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Points in mocks vs leaving cert

  • 28-03-2015 11:44pm
    #1
    otter13
    Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭


    Wondering if in general people do jump in points from mocks a fair bit? Since 5th year I've been getting in and around the same points and I don't think my mocks were marked too harshly (got 400). Would be interested to hear peoples jump from mocks to lc


Comments

  • #2
    irishlad12345
    Registered Users Posts: 358 ✭✭irishlad12345


    got an E in higher history for the mocks and a B1 in the real exam can easy be done with a good study plan


  • #3
    randylonghorn
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 29,509 Mod ✭✭✭✭randylonghorn


    There's no right answer to this tbh.

    Some people will go up a bit if they get the head down between now and June ... if they haven't been working that hard up to now, they may even go up significantly.

    The odd foolish person who does well in mocks will coast the last couple of months and could actually drop a fair bit in LC.

    The best thing to do is not to take too much notice of mocks results / points and just concentrate on preparing for the LC.

    The mocks are most valuable for practicing exam technique, timing, etc.


  • #4
    otter13
    Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭otter13


    irishlad12345 wrote: »
    got an E in higher history for the mocks and a B1 in the real exam can easy be done with a good study plan

    Really impressive! Bit of motivation to get the head down


  • #5
    EoghanIRL
    Registered Users Posts: 4,080 ✭✭✭EoghanIRL


    Can only speak about my own experience. Yes I went up in points in the leaving cert.

    It has to be said that the quality of mock exams can vary depending on the company making them and also the correcting.

    I almost failed project maths in my mocks and went on to do much better in the real thing. The actual leaving cert papers are at a much better standard and they are usually corrected properly ( they undergo checks etc all of which the pres are immune to).


  • #6
    otter13
    Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭otter13


    EoghanIRL wrote: »
    Can only speak about my own experience. Yes I went up in points in the leaving cert.

    It has to be said that the quality of mock exams can vary depending on the company making them and also the correcting.

    I almost failed project maths in my mocks and went on to do much better in the real thing. The actual leaving cert papers are at a much better standard and they are usually corrected properly ( they undergo checks etc all of which the pres are immune to).
    .

    DEB exam papers are often extremely hard, all of their maths papers this year were. I got examcraft which was apparently "too nice of a paper" but majority of the rest of my mocks were deb. I think a lot of the leaving cert can be down to luck aswell in that the stuff you focus on comes up (especially English paper 2) my geography mock was a bit of a disaster in that none of the essays I studied came up but I still managed a c2


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  • #7
    Cheerios
    Registered Users Posts: 103 ✭✭Cheerios


    A friend of mine got an E in her biology mock exam and ended up getting an A1 in the real exam.


  • #8
    Westeros
    Registered Users Posts: 278 ✭✭Westeros


    Speaking from my own experience - My points went up, jumped in or around 80 points. Although, not all subjects went up a grade. 1 stayed the same, 1 went down a grade.
    It really does depend on the individual themselves and the work they've done in the mean time. Also, it's important not to forget that there may be a significant difference in the standard of the mock papers in comparison to the actual paper given in the LC. And, depending on the school, you may or may not have been given an oral, aural and project work may not have been taken into account.
    Best thing to do is concentrate on the LC itself. Chances are you already know the subjects that need more work.
    Stick the head down from now til June and you'll be fine.

    Good luck!


  • #9
    Cr4pSnip3r
    Registered Users Posts: 792 ✭✭✭Cr4pSnip3r


    I suppose the main thing is that there is no magic fairy that waves a wand and bumps your grades up from the mocks to the leaving. You'll need to learn what you don't know, fix what you got wrong etc. and then, if you do the Leaving better as a result of the extra study and experience, what surprise would higher points be?


  • #10
    irishlad12345
    Registered Users Posts: 358 ✭✭irishlad12345


    Don't forget that mocks results don't take your project into account which could add 20% to your grade


  • #11
    Delboy2015
    Registered Users Posts: 411 ✭✭Delboy2015


    In my own experience, i went up 70 points from the mocks to the LC. Its hard sometimes to gauge mock results, because some are marked too easy and others too harshly. Its better to have a harsher marking though, as it will show you that you have still have lots of work to do.

    The best thing you can do between now and June is just keep your head down and be smart about how you study, pay particular attention to things that come up year in, year out!


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  • #12
    MikeSD
    Registered Users Posts: 165 ✭✭MikeSD


    I rose from 425 points to 455.
    My business teacher was brilliant but marked very hard, hence why I went ftom a C1 to a B1. I got D2 in HL maths I did in February and April. Then I got a C3 in LC even though I thought I would get the same. I guess last year being the first year of project maths in every school may have eased the marking a bit. I got a B3 in French in the mocks but dropped to a C1 in the real thing. In the mock oral we had a friendly teacher and I got 90 % but probably got a C in the real thing because the examiner was quicker and I was a little nervous maybe. It wasn't bad at all though so don't worry.
    All in all there are many different variables that can influence points. I would say I studied well for both mocks and LC, but after the mocks were done, we had completed the course. The next 3 months allowed me to go flat out practicing exam papers. That may have possibly been the reason that I improved my overall points.


  • #13
    Isitthough?
    Registered Users Posts: 192 ✭✭Isitthough?


