Is statistics are to be believed, there was a 40% increase in the number of children sitting the Grammar School Entrance exam in Birmingham
Most children who are appearing for the exam have never probably sat a competitive exam in their lives. Add to this the pressure which has been building for at least a year. The stories of children breaking down in tears on seeing the thousands of children on the day of the exam are not myths. It is therefore important that preparation should include ways to cope with the exam nerve. This is why there is no substitute for mock exams.
Mock exams are usually run by the schools (mostly independent) or tutor for their students. This is not ideal as the idea is to get the child out of their “known environment and comfort zone” and sit with complete strangers to do the exam. So sitting in your own class room with your friends does not really help. The recommendation therefore is to use third-party providers who provide a true exam like setting. This also helps to highlight aspects of exam conditions that may cause your child to feel uneasy and stressed. Talk to the exam invigilator before the exam asking them to keep an eye out for your child so you can get even better feedback (after all you are paying for this!). The mock exams help build confidence. In every case we have seen for far, children increase their marks by at least 15% in the second mock test. Time keeping and answering techniques (attempt easy first or the hard ones?) also come into play here which you just cannot test for in the comfort of your own home or tutor’s class. The feedback includes the ranking in the peer group. Although this may be slightly misleading as the real exam scores are normalised for age, it does give you an idea where your child stands in the group and how much more ground you have to cover. It also gives you an idea of which subjects to concentrate on.
In short – there is no substitute for the mock exam, except perhaps the real exam!
