Mock Exams - waste of time or useful experience?

[um]

I'd actually planned for ds1 to sit the Warks exam, and phoned for a form in June. Two calls later, no form arrived. I kept trying to get in touch until ds5 was born just before the form due-date.
Still have not received the form

With ds2 I intend for him to sit the exam and for Stratford to be 3rd or 4th preference, and will be attending the open evening (there is only one) and collecting the form myself.

The 'old' BV test was imho, a bad mock, being so different (and much easier) than the KE. My ds1 came out of that asking me what on earth he'd been doing all that revision for when the tests were so easy
If anything, sitting that test could have meant KE came as a shock to some children

[no_ball]

yes sir, you are right, pedantic alright..Yes, he would have been offered a place but it was not needed etc etc etc..

[Turtlegirl]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I think taking a 'mock' real exam over in Warwickshire or Stratford is a bit a of mad trek for us here in sunny ole West Brom, so I've just booked a mock with the company based in Shirley - also a bit of a journey, but at least it's a Saturday - and in just a few weeks' time. I'm hoping it'll get my daughter a bit animated about her studies. *optimistic face*

[DIY Mum]

Thanks for the information. I will look into Stratford Upon Avon.

First time round, ds1 had BV as his mock which was just right as a) he needed to experience taking an exam at a centre prior to KE and b) he knew full well that the BV exam was totally different to the KE style.

With ds2, he had a mock with his tutor. He didn't get the exam centre experience but did benefit from sitting an exam that was based upon CEM format.

Thinking of centres- does anyone know more about the Edgbaston centre's style of exam?

Just seen your post TG - I must have been mad... Ds1 travelled over 100 miles to sit the BV exam!

[mike1880]

I'd actually planned for ds1 to sit the Warks exam, and phoned for a form in June. Two calls later, no form arrived. I kept trying to get in touch until ds5 was born just before the form due-date.
Still have not received the form

With ds2 I intend for him to sit the exam and for Stratford to be 3rd or 4th preference, and will be attending the open evening (there is only one) and collecting the form myself.

You could print the form off the web site last year, that's what I did - much simpler and it avoided the wait for it to arrive (or not)!

I can't believe people are already about to go through all this again this year. Time flies when you don't have to do it any more

Mike

[no_ball]

Just listening to parents in Solihull area, the panic and stress has set in earlier. More kids want to get into grammar than those last year. Maybe our perception is different now that we look back on the same events..

[um]

Just being pedantic again - it wasn't ds5 who was born (God help me) it was dc5...

Yes, I am getting the impression that parents are much more worried/clued up? this time around. At the recent mock, the place was packed. There was a morning and an afternoon 'sitting' too. At the equivalent mock in May 2 years ago, there were around 70 children (I know as I still have ds1's results!)...my guess is maybe 200 this time

And I have just been hearing that my dc3 (in Year 3) has a number of friends already attending 11 plus tuition, with a huge sheaf of homework every week!
Now I can fully understand laying down solid foundations/having fun with learning at this age, but I am concerned that children in intensive tuition from Year 3 are going lose the will to live by the time they get to Year 6...

[no_ball]

agreed, and just as we did what was right for our DC (or so we thought), so I suppose these parents are as well.

Good luck to all for this year, send shivers down my spine just thinking of last years journey. A DC at the top of his game at school will always do well at these exams with light but consistent study till aug/sept.

[DIY Mum]

I don't think it's a new phenomenon that parents get more worried year after year and start tuition very early on in Y3. When ds1 started CH last year, I met a parent who was quite shocked to learn that we started his preparation three months before the exam. She told me that several parents in her son's school started preparing beforehand for years.

Likewise with my daughter's peers, I've been hearing from last year that a couple of her friends have had tutors at the start of y3 (one has a separate tutor for English composition and another to target kegs as well as an anxious parent doing diy on weekends).

[no_ball]

That sort of behaviour is thought provoking!! Professional tutoring from Y3...it must be worth it...