Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

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koala
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2010 7:34 am

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by koala »

Foxandsot - I too was very disappointed with my children's mock exam results. Although not in your region, we had done practice papers for some months and then a mock exam at the end of the summer holidays (took the exam last year). They have always been near the very top of their school at all the core subjects so it was a shock when they came around 100th from 200 in a mock exam and I questioned if we were doing the right thing. They found the mock exam very hard and when they emerged from the exam room, the first thing they said was "it was very hard, we have a lot of work to do Mum". When the results came through I shared the breakdown with them and discovered one of them had listed antonyms rather than synonyms and scored 0 out of 20 in that area (hadn't read the question properly), one of them hadn't turned over the page to answer more questions because each of the subjects were separated into sections and they could only move on when told to. Not turning that particular page meant he missed out on two pages of questions! I had to share the breakdown of results with the children to differentiate between the areas needing more work and where they had made silly mistakes.

They worked hard for the remaining few weeks because of their poor results and they were lucky enough to get into one of the grammar schools where there is no catchment and thousands take the exam (I think the forum members call it a super selective area, but never heard it called that before).

The main point of the mock exam for us was to familiarise them with exam conditions and understand the areas they realistically needed to focus on for the remaining few weeks. In hindsight I think it was the best thing we did to keep the children focussed in the right areas up to the exam. My husband kept telling me all the reasons why they were good candidates which kept me going, and he was right. They didn't make major mistakes in the exam, knew the benefit of reading the questions properly, were prepared that they would probably run out of time before they were able to answer all the questions so they didn't panic, understood they had to ensure all pages that should be answered were attempted etc.

So, don't give up, identify where your DD needs more help and needs to do work and keep going. My DC's attitudes when they came out of the exam and when we went through their disappointing results played a major part in getting into our 1st choice school. I hope by sharing our experience, it will give you the confidence to keep going. Good luck.
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by yoyo123 »

I always tell children not to worry about mistakes, it shows them and me where we need to work extra hard and I can find ways to help them to understand it.

With 11+ papers I (usually) do them myself first and am quite honest about the fact that I haven;t always got them all right first time. I did the Susan Daughtrey Bright Sparks under timed conditions and began to panic near the end!

That was when I realised that some questions take much longer than others, which I fed back into my teaching.

Far better to find the weaker areas now than later. That is the point of mocks. I failed my mock O level history abysmally , but knew exactly where I was going wrong by the time the real thing turned up (bit like my first marriage come to think of it......)
Thingsbehindthesun
Posts: 463
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 11:25 pm

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by Thingsbehindthesun »

You have already put so much hard work into preparing,and have the potential of doing better .mocks I think just highlight areas that need more work on but also expose the child to real test conditions.just hang in there.
;D
foxandsot
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:25 am

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by foxandsot »

Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement :)

x
menagerie
Posts: 577
Joined: Thu May 26, 2011 9:37 pm

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by menagerie »

Hi Fox,

We're not at that stage yet, but I agree with all the posters who say don't stop now. Use the mock results as something you can build on. If there's evidence of losing marks due to silly mistakes, get her to concentrate on checking her work.
She scored low in a mock, maybe due to exam atmosphere being so new to her. Which could be just what she needs to motivate her and familiarise her when the real exam happens in a couple of months time. I know a LOT of teens who are shocked by low mock GCSE scores and used them to work extra hard with great results.
laretta
Posts: 179
Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:51 pm

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by laretta »

Hello Fox

A little encouragement I hope........

My DD1 did not pass the mock 3 years ago, she scored 324. In the actual exam she scored 361 and was offered a place at her first choice school. As many have already said, the main purpose of the mock is to gain experience and get over some first time nerves. I think missing the pass mark by a little can be quite constructive as your child can see that if they really knuckle down, their goal is within their sights.
I am going through it all again this year with DD2.

The best of luck to you and yours.
Amoda
Posts: 132
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:01 pm

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by Amoda »

Hi

Would certainly agree with the last post.

My DS got 315 in his mock. It turns out that he had got the NVR answer sheet out of synch with the questions. That taught him a great lesson. Needless to say, he is now at one of the super selectives in Sutton borough.

Don't lose hope and good luck with the rest of the journey.

Amoda
stressedparent
Posts: 126
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:30 pm

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by stressedparent »

foxandsot wrote:Hello All

Have just looked up our DD's results from the Sutton grammar mock exam and she got a score of 315 (VR-111, MA-97, Eng - 107).

DD is September born therefore I gather will have points knocked off in the real exams. I'm beginning to think that even though she is a clever girl, she's just not clever enough for the limited places available. I suppose this has brought home to me just how competetive it is out there! I'm wondering if it is really worth continuing down this route when I feel I kind of already know what the outcome will be! :roll:

Any words of wisdom out there?

M
Do not despair fox!!!. my DD scored 286 in the Sutton mocks, which was I guess average. She has been offered a place in Tiffins. The Sutton mock test is only practice to calm their their nerves on the real day. It does not reflect subject material that is really tested in the real 11 plus tests. All the best.
stressedparent
wildlaulau
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2010 1:26 pm

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by wildlaulau »

I know how you feel - my son scored 307 and I was really surprised that he didn't do as well as I thought he would in the maths. However, the English wasn't too bad. It is a practise though and we have talked about the things which came up in the letter that the PTA wrote, not reading the question, silly arithmetic errors, not checking...my son knows he scored higher than the average (which I assume is 300 - please correct me if I'm wrong) so that can't be a bad thing. Also your daughter won't have to do the English test as it was in the mocks - the Nonsuch one is just reading comp and Wallington Girls doesn't have English at all. So I would reiterate what the others have said - absolutely don't give up. She's not far off the pace and she was definitely up there regarding VR. I'm not going to give up and we're further back than you! All that extra maths practise will help her in the end, even if she doesn't make it. Perhaps both our kids were actually more nervous than we thought they'd be and that's the whole point of the mocks. I'm going to just keep on practising now - and make sure that I put down 6 schools on the form. Things have a habit of working out for the best so just keep going!!! All the best for September!!
whathappened
Posts: 86
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:26 am
Location: surrey

Re: Mock results - Feeling quite disheartened

Post by whathappened »

Hi, Just to make you feel even better,my dd scored 281 in the sutton mocks and has got into wallington.As people are saying,it really does help them with the experience of sitting in an exam room,took away a lot of the fear for my dd who went into the actual exam very calm.I honestly believe had we not done the mock,fear of the unknown would have gripped her and she would not have passed.good luck fox
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