All year groups will be taking part in mock exams next week.  This provides the students with the ideal opportunity to practise working under exam conditions and to receive formative feedback about their strengths and weaknesses so that these can be addressed before the real exams.  Revision for these exams will hopefully be well underway, but here are some tips to help your son or daughter maximise their performance:

• Ideally you should have started your revision before now.  However, if by any chance you haven't, then don't panic as there is still time to make progress.
• Divide your spare time into chunks, allocating different times to different subjects.  For example, an A level student has three subjects, and has nine chunks of time before Monday - Wednesday evening, Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening, and the same for Sunday.  Schedule your time sensibly, factoring in rest and relaxation.  For example, you may decide to use two hours on each of the weekday evenings to revise a subject.  At the weekend, you may decide to work in the mornings and afternoons but to take the evenings off to rest, or to sleep late and relax in the morning but to revise in the afternoon and evening.
• Sleep is vital for good performance.  When you are working in the evening, decide on a sensible time to finish.  For example, it would be sensible to revise from 6-8, but not to stretch your revision into night as this is counterproductive if your brain becomes tired.
• Put your mock exams into perspective.  They are not trivial and they should be taken seriously.  However, they are not as important as your real exams so shouldn't cause you to feel overburdened by stress
• Choose a quiet room for your revision, free from distractions.  It is no good saying, "I revised for four hours" if half of that time was spent on your phone
• Mock exams are an ideal time to try different revision strategies.  There are lots of "revision gurus" online who tell you that they know the secrets of successful revision, but everyone is different.  Try different methods to see what works for you, and you will then have worked out your personal revision style in time for the real exams
• Be organised.  Lay out the things you will need the night before, for example a calculator and spare pens
• In the actual exam, read the question VERY carefully.  When I used to be an examiner for A level Economics, there were so many scripts where I had to write NAQ (not applicable to the question) next to work which was detailed and factually correct.  If it doesn't relate to the question, you won't be given marks for it!
• If you have extra time, then use it - many students who are eligible for extra time find that this time is useful for planning answers and checking through their work

To every student taking part in mock week next week, we wish you the best of luck from us all!