads of tests already, luckily he is fine. My DS who is doing A levels, had mocks before half term and will have them again in Feb. Which seems too late to me.

The more time they spend sitting mocks, the less time they are spending in the classroom with a teacher learning stuff.
Looks like they are setting up for cancelled exams again, which will be a shitshow for the A level kids who had GCSEs cancelled as well.

DD2 is in year 10 and has a week of mocks next week.

DD has just had a week of mocks - 16 exams in 7 days. She is a resilient child but it was way too much for her - especially as they were learning new content and getting new homework right up until the exams. Then the papers had content they hadn’t covered yet which just demoralised them. I’m all for practice exams but they felt too rushed. All schools do mocks differently so it doesn’t feel like a level playing field.