Mock exams: how many, when, and what to do afterwards

Mock exams are among the most expensive things a tutor does: a full session of teaching time, plus hours of marking. Whether that investment returns anything depends almost entirely on what happens in the session after, which is also the part most often skipped because the next topic is waiting.

What a mock is actually for

Not to predict the grade. Predicting is the least useful thing a mock does and the thing students focus on hardest. A mock exists to expose three specific failures that only appear under exam conditions: running out of time, misreading the format, and knowledge that is available in a quiet room but not under pressure. None of these show up in homework, which is why practice papers done at home are not a substitute.

How many, and when

• Three is usually right for a full exam year. One early, early enough that there is still time to act on it, which usually means mid-term rather than the final month. One in the middle. One close to the exam for conditions and stamina.
• Full length, real timing, from the second one onward. A shortened mock does not test the thing mocks are for. The first can be shorter to reduce the shock.
• Not weekly. Frequent mocks crowd out the teaching that would change the result, and they normalise the pressure to the point where the last one stops being informative.

The session afterwards is the whole point

Do not spend it going through the paper question by question from the front. Most of that time is spent on questions most students got right. Instead:

• Rank the questions by how many students lost marks on them, and cover the worst three only.
• Separate did not know from knew but lost it: ran out of time, misread, wrote the right thing in the wrong place. These need completely different fixes and students almost always report both as "I didn't understand it".
• Give each student one written instruction for the next two weeks, based on their own paper.

Mark hard, report gently

Generous mock marking is a kindness that costs the student the one thing the mock was for. Mark to the real standard, then deliver the result with the specific next step attached: the number and the plan in the same conversation, never the number alone.

Sources

• OECD — Education and Skills
• What Works Clearinghouse — Educator Practice Guides (US Dept. of Education)