    If you put in more work yes. I got 390 in the mocks and 465 in the real thing.
    I think for maths mocks exams are harder than the real thing.I just about passed HL for the mocks and many people did fail the maths mocks but I wouldn't let that discourage anyone, the lc exam is much nicer and the marking scheme is more lenient too.
    Some subjects I went down in, especially in geography(HL), got an A2 in the mocks and a B3 in the real thing even though I put more work in after the mocks for geography but I guess in lc they can only give out a certain amount of A's(think around 3% for geography) whereas in the mocks I dont think they care how many A's they give out, maybe Im wrong and I just underpreformed on the day, I dont know.
    But for some subjects i went up in. In english(HL) got c3 in mocks,turned that into a B2 with good practice.
    So I guess in general most people do go up from the mocks, the amount you go up depends on the work you do from now till june.
    Also some mocks are actually marked too easily, When we got out mocks back I had 2 teachers saying they were corrected to easily. My teachers recorrected the mocks themselves and lowered our grades. It Sounds bad but they were right. I stayed the same in Both of those subjects as I got in the mocks so Im glad they did that tbh.


  • #14
    Codswapple
    Registered Users Posts: 58 ✭✭Codswapple


    Does anybody feel the exam craft mocks are harder than the actual paper? My mock exam craft and the 2013 one I just completed the reading comprehensions are very hard with words I've never seen in any textbook before


  • #15
    otter13
    Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭otter13


    Codswapple wrote: »
    Does anybody feel the exam craft mocks are harder than the actual paper? My mock exam craft and the 2013 one I just completed the reading comprehensions are very hard with words I've never seen in any textbook before
    I've heard from a few grinds teachers that DEB is normally more challenging than examcraft and that this year DEB was nearly "showing off" in both levels of the maths papers but Some examcraft mocks I'm sure are very challenging too. 2 of my mocks were examcraft and they were the nicest of the papers I got but at the same time it depends on whether the stuff you've studied came up or not aswell!


  • #16
    Mahmoudsaid_1
    Registered Users Posts: 28 ✭Mahmoudsaid_1


    Depends on what you do between your mocks and till june


  • #17
    Mallorytherman
    Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭Mallorytherman


    Best advice is to keep working hard and you'll probably go up!

    I didn't take this advice! I was expected to get around 500 and was doing really well up until Christmas of 6th year, didn't really study for the Mocks and got 465. I still thought that i'd be fine once it came to the Leaving Cert though and didn't really work that hard (I was overly confident/ scared of the leaving cert so tried to ignore it, silly i know!!)

    Aaanyway after having a few meltdowns during the exams and not really studying that hard I got 455, which is good but wasn't enough for my first choice which went up by 20 points that year to 490. I was very dissapointed, I knew I did well but I knew I couldve done better and thats all that it came down to. I was fine with not getting my first choice and everything, my second choice was just as good!

    But at the end of the day you want to open up those results on the day and be ecstatic and overjoyed, not regretful! So just keep working!! At the end of the day if you work hard and know youve done your best, you'll be happy!!

    If you work hard from now until the Leaving Cert...you WILL go up and you will be overjoyed!! BEST OF LUCK!

    PS. If you want proof of this, the one subject I did work hard in from the Mocks to the Leaving Cert is Maths because I was ****ting myself I was going to fail it and guess what...I went from a D1 to a B3!!...I was ecstatic with that...my hard work paid of haha! Pity it couldnt have been the case for all my subjects!!


  • #18
    LauraaWhelann
    Registered Users Posts: 116 ✭✭LauraaWhelann


    I got 500 points in the mocks and 595 in the real thing. All my subjects went up.

    Biology A2-A1
    Chemistry B3-A1
    Business A2-A1
    German B1-A2
    English A2-A1
    Irish C3-B1
    Maths D3-B2
    Music D1-B3


  • #19
    otter13
    Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭otter13


    Mallorytherman wrote: »
    Best advice is to keep working hard and you'll probably go up!

    I didn't take this advice! I was expected to get around 500 and was doing really well up until Christmas of 6th year, didn't really study for the Mocks and got 465. I still thought that i'd be fine once it came to the Leaving Cert though and didn't really work that hard (I was overly confident/ scared of the leaving cert so tried to ignore it, silly i know!!)

    Aaanyway after having a few meltdowns during the exams and not really studying that hard I got 455, which is good but wasn't enough for my first choice which went up by 20 points that year to 490. I was very dissapointed, I knew I did well but I knew I couldve done better and thats all that it came down to. I was fine with not getting my first choice and everything, my second choice was just as good!

    But at the end of the day you want to open up those results on the day and be ecstatic and overjoyed, not regretful! So just keep working!! At the end of the day if you work hard and know youve done your best, you'll be happy!!

    If you work hard from now until the Leaving Cert...you WILL go up and you will be overjoyed!! BEST OF LUCK!

    PS. If you want proof of this, the one subject I did work hard in from the Mocks to the Leaving Cert is Maths because I was ****ting myself I was going to fail it and guess what...I went from a D1 to a B3!!...I was ecstatic with that...my hard work paid of haha! Pity it couldnt have been the case for all my subjects!!

    455 is a solid leaving cert regardless well done! id be ecstatic with a leaving cert like that but I understand where you're coming from everyone has their own capable points range and maybe you could've scored higher but I'm sure you'll fly through college! Thank you just need to keep the head down from here til June!


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