mocks vs leaving cert

arryanna

hey all,

i'm halfway through my mocks now and so far they are alright.
i have lots of mates who did the leaving cert last year and they say not to worry about the mocks as the actual leaving cert papers are much nicer.
is this true??

Lawliet

Generally yes. A lot of mock questions tend to be overly awkward, badly phrased and sometimes they'll ask you things that aren't even on the course.
I'd choose a state exam paper over the mock papers any day.

Making It Bad

The people making the mocks just want to make money. The people making the actual Leaving Cert want to give you the fairest grade possible.

So yeah, I'd take a L.C paper any day too. Just compare a full L.C past paper to mocks and L.C is normally a lot better done.

H2student

Agree with the above points, had my physics paper and it was really awkward with questions that I never even seen the likes of in my textbook or exam papers. However, I don't think it's fair to rate the difficulty of papers just because it's a mock or Leaving cert paper. The difficulty depends on what material you know, as Chris Tarrant says "It's only easy if you know the answer".

Orlaladuck

I'm worried. I found all the mocks Easy enough just long. Does this mean I've done awfully? :L!
A lot of my teachers said the biology mock DEB was the hardest they'd ever seen. I think I got a C possibly =/. At the end of the day it all comes down to the effort you put in really. Also make sure not to leave a subject behind because you get a high mark in mocks - I think many people fall down with little things like that.

felic

THE MOCKS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED. Stupid idea really cos say u were handed the Leaving cert paper you will get now to do, you would not be able to get anything beyond a B2. The final months, when the course material has been completed and you are really, just going back over everything again, things tie in and connect. And when you see those aspects of each subject, thats when you finally 'understand it' and can piece things together which is what is required to get the top grades.

Pay no heed to the mocks. Yes they give u an idea of ur situation, but realistically, They mean NOTHING!

Making It Bad

Orlaladuck wrote: »

I'm worried. I found all the mocks Easy enough just long. Does this mean I've done awfully? :L!
A lot of my teachers said the biology mock DEB was the hardest they'd ever seen. I think I got a C possibly =/. At the end of the day it all comes down to the effort you put in really. Also make sure not to leave a subject behind because you get a high mark in mocks - I think many people fall down with little things like that.

Huh? How is finding them easy a bad thing? You should be delighted!

Orlaladuck

Making It Bad wrote: »

Huh? How is finding them easy a bad thing? You should be delighted!

It's worrying because of the lack of study done and I'm not that much of a genius to pull 8 A's and B's out of nowhere haha. I think the results will turn out to be C's and D's knowing my luck.

Liveit

I think the mocks are great, especially for english.
For example, I spent a way too much time on the part A in paper.... 2 I think and I didn't have enough time for the rest of the more important stuff. So hopefully for the real LC I will time things right.

grrrrrrrrrr

felic wrote: »

THE MOCKS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED. Stupid idea really cos say u were handed the Leaving cert paper you will get now to do, you would not be able to get anything beyond a B2. The final months, when the course material has been completed and you are really, just going back over everything again, things tie in and connect. And when you see those aspects of each subject, thats when you finally 'understand it' and can piece things together which is what is required to get the top grades.

Pay no heed to the mocks. Yes they give u an idea of ur situation, but realistically, They mean NOTHING!

Ah now id hardly agree with them being abolished in fairness! They are good for timing i found personally and you wouldnt do any study between this and may without them. well thats my personal opinion... my two cents.

Theres more positives that negatives!

MunchkinKid

Orlaladuck wrote: »

A lot of my teachers said the biology mock DEB was the hardest they'd ever seen..

Well thank god for that! I love hearing things like that.. If the teachers said they were hard then they can't be expecting too much.. Pressure off! On the other side hearing teachers say "No the paper wasn't too bad, you should all do very well in it", makes me very nervous for when the results come out! Nothing worse than seeing the expression on your teacher's face when they glance down at your result, look back up at you with that expression that screams "I am so disappointed. And you have SO much work to do..." Oh man....:rolleyes:

jumpguy

Yeah it's true enough. Mock papers don't get the same time, care and consideration as the actual Leaving Cert papers. Probably due to time and budget constraints. Just look at some of the sample papers made up by 3rd parties in some exam papers and you'll see what I mean. The quality is mediocre and confusing compared to the actual exam papers.

grrrrrrrrrr

Orlaladuck wrote: »

I'm worried. I found all the mocks Easy enough just long. Does this mean I've done awfully? :L!
A lot of my teachers said the biology mock DEB was the hardest they'd ever seen. I think I got a C possibly =/. At the end of the day it all comes down to the effort you put in really. Also make sure not to leave a subject behind because you get a high mark in mocks - I think many people fall down with little things like that.

I was talking to two biology teachers and they said all the biology mocks were nasty! ALL OF THEMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM:eek::mad:;):p:o:P:cool:

grrrrrrrrrr

MunchkinKid wrote: »

Well thank god for that! I love hearing things like that.. If the teachers said they were hard then they can't be expecting too much.. Pressure off! On the other side hearing teachers say "No the paper wasn't too bad, you should all do very well in it", makes me very nervous for when the results come out! Nothing worse than seeing the expression on your teacher's face when they glance down at your result, look back up at you with that expression that screams "I am so disappointed. And you have SO much work to do..." Oh man....:rolleyes:

You have some crazy sounding teachers!! ha.. isnt it nice they care?? awwwwwwwwwww:D

who the fug

Don't get cocky just cause you did well in the Mocks is all I will say

LauraOrlagh

felic wrote: »

Pay no heed to the mocks. Yes they give u an idea of ur situation, but realistically, They mean NOTHING!

I think the mocks are important as they give you an estimate of where you're at with your study, they make you realise areas where you have perhaps neglected to study and also help you identify your strong areas so that you can focus all your efforts on your weaker areas in the lead up to the actual Leaving Cert. Be careful not to spend all of your time on the subjects you like, I know it's not nice having to study Irish or History or science or whatever you haven't got much time for or interest in - but at the end of the day you've got to just sit down and get stuck in! Just think of your results day and what you would like to see on your page and work towards it. Do your best - that's all anyone can do, and learn from your mocks, you'll be more prepared for the real thing. Best of luck!

poppygirlx

Mocks tend to be a lot harder!!
In my opinion in 2008, i thought my mock english hl paper was a lot easier than the actual real exam!!