Junior Cert Mocks

UnknownEntity

Hi, just a quick question about the mock exams for the Junior Cert. Is it true that they are in general much harder than the real thing? I just want to know because I feel like I'm not doing enough study but I don't really know what to expect because a lot of people keep saying that it's much harder so the papers are useless but I still practise from them. Also, is there anyway that someone can view past mock exam papers?

spurious

Don't bother with past mock papers. They are not set by the SEC and are nothing to do with the SEC. Some years they have questions on things that are not even on the syllabus and they are often badly corrected.

Sometimes people do not have the full course covered by February, so of course the mocks seem harder than the real thing.

The only past papers to concern yourself with are SEC past papers, all available on https://www.examinations.ie/index.php?l=en&mc=en&sc=ep

spurious

They usually base their questions on previously asked SEC questions. It's not that the questions are harder, it's usually that the marking is not as fair and candidate-centred as in the actual exam.

Remember, the Junior Cert as an exam is designed for you to do well. Answer the question you are asked and do not leave out questions and you will be fine.

Mr Rhode Island Red

haiyna wrote: »

Hi, just a quick question about the mock exams for the Junior Cert. Is it true that they are in general much harder than the real thing? I just want to know because I feel like I'm not doing enough study but I don't really know what to expect because a lot of people keep saying that it's much harder so the papers are useless but I still practise from them. Also, is there anyway that someone can view past mock exam papers?

I personally found the mocks to be harder than the actual JC, but they were so carelessly corrected than most people got about 10% more than they actually deserved, including myself.

Needless to say almost all the teachers set about re-correcting our mocks. I had a 95% in Music downed to 84%, and 83% in Maths downed to 71%. A friend of mine had an A in Science downed to a C.
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To look at it from another perspective, maybe people find the mocks harder because they don't really bother studying for them, and come out with poor marks, which results in an epiphany, which causes them to study more effectively for the real thing, which causes them to find it easier than the mocks

smiles_1998

Like Spurious said, most schools don't have all the courses covered for the mocks, so of course they will seem much harder than the actual thing when you have the full course completed. The mocks are great for working out timing issues and getting an idea of what the Junior Cert. will be like.

Also, the mock papers are generally corrected to a very poor standard, so it's worth it to check over the calculations when you get them back- about five of my results came up in the mocks because I noticed addition mistakes in the totals!

Beca19

Mocks can be harder than the real thing since you don't have the course finished or much study done (probably), but - they can also be easier.. I got an A in geography in my mocks and a B in the real thing, same happened to loads of my friends. Most likely you will go up grades or stay the same in the majority of your subjects for the real thing though so don't worry too much about the mocks if you do well great, but don't think you can just not bother doing anything for the next 4 months and expect the same result in June. If you do poorly, don't worry either, you have loads of time and the paper might not have been even slightly accurate good luck anyway!

peege

haiyna wrote: »

Thanks for the info, but I still don't know if the actual questions and things asked are actually more difficult than the real JC because that's what I'm being told by a number of people.

Generally there are two companies that provide for the mocks; DEB or Examcraft. I find the language used in the examcraft scripts can be more difficult to interpret.

The pres or mocks generally are the same as the real thing. The issue that may arise is the standard at which they are corrected. I have found in the past that the pres are marked quite poorly.

The papers themselves are very similar to the real JC scripts.

spurious

peege wrote: »

The papers themselves are very similar to the real JC scripts.

Yes, because they copy actual JC scripts, but they are not anything to do with the SEC, who actually set the exams.

brian1999

Anyone know how long do the mocks take to come back.Our school started our mocks on the 20th of February and finished on the 11 th of February

spurious

I think I heard '18 working days' as a figure, but don't quote me on that.

emersyn

brian1999 wrote: »

Anyone know how long do the mocks take to come back.Our school started our mocks on the 20th of February and finished on the 11 th of February

Ours all came back separately, the time they took ranged between a week afterwards and a month afterwards

seavill

brian1999 wrote: »

Anyone know how long do the mocks take to come back.Our school started our mocks on the 20th of February and finished on the 11 th of February

Thats some productive school your mocks finished 9 days before they started would love that

brian1999

seavill wrote: »

Thats some productive school your mocks finished 9 days before they started would love that

Hahaha omg I can't belive I wrote that I meant 2 of February to 11th of febuary