Mock Exams Hub

What a mock is for

A mock is not a prediction of the real paper and it is not a smaller version of it. It is a rehearsal under conditions close enough to the real thing that the result tells you something you cannot learn any other way: whether you can finish, and what happens to your accuracy when the clock is running.

Regional and school mocks are written by teachers who teach the same syllabus, so the style is usually close, but the standard varies. A high mock score from a lenient centre is worth less than an honest mark from a strict one.

How to read a mock result

1. Separate what you did not know from what you ran out of time for. They look identical on the script and need completely different fixes.
2. Count the questions you answered badly because you misread them. On most scripts this is a larger number than candidates expect, and it is the cheapest thing to fix.
3. Ignore the grade, read the distribution. Marks lost evenly across the paper mean a pace problem. Marks lost in one block mean a topic problem.
4. Keep the script. Re-sitting the same mock four weeks later, marked the same way, is the only honest measurement of whether anything changed.

Sitting one properly

Full paper, correct duration, no notes, no phone, and a hard stop at the end. Stopping early or giving yourself ten extra minutes produces a number that cannot be compared with anything. If you are not finishing, practise starting with the questions you can answer fastest — the order on the paper is not the order you must answer in, and unanswered questions you could have done are the most expensive marks on any script.

Past papers for timed practice are on the GCE past questions and answers page, and the North West regional mock papers are listed under North West Regional mock papers.