GCSE mocks harder than the real thing?

I’ve heard people saying that mocks are way harder than the real thing. However I don’t see how this is true as my school uses real past papers so it’s basically the real thing?

What are your opinions on this?

Reply 1

username3434964

21

Suppose the idea is that the mocks are harder because they are often the first time you've sat the paper / you probably haven't done much revision, whereas the actual ones are easier because you'll have done more practice, and (hopefully) have revised more.

Reply 2

username5043382

7

Haha there definitely harder. They use the hardest questions from the past couple of years and cram them all into one paper. Good practice and if you do good in them you know your on track to (hopefully) getting better in the real thing.

Different schools use different papers for their mocks, ours were mostly made by teachers and so I found them harder than the real thing, but if you’re doing past papers from the new spec (with the 9-1 grades) then they should be the same sort of difficulty level :smile:

Reply 4

username3434964

21

Original post by Stxdent

Haha there definitely harder. They use the hardest questions from the past couple of years and cram them all into one paper. Good practice and if you do good in them you know your on track to (hopefully) getting better in the real thing.

Nah a lot of schools just use normal past papers from previous years - they don't put all the hard questions in one paper or anything.

Reply 5

username3434964

21

As a side note, considering a lot of schools use the 2019 papers for mocks, were the 2019 papers considered easier or harder than previous years?

Reply 6

RyanC_

OP

18

Original post by Bill Nye

As a side note, considering a lot of schools use the 2019 papers for mocks, were the 2019 papers considered easier or harder than previous years?

Deffo something I'd like to know as my most recent mocks were all 2019 and I did well so I wanna gauge how I'll do in summer :smile:

Reply 7

RyanC_

OP

18

Strangely the only subject my school sometimes makes exam papers for is maths and I always get 1-2 grades higher than usual when doing them. The only conclusion I can think of is that they include stuff we have recently learnt on purpose so we get better grades to make themselves look better?

Reply 8

username3434964

21

Original post by RyanC_

Strangely the only subject my school sometimes makes exam papers for is maths and I always get 1-2 grades higher than usual when doing them. The only conclusion I can think of is that they include stuff we have recently learnt on purpose so we get better grades to make themselves look better?

It's probably to test you on topics you've recently done to see if they need to go over them again or not, as an actual past paper may only contain a few marks worth of questions on that topic, and so isn't a great way to gauge how well you know it.
Or, it could be to save actual past papers for later in the year, as, for maths, past paper questions are generally the only decent way to revise

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 9

RyanC_

OP

18

Original post by Bill Nye

It's probably to test you on topics you've recently done to see if they need to go over them again or not, as an actual past paper may only contain a few marks worth of questions on that topic, and so isn't a great way to gauge how well you know it.
Or, it could be to save actual past papers for later in the year, as, for maths, past paper questions are generally the only decent way to revise

Probably, maths is definitely the downfall of my school - I'm in the highest set and nobody got above a 7 in mocks when they were expecting quite a few 9s :s-smilie:

. We haven't even learnt all of the content yet 😂

Reply 10

username5147954

15

Tbh wouldn’t say they were harder they’re about the same but your mark will probably be Lower Ik my school gave everyone especially in maths 2 grades lower that what they were to push us I was getting 6s all year in maths and came out with an 8

Reply 11

username3434964

21

Original post by RyanC_

Probably, maths is definitely the downfall of my school - I'm in the highest set and nobody got above a 7 in mocks when they were expecting quite a few 9s :s-smilie:

. We haven't even learnt all of the content yet 😂