The Student Room Group

Guide: Surviving mock season!

It's mock exam time again :eek:

The amount of content you might have to learn and the sense that your real exams aren't too far away make mock exams seem quite daunting, but they don't have to be too stressful! Mock season can be the best chance you get to consolidate the content you've already covered, pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses and get used to the format of your GCSEs or A-levels. Here are some tips for making the most of it :smile:

Treat them like the real thing... You won't need to revise quite as much as for your real exams, but putting in your best effort, as you would for external exams, will help you to make a more accurate judgement of how well you're doing, whether your revision techniques are working and how you need to improve.

...but not quite. There's no need to stress about the outcome of your mocks! Mocks are all about self-improvement; if you don't get the grade you want, that's an opportunity for you to learn from your mistakes and find out which specific areas you should focus on when revising for the real thing.

Experiment! It's worth experimenting a bit to find out which study habits and revision methods suit you best when you have to study all the content for all your subjects altogether. If you try lots of different memorisation techniques, try organising your time in different ways and so on, you'll know exactly what works for you in the summer.

Make use of feedback. Probably the most useful aspect of GCSE mocks for me was the feedback I got from my teachers afterwards. With several months to go before your external exams, it's not too late to ask for help on a topic or to use feedback on the test to help you with your future studies, so make the most of that!


But I don't know how to revise certain subjects!
Just like in last month's post, here are some study tips for two more specific subjects written by @brainzistheword!

Maths



History/RS



"I haven't started revising...help!"
The most important thing to do if you have mocks soon and you haven't started revising is to not panic or stress about it. There's no way you can go back in time and revise more, so you need to make the best use of the time you have remaining.
One of the best ways to think about it, is to think about it in terms of you revising for the real exam, with mocks being an indicator of how you are progressing. However, if you want to increase your score as much as possible in a short period of time then you will need to prioritise certain aspects of your revision:

Firstly, the areas you are likely to be able to gain most marks are your weakest areas. Generally, you will have some idea of what these are and you should start with these. If you know what methods are most effective for you (for example, watching videos, making flashcards etc.) then utilise these to study effectively on your weakest topics in each subject.

Secondly, be sure not to overwork yourself and burn out. Don't try and revise 10+ hours a day (or anything close to it), but instead do some sessions of the pomodoro technique (25 minutes work, 5 minutes break). Be sure to drink plenty of water to help with memory, and don't neglect sleep or food in favour of revision as this will actually make you remember less.

You can choose whether to prioritise your weakest subjects, or other ones depending on what you want to focus on, however try to revise a mix of subjects in one day rather than entirely focusing on one subject so you don't get bored and stop retaining the information you're trying to learn.

Remember the most important thing about mocks is to learn from them. As said above, the feedback is invaluable for letting you know what revision techniques are effective, what topics you still don't understand (even if you thought you did!), any issues with speed you'll need to sort out before the real exams and many other things.



How's your revision for your mocks going? When are your mocks?
Best of luck to all those revising! :goodluck:

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I'm an actual mess. :yy:
My mocks are at the end of February and I'm trying to start revising now. Luckily we're only being tested on A2 content in psychology otherwise I'd have no chance of learning everything in time. Realistically I'll probably do the bare minimum of revision until Feb half term and then panic-revise the whole of that week lmao
would also recommend HegartyMaths for gcse maths!
Reply 4
In mock season now. Haven’t done a lot of revision. Wanted to do more. Hopefully I start revising for my AS straight after to give me a good 5-6 months
good luck for those who have mocks! just focus and tell yourself it will be over in not time and aim as high as u can xx
y10 mocks: how long before my mocks should i begin revising?
I think maybe do practice questions as your revision for now, i'm not sure tbh but thats rly cool that you have photographic memory. I'm sure no one will hate on you xx
Mocks?

In 5 weeks :frown:
Original post by ||TheUnknown||
I'm an actual mess. :yy:

:console: Here if you need anything :smile:
Original post by Niltiac229
My mocks are at the end of February and I'm trying to start revising now. Luckily we're only being tested on A2 content in psychology otherwise I'd have no chance of learning everything in time. Realistically I'll probably do the bare minimum of revision until Feb half term and then panic-revise the whole of that week lmao

Sounds like me! Had the entire Christmas holidays for my mock revision... Did 95% of my chemistry stuff in the 2 days before :oops:
Original post by CinnamonSmol
would also recommend HegartyMaths for gcse maths!

Yes that site is also very good :smile:

A photographic memory must be really useful! There's such a lot of content to learn for the new GCSEs in particular so I'd say that some revision would be sensible, but it doesn't have to be an awful lot. Try and set aside maybe 30 minutes per subject per week to revise your weakest topics or practice exam technique etc.
Coursework is really important though so if you can't afford to do that without your coursework suffering I'd say choose the coursework. While mocks are good indicators for where you are, coursework at the end of the day is the one that counts for your final grade!
Try not to stress about mocks though :hugs:
Original post by Hannahglen12
In mock season now. Haven’t done a lot of revision. Wanted to do more. Hopefully I start revising for my AS straight after to give me a good 5-6 months

Good luck! As said in the guide you can't go back and do more, so just do your best to utilise your frees etc. In this time effectively!
Original post by floxhawker
y10 mocks: how long before my mocks should i begin revising?

It does depend how much time you'll be able to allocate to it, but I'd say start light revision around 4-6 weeks before if you're keen then build up to maybe an hour or two a day on school days and a little more at weekends if you like.
Original post by Bulletzone
Mocks?

In 5 weeks :frown:

Good luck :smile: Plenty of time then :yep:

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Already finished my mocks in December so I’m chilling now.
Original post by HateOCR
Already finished my mocks in December so I’m chilling now.

Nice:biggrin: Hope they went well!

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Original post by Lemur14
Nice:biggrin: Hope they went well!

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Bad.
Original post by HateOCR
Bad.

:console: At least mocks don't count for anything :smile:

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Original post by Lemur14
:console: At least mocks don't count for anything :smile:

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Yep. Dont know the big idea of stressing over them. You will either be prepared or underprepared. You will either do good or bad. If you do bad improve your work ethic. If you do good, keep working at the pace you were working at before your mocks, you are obviosuly doing something right.
No need to stress yourself
Good luck with the mocks! hope they won't mock you:smile:
Wish my parents ,Uni and teachers saw average results for mocks in this way :frown: and not react by saying "let's move you to the lower set" or "let's contact home" etc .
:laugh: i've just got one more left :biggrin:
Right, so on a scale of one to ten how useful is it to revise the night before...because I'm halfway through my Mocks at the moment and I actually know that I've done so badly on them...and now my brain just thinks, is it worth it?
Original post by mydrivet
Good luck with the mocks! hope they won't mock you:smile:

And you! :giggle:
Original post by Jake_logan
Wish my parents ,Uni and teachers saw average results for mocks in this way :frown: and not react by saying "let's move you to the lower set" or "let's contact home" etc .

:console: It's only because they want the best for you :yep: Lower sets can actually be good for people as it gives them more confidence being at the top of a set than struggling in a higher one.
Original post by nyxnko_
:laugh: i've just got one more left :biggrin:

:woo: Almost there! (Or have you done now, I can't remember?)
Original post by kaskid2211
Right, so on a scale of one to ten how useful is it to revise the night before...because I'm halfway through my Mocks at the moment and I actually know that I've done so badly on them...and now my brain just thinks, is it worth it?

I'd say it's definitely worth doing some work, probably on your weakest topics, but also potentially ones which come up all the time :yep: However, don't work later than usual as sleep is very important :smile: Good luck!

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