Thursday 1 August 2019

Mocks Galore!

It's the summer holidays - so you know what that means! - mocks, mocks and more mocks!  We are running 3 sets of mocks for eleven plus exams per week at the moment and our printers are churning them out.  The mocks are are invaluable way of assessing where children are at with their 11+ preparation for Ripon Grammar school.  As usual, many struggle with the time but it is great to see how much they improve each time they come back for the next mock.  We're seeing common mistakes aplenty - such as:
  • Leaving answers blank - it is always worth a guess as a blank guarantees a zero mark.
  • Putting answers in the wrong place on the answer sheet.  Despite us warning them about it - many children put section C answers in the space meant for section D on the Non Verbal Reasoning answer sheets - they only do this once though!
  • Putting working out on the answer sheets.  The papers get marked by a computer so only the answers should be on the answer sheet.  All workings can go on the question paper.
  • Not rubbing out wrong answers well enough.  If there are two answers marked where there should only be one then the question will be assigned zero marks.
  • Not reading the question carefully enough.  For example; on the verbal reasoning paper when the question is asking for opposite words, some children put similar words and vice versa.
  • looking around the room when they should be checking and rechecking their answers.
  • Not eliminating wrong answers on the NVR paper.  Some students will go straight for the answer they think rather than eliminating the wrong ones first.
It is great to see so many new faces, we have a number of pupils who are having tutoring with other local tutors but their tutors have recommended our mocks to them.  Not only that but we're starting to see some of the children forging new friendships.  With this hot weather it is tough for the youngsters to have to sit eleven plus exams but it is all worthwhile when they are able to tackle the actual Ripon Grammar exams in September with confidence.

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