Whether you were happy or disappointed with your results, you can learn a lot from doing your mock exams. They are a great indication of where you are in your study process but also of how you manage in an exam environment. So whether you’ve been celebrating or panicking, it’s time to take a deep breath and evaluate your results.
Recognise your strengths and weaknesses
By acknowledging what you’re best at and where your knowledge is still lacking, you will be able to refocus your studies. Take notice of where you got your best results. Make another list of those that you didn’t do as well in and focus more on these to fill the gaps in your knowledge. You still have plenty of time to do that.
However, you shouldn’t forget about the topics and subjects that you feel more comfortable with. Read over your notes for these, but don’t spend as much time on them. Remember, it is better to know a bit of everything rather than knowing everything on only a few topics. When you feel confident about the basics, you can move onto learning topics in more details.
Revaluate your study strategy
The mocks are a great indicator of the effectiveness of your study strategy. Everyone has their individual approach. If you were happy with your results, then your way works for you and you should continue with your methods. If you feel like you could’ve done better then it may be a good idea to change your study habits.
For example, if so far you’ve been trying to remember your notes through writing them out, you could try reading them aloud to yourself or recording yourself and listening back. If you’ve been studying by yourself at home, perhaps you could try studying with a friend or joining a study group.
Read over your manuscript
Your mock exam manuscript can be a useful source in showing you how you answer questions. Read through the manuscript and look for the examiner’s comments. These will let you know how you can improve answers by giving more details or re-distributing your focus on different part of the questions. If you feel like you didn’t get enough feedback or you have more questions, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher.
Exam setting
The experience of sitting a mock exam will teach you about your own behaviour in an exam setting. It will give you an idea about timing and your ability to keep your head down in a situation that could stress you out.
Keeping an eye on time is crucial in an exam and you can often find yourself rushing to finish off a question. Having sat the mocks, you will now have a better idea of how much time to spend on each section of the paper. Now, that you have a realistic idea of what it’s like to sit a big exam, you should be able to work on timing if it was a problem for you.
Something to remember
Now that you got your mocks out of the way and know how to use this experience to help you onwards, you should remember that that was just a trial run. As there still is some time left and more work to be done, it is normal that your mock grades would not be like the grade you expect to get in June. With steady work, you will get the desired results when the time comes.
