do specimen papers hint at what may come up in the real exam

Presence

just wondering , any chance the questions will be similar , especially english

Reply 1

Sinnoh

Really, they hint at what won't come up because it was on the specimen paper.

Reply 2

Fazzy_77

Original post by Sinnoh

Really, they hint at what won't come up because it was on the specimen paper.

^^ this.

Reply 3

Iahmed512

Original post by Sinnoh

Really, they hint at what won't come up because it was on the specimen paper.

Yeah true to an extent but it's more likely for something to come up from a specimen paper then it is from a past paper for new spec, like for maths most of last years question it's very unlikely for there to even be a similar question, because it's been used for an actual exam but it would be different for science.
The other part that makes it true about what you said though is that some questions from specimen papers are not deemed to be good enough to be used for an actual exam as well so it is unlikely to come up

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 4

Presence

Original post by Iahmed512

so the exams will be harder? :frown:

Reply 5

Iahmed512

Original post by Presence

so the exams will be harder? :frown:

The papers which were harder for mocks are the ones that are a lot more likely to be easier for the actual thing. The papers which were easier for mocks are the ones likely to be harder for the actual thing.

Overall it is actually more likely for actual exam to be easier, because when I mentioned about some specimen questions not being good enough for exam it can also mean it is too hard or not clear to understand. I also saw with maths last year that the actual exams were a lot easier than the specimen papers and they were the first year so it is likely the specimen papers are more difficult than the actual exam, if it is harder it won't affect your performance because grade boundaries will be lower.

Reply 6

DunkenDonuts

Original post by Presence

just wondering , any chance the questions will be similar , especially english

They will not be exact copy of the actual paper, however, for subjects that rely on pure knowledge (Math, etc), it can be a good indication of how the questions would be laid out in the actual exam.

To an extent, yes, and even so, it's always good to know how the specimen paper was inside out, in terms of how the questions were answered, rather than what the questions were.