'The Mocks are way worse than the Leaving Cert'

Killian In The Name Of

I've been told by so so so many people not to worry too much about the Mocks because while they're there for practise/timing they also shouldn't be taken too seriously because they're also there to scare the hell out of us and thus make us study more. I was also told that they're harder because the papers are set by teachers and marked harder/marked inconsistently across the board.

I don't know whether to believe this or take it seriously... is it true?

Canard

I think its stupid to say that, if its asked on the mocks it could easily be on the leaving cert and mostly they seem to take predictions to make it realistic. One person might think an English mock was awful if, say, Boland had come up, but another might love that so really its an entirely personal preference in my opinion.

**Timbuk2**

It's not entirely untrue - the mocks are made by profit-orientated companies, who aren't hugely concerned with how well the standard of questions represent actual LC style questions - these companies have nothing whatsoever to do with the SEC or DOE. They are often marked inconsistently. In my secondary school, we got the mocks from one of the mock companies, but our own teachers marked them. I felt this was better, because unlike if someone from the mock companies corrected them, you got feedback and often comments written on the paper you could look through, which is a lot more than you'd get when you got your paper back from one of the mock companies.

At the end of the day, don't worry too much about how many points you got - sometimes you can get less in the real thing, often they can increase. What they are useful for is getting used to the timing and the structure of the paper.

angela1711

I've heard that the mocks are way harder than the LC as well as that they are corrected badly e.g. when i got back my english paper some parts were not corrected at all ;/

QueenOfLeon

They might seem harder for a lot of reasons. Obviously you mightn't have finished some courses and you definitely haven't had enough time to go over every single course in revision. Also most of the time your practical component of subjects isn't taken into account so your written being worth 100% can change your results a lot.

At the same time, mocks papers being marked badly doesn't mean they're marked harder, often they're marked way too easily. The papers themselves don't always properly reflect the standard of questions on the real exam and the marking schemes aren't great either.

Take your results with a pinch of salt - if you got the points you need it doesn't mean you can sit back and relax til June, loads of people drop points between the mocks and the LC. If you didn't do as well as you hoped, there's loads of time left to get the head down!

The best thing you can take from the mocks is to go over the papers with the marking scheme or your teacher, identify the places where bad timing or bad technique cost you marks, and make sure not to make the same mistakes again.

Brendog

People only say that because they mocks are corrected harder.

Its done to "scare" students into studying more to achieve they highest potential grade they can. The government needs high achievers. They more educated the workforce is, they better run facilities are.

The leaving cert is corrected more gently than the mocks.

Don't get me wrong, they will take marks away from you for stupid mistakes.

Everyone has this view of the exam authorities as being this omnipotent super-being that takes all without mercy...

The examiners are human beings. They have been in the exact same situation as you. They know what you're going through and have had to attend boring lectures on what the average student deals with.



For those tl;dr readers heres the summary: "study hard. the examiners are sympathetic to your situation and the effort you put in will be rewarded greater than you will ever know.

Togepi

They're definitely not way harder than the Leaving Cert, they're pretty much at the same level. The only way mocks might seem harder is because you won't have the course finished. Some mocks might even be easier than the Leaving because they can be marked far too easy, due to the not-so accurate correcting.

Having said that, if you put in the work from now on, the Leaving Cert will seem a lot easier than the mocks!

sarahm1994

The mocks can be corrected funny though, cause they're not checked by as many people. My English exam was the same, didn't do well even though I'm in the A class. Hopefully it's just a mistake! My teachers said that they're really only useful for making us revise and for getting used to how long the exam is (owwww my hand after English!)

PseudoFamous

I got 40 more points in the mocks than the leaving cert, with far, far less study done for the mocks. That is all I have to add to this discussion.

Chuchoter

To be honest, I don't really feel the mocks were a useful experience for the huge amount of term time they took up. My English paper was marked inexplicably hard, I'm a solid a2/a1 student and I scraped a b3 in the mocks. My English teacher said he hadn't a clue where I'd gone so wrong as he would have given me a high b1 or an A for it and he marks really hard. Now I've no idea what my standard is

spurious

Chuchoter wrote: »

To be honest, I don't really feel the mocks were a useful experience for the huge amount of term time they took up. My English paper was marked inexplicably hard, I'm a solid a2/a1 student and I scraped a b3 in the mocks. My English teacher said he hadn't a clue where I'd gone so wrong as he would have given me a high b1 or an A for it and he marks really hard. Now I've no idea what my standard is

Is your English teacher an experienced examiner for the SEC? If so, go with what he says.