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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

Original poster

Mocks GCSE’s

9 replies

crina · 25/01/2019 15:47

Hi all ! Just looking for a bit of reassurance with regards to the GCSE’s exams. DD , very bright girl with expected targets all A’s really messed up her mocks , truth be told she did not revise for them at all. Now seeing these results I’m just wondering are they’re fairly accurate with the real exams ? or totally different?
Dd stated she will start revising for the real thing but not sure what should I believe.
Were your children mocks results pretty close to the exam grades?

OP posts:
exexpat · 25/01/2019 15:50

I think a lot of the time mocks are intended as (or at least work as) a kick up the backside to get them revising for the real thing.

Original poster
crina · 25/01/2019 15:53

In a way that are much harder and examined in a stricter way ? my DD definitely needs a kick up her backside , not sure if I should be worried or happy at the fact that she’s pretty relaxed about it , too relaxed to be honest . She got offered a place in her college course on the spot at the interview so I believe that caused her to relax a bit too much for my liking .

OP posts:
steppemum · 25/01/2019 15:58

they shoudl be the same level and marked the same as the real thing.

If she messed up, then it should give her the prompt to get cracking.
Ds has just done his and hasn't scored as well as expected, which in a way we are happy about as now he knows he HAS to work.

Jackshouse · 25/01/2019 15:59

High As - do you not mean 9s?

Blessthekids · 25/01/2019 17:20

Hopefully your dd has learnt a lesson, she needs to revise.
Mocks are meant to give students a taste of what public exams are like including the run up to them. They are marked in the same way. The feedback you get from them is incredibly valuable, for instance, some kids revise but do badly which suggests that they are either revising in the wrong way or their exam technique is off and they are failing to address the question properly. A teacher can provide guidance on all of this if its picked up at mocks.
But of course anything can happen, and a student who gets 9s in mocks can completely fail or vice versa or anything in between.

Original poster
crina · 25/01/2019 20:29

Yes 9’s with the new system , I’m not in panic mode yet as I aways thought A-levels are more important as it determines the Uni you’re going to. She will get in the college definitely but not sure if any difference if she gets in with 8’s or 6’s . I haven’t attended school in the UK so I’m not very familiar with the system and as she’s my only one I didn’t have this experience before.

OP posts:
TeenTimesTwo · 26/01/2019 10:04

The problems are:

  • if she didn't work for mocks, then she hasn't practiced how to revise for a set of exams en masse, so will be doing it for the first time with the real things, and might get the technique wrong for her
  • if she didn't work for mocks, the she is starting real revision at a lower starting point than if she had worked, so she now has more work to do than other similar ability pupils who did work for mocks
  • if she underperforms at GCSE then, depending on subjects, she may not have such a strong base on which to start A levels
  • most courses have floor requirements which for maths & science might well be 7s in GCSEs at those subjects, and for essay based subjects may well be 6s for English/History, so make sure you & she understand these
  • uni offers are made based on predicted A level results. If she underperforms at A level, the unis may well look back to GCSE grades, and lower ones won't excite them much
  • these results are with her for life. In later life saying 'well I would have got 7/8s but I didn't work so got 5/6s' won't impress anyone half as much as actually having a bunch of 7s and 8s.

Mocks will quite probably have been last year's papers and marked to the same standard/grade boundaries. If she wants top grades she needs to get her act together.

She has time from now. Not so much if she puts off starting to work until Easter.

northernglam · 01/02/2019 21:02

Yes DS predicted A/A* and 8/9’s (he did mixture old and new). Always been academic and cruised rather than worked throughout school (so I always panic the wheel will come off). He went up 1/2-1 grade between mocks and final GCSEs getting top grades in everything. Mainly due to revision in school as he still doesn’t know how to revise properly imo he just read through books and did practise questions - no notes, flash cards, getting me to test him etc. I think the key thing is whether she understands the work. He understood it and went up a grade boundary due to improved exam technique, practise papers, revising between exams. He got a lot feedback from each subject where he could improve marks. If much lower than expected would suggest maybe not understanding work which is a harder thing to fix than lack of revision. They were all told to start revising 3 months before GCSEs and he started about 4-6 weeks before doing a little (I actually made him stay late in library twice a week and not come home till later as he was so rubbish at revising at home). The exams themselves go on for 2 months with half term in middle. So I was glad he didn’t start 3 months before as would been totally fed up after 5 months revision. As it was he struggled to keep momentum going for the last few. His school did a lot revision in school from Easter and a lot practice papers. He has a great memory though and seems to get away with much less revision than I felt he should have done. Worth looking at grade boundaries for last year as some were much lower for top grade than i’d expected (general feeling was new exams were pitched very high last year). It was a guinea pig year and I think Mocks were marked hard as teachers didn’t know what to expect as no past papers etc. Very top Uni’s will look for 5-6 top grades at GCSE - or at least it will be harder if you haven’t got them.

Pythonesque · 01/02/2019 21:55

I agree she needs to know that her GCSE grades may be looked at when she applies to university, once she knows what she wants to do. We're also not UK educated and on a learning curve about this stuff!

My daughter has worked reasonably well for her mocks on the whole, and from what she tells me there are a couple of key errors she now knows not to make (how to fully answer certain types of question, that sort of thing), and she also now understands she has to learn her poems much more thoroughly for English Lit! I don't know if she's been given grade boundaries for everything yet but she's had a bit of a confidence boost that she's on track for the high results expected of her and will be mainly working on avoiding losing marks.

In her case a music exam this term will hopefully help avoid her going stale on the academic stuff ...

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