Queries about mocks.

MinnieMouse15 · 23-12-2014 5:38pm #1

Are mocks compulsory?

emersyn · 23-12-2014 6:48pm

Mocks are organised by individual schools rather than by the state so they're not technically compulsory, but if your school organises mocks than I would assume that it's compulsory within the school's rules to take them. If you are unable to take them due to a specific reason you should discuss it with the school.

robman60 · 23-12-2014 6:52pm

Mocks aren't "compulsory" per se, but your school will probably contact your parents if you say you don't want to do them.

I don't think they ask much about quarries in Construction Studies either!

Peregrine · 23-12-2014 6:58pm

When a school organises mock exams, they expect you to take them. If, for whatever reason, you don't want to take them then you should talk to your school about it. We couldn't possibly predict the outcome of that conversation here.

happywithlife · 30-12-2014 11:16am

As others have said they're not technically compulsory but you'd have to discuss it with your school if you don't want to sit them.
But bear in mind,they're the best possible preparation for the exam. It's not just the actual exam itself content wise,but it's the only chance you'll have to practice timing,maybe getting familiar with the layout of the paper as a whole, get a feel for having one exam on top of the other, the stress and tirdness of that week / week&half of exams in June.
So no matter how ill prepared you might be and stressing because of it, do sit them if you can because no matter how you do in them it'll stand to you in June.

spurious · 30-12-2014 6:14pm

An issue I know many parents (and teachers) have with the mocks is where a school runs their mock exams with papers issued by and corrected by one of the mocks businesses and charges the students the substantial amount it costs, regardless of whether the student will have a waiver for exam fees from the SEC. One hundred plus euro is quite an amount to ask from a family whose income is low enough to qualify for a medical card (and thus an SEC waiver of fees).

thelad95 · 01-01-2015 9:55pm

I think mock examinations are dying a death anyway. They're impractical, they eat up almost a month of the academic year in some cases and it's too easy to cheat them so there's usually very little benefit for students anyway.

The companies charge ridiculous fees and the standard of correcting is often shocking and the exam papers are often not of SEC standard with vaguely worded questions and too hard or too easy exams.

teach432 · 01-01-2015 10:35pm

thelad95 wrote: »

I think mock examinations are dying a death anyway. They're impractical, they eat up almost a month of the academic year in some cases and it's too easy to cheat them so there's usually very little benefit for students anyway.

The mocks (or pres as we call them down here!) are crucial. The errors students make and the general "eye-opening" that comes with them can be greater learning experiences than sitting in a classroom day after day. I have no doubt that students who do not sit a full set of LC exams until the actual exams in June will not do as consistently well as those who have sat pres and have experienced the exam process.

By the way, the perceived easiness or difficulty to cheat is irrelevant. Students who choose to cheat in whatever circumstances need to question themselves and not the system.

Hon the Dubs · 01-01-2015 11:15pm

The companies that write the mocks do they try and predict what will come up in the leaving or do they just make a random exam?

A97 · 02-01-2015 1:11am

Hon the Dubs wrote: »

The companies that write the mocks do they try and predict what will come up in the leaving or do they just make a random exam?

The good ones will try to predict, but many companies don't.

thelad95 · 02-01-2015 1:38am

Hon the Dubs wrote: »

The companies that write the mocks do they try and predict what will come up in the leaving or do they just make a random exam?

Some teachers suspect that certain mock companies have insider information but I wouldn't use the mocks as any sort of indicator of what will come up in June.

Peregrine · 02-01-2015 1:54am

A97 wrote: »

The good ones will try to predict, but many companies don't.

You make it sound like there are lots of them :P

onethreefive · 02-01-2015 2:02am

I did the leaving cert last year and felt that the mocks were the biggest waste of time. They took up a large amount of time and were not very representative of my results. I suppose one way of not doing the mocks would be refusing to pay for them if they are being provided by outside companies.

Peregrine · 02-01-2015 2:39am

We didn't spend that long doing ours. 8 school days max, I think. We had very little subject choices so it didn't take long. I can understand the argument about it taking up too much time.

onethreefive wrote: »

I did the leaving cert last year and felt that the mocks were the biggest waste of time. They took up a large amount of time and were not very representative of my results. I suppose one way of not doing the mocks would be refusing to pay for them if they are being provided by outside companies.

Why go through all that worrying twice, eh?

spurious · 02-01-2015 5:05am

thelad95 wrote:

Some teachers suspect that certain mock companies have insider information but I wouldn't use the mocks as any sort of indicator of what will come up in June.

The SEC have extensive security built into contracts. People would lose their jobs as setters/drafters if they were giving info to mock companies. Any conflicts of interest have to be declared. I think we can file any claims of insider info under the 'we get better results' school of marketing much loved by other 'educational' businesses.

rainbowtrout · 02-01-2015 1:36pm

spurious wrote: »

The SEC have extensive security built into contracts. People would lose their jobs as setters/drafters if they were giving info to mock companies. Any conflicts of interest have to be declared. I think we can file any claims of insider info under the 'we get better results' school of marketing much loved by other 'educational' businesses.

Very true.

Also the standard of mocks within companies varies wildly depending on who they get to write the examination.

I think students forget that the people who are writing the mock papers are teachers too and making predictions just like their own teachers. If any of the mock companies had Plath on the English paper in 2013 you could would have been delighted then to have seen it in June, but Plath was widely tipped to come that year anyway. The examiner was just making an educated guess like the rest of the teachers in the country.

If you take something like Physics, Chemistry or Biology there are a set list of mandatory experiments which are examined every year (I'm not too familiar with the Biology paper). Physics examines 4 experiments out of 24 each year. The four on the previous years paper have never come up in consecutive years, so that leaves 20. Typically they ask experiments on four different topics. So it's not too hard to make an educated guess on what is likely to be asked the following year.

Queries about mocks.

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