Mock exams: what they are for, and how to use the results

For most Year 11 and Year 13 students, mock exams arrive between now and January. Some schools hold them in the weeks after October half-term, many in late November or December, and some straight after Christmas. A few run a second round in the spring.

Whenever they fall, mocks tend to be treated as a verdict: a grade comes home and everyone reacts to the number. That is the least useful thing to do with them.

What mocks are actually for

Schools use mocks for three things, and predicting the summer result to the grade is not one of them.

Practice at the conditions. An exam hall, a full-length paper, a clock and no notes. Many students have never sat a paper of nearly two hours in one go before their first mock, and the first attempt is always rougher than it needs to be. That is part of the point.

Information for decisions. Mock results feed into choices that have to be made before the summer: which tier a student is entered for in subjects such as maths, science and languages, and the predicted grades that sixth forms and colleges often ask for.

A map of the gaps. This matters most and gets used least. A marked mock paper shows, question by question, where the marks went.

Why the grade on its own misleads

A mock grade is a snapshot taken with months of teaching still to go. In many schools the course is not finished when the mocks are sat, so a student can lose marks on topics they have not been taught yet. Grade boundaries are usually borrowed from a previous year, and schools apply them in different ways; some grade mocks cautiously on purpose.

So a 5 in a December mock does not mean a 5 in August, in either direction. And two students with the same grade can need entirely different help.

How to read a mock paper like a teacher

Ask to see the marked papers, or at least the marks for each question. Most schools return them, and many go through them in class. Then sort every lost mark into one of three piles:

• Not known. The topic was taught and the student could not do it. This is content, and it needs reteaching and practice.
• Not taught yet. Nothing to worry about now, but worth noting so it is covered later.
• Known but dropped. A misread question, no working shown, a missing unit, running out of time, a six-mark answer written as a two-mark one. This is exam technique, and it is usually the quickest marks to win back.

The third pile is often bigger than students expect, and it is invisible in the grade.

Then pick three: the three topics or habits that cost the most marks. Three things worked on properly between now and the spring are worth more than twenty skimmed.

If the mocks have not happened yet

Revision for a mock should look like revision for the real thing, only shorter: a simple timetable, past papers under timed conditions, and answers checked against the mark scheme. Our GCSE Maths revision plan shows the shape across the year. The aim is not to peak in December. It is to find out what works for your child while there is still time to change what does not.

Where a tutor fits

A good tutor treats the mock paper as the starting point. In a first lesson, going through the actual script is far more useful than a generic assessment, because the evidence is already there. From it, a tutor can tell you which pile the marks are in, which of them can be fixed in a few weeks, and which will take longer.

If a mock result has come home lower than expected, our GCSE Maths tutors and GCSE Science tutors are all qualified teachers who know these papers from the classroom side. Before you book anyone, how to choose a tutor covers what is worth asking.

A disappointing mock in December is not bad news. It is information, arriving at the most useful time it could.