Mocks

Hi,
I've just got back some mocks, and I wanted to know what the best way to learn from mocks are (if mistakes are made etc).
The subjects I got back are:
History
Maths
English
The sciences
Geography

Thanks

Reply 1

axr1al

Original post

by Anonymous

for maths I’d recommend making a log book of errors and doing topic focused questions on each topic you made a mistake on to iron out any misunderstandings

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

Original post

by Anonymous

Hi, i do a different exam board as you but its equivalent to why you're doing. I hope this helps you as much as it helped me! 🙂

English - go over the structure of your answers, try and find a technique that works best for you to help you understand how to answer the questions properly. Honestly, for English, past papers and knowing the content in depth makes a big difference. Keep flashcards and mind maps up to date.

Maths - do traffic lights and identify your weakest topics n PRIORITISE them. Learn by watching YouTube videos like a past paper walkthrough and then try and test yourself. After you’re done with going over all mistakes from the past papers, just keep spamming past paper after past paper! (Also keep in mind that you mind think you know all the easy questions and just skip to the hard ones. However, it’s vital to practise those as you might doubt yourself during the exam.)

Biology + chemistry - make sure you’re prepared before the exam. Know all the content in depth - enough to understand key concepts in either of the subjects. For chemistry, much if it is applied so try and practise the problem solving questions. For biology, majority of it is memorising and the marking scheme is hella specific, so watch out when you’re answering questions. To battle this, you should go over your flashcards of key terms and just do a fun kahoot with it or something.
As always, past papers are your best friends. Dont do them too early, you’ll waste them. Try aiming to do as many past papers as you can a few weeks before the exam (preferably 1-2 weeks). Dont stress is my best advice for sciences.

Can’t help with history, geography and physics as I don’t take it!

Reply 3

Anonymous #3

Look through your mock paper when you get it back, and check what your greatest mistakes were. Do you have poor exam technique? Did you not know the content for a topic? Did you run out of time, or were you stressing for time?

Do topical questions on the topics you frequently got wrong. I would suggesting highlighting these topics in red on your specification. Practice until you are confident enough to change the colour to green.

Additionally, as people have said, do past papers but don't just look at the mark scheme, look at the examiner's report as well. This is SO so important for exam technique as examiners often mention common mistakes that students make (not just relating to content) and clarify that you can/cannot do something in the real exam. I promise you, these give a great advantage.

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Thank you- this is so helpful!

Reply 5

LancashireRep5

Official Rep

Original post

by Anonymous

Hey there,

My name is Siobhan and I’m a third-year physiotherapy student the University of Central Lancashire. First of all, well done for getting your mocks over and done with, I know how stressful that time can be! It’s also great that you’re asking for advice on the next steps, you can see that you are working hard on improving 😊 Here are some things that I would do going forwards:

•

Make a note of the areas you didn’t do as well in: You might want to put a star next to or highlight the topics you struggled with in your exams and make revisions material for this so that when you are prepared for your exams.

•

Marking criteria: Get familiar with the marking criteria (especially in science) and see if this impacted your marks on your last tests. If you prepare for this then you can understand what kind of things you need to say to boost your grades.

•

Past papers with similar questions: For any questions you got wrong/didn’t do as well in, try and find past papers that have similar questions or the same format to see if you have improved. If you can, try and simulate the exam environment again so that you feel fully prepared for your real exams!

Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any questions at all. Best of luck with your exams!

Siobhan (Student Ambassador for the University of Central Lancashire)