Ah, it’s that time of the year again. Falling leaves. Halloween. Bonfire Night. Advent calendars popping up too early in the shops.

And mocks.

Year 11 and the talk is all of revision, practice papers, flashcards. And it’s time for my annual reminder to my students: you can’t fail your mocks.

Let me say it again: you cannot fail your mocks.  Once more for you in the back there?  You can’t fail.

Mock exams are a good thing, for sure. They’re useful and they’re worth doing. But they’re not an indicator — or not necessarily a reliable indicator — of how you’re going to perform in The Real Thing (cue dramatic music) next summer.

When I taught in the US, we would include ‘diagnostic’ assignments in each course — as well as the ones that were included in the final grade. When I was training to teach here in the UK, the distinction between formative assessment, which carries on throughout the course, and summative assessment — that final grade again! — was key to thinking about providing feedback and helping students achieve.

Thing is, the mocks look like summative assessment, like a final grade, but they’re actually formative assessment.  They’re a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

I much prefer thinking about mocks as diagnostic — and it’s a useful metaphor that students seem to understand. In fact, it’s a very flexible metaphor that can be adapted to whichever field of interest clicks best with each individual student.

• Mocks are a test drive — looking under the bonnet to figure out which bits of the engine need a bit of tinkering.
• Mocks are a friendly match — a chance to try out new moves, and figure out why the old moves aren’t getting you the points.
• Mocks are a dress rehearsal — a chance to see how that costume looks and how those lines really sound under the lights.

You can’t fail a test drive, right?  Or a dress rehearsal?  You could fall off the stage, get every line wrong, and spend most of the second half in the dark — and it would simply be a chance, the best chance, to learn how to do it better, how to do it right, how to be your best on that opening night.

Mocks are there to help you improve. That’s all. I’m not saying don’t take them seriously — you’ll only learn from them if you put the effort in.  But that effort is going to start properly after you get the papers back, when you can figure out what you do well — and identify the areas that are going to need a bit more attention.

Your mock results aren’t grades, they’re signposts.  Just make sure you follow the signs.