Every year, as mock season approaches, I have the same conversations with my Year 11 students. They are working hard — genuinely — but there are things I wish they already knew before we sit down together. Four of them come up again and again.
1. Re-reading your notes is not revision
This is the one I have to say first because it is the most common mistake and the hardest one to shake. Reading through your exercise book feels productive. It is not revision. It is a warm-up at best.
Revision means testing yourself. It means closing the book, writing down everything you can remember about a topic, then checking. It means doing past paper questions under timed conditions before you feel ready. The discomfort of not knowing is not a sign that you should go back and read more — it is the signal that learning is actually happening.
The research on this is clear: retrieval practice — actively pulling information out of your memory — leads to far better retention than passive review. Use flashcards, past paper questions, or simply a blank sheet of paper. Put the notes away.
2. The question is telling you something — read it twice
I mark a lot of mock papers. The most painful errors to read are the ones where the student clearly knew the content but answered a different question to the one that was asked. “Describe” when the question said “explain.” A calculation left without units when the mark scheme required them. A graph drawn without a label on the axis.
The exam paper is a communication from the examiner. Every word in the question is deliberate. Read the question once to understand what is being asked. Read it again before you write your final answer to make sure you have actually answered it. This single habit recovers more marks than almost anything else I can teach.
3. Sleep is part of your revision
I understand the pressure. Mock week feels like the time to push harder, stay up later, squeeze in one more set of flashcards at midnight. But the evidence is not on the side of the late-night session.
Sleep is when the brain consolidates what it has learned during the day. Cutting it short does not just leave you tired — it actively reduces how much of the previous revision you will be able to recall in the exam. A student who revises for six hours and sleeps well will outperform one who revises for nine and sleeps poorly.
In the week before mocks: stop revising by 9 or 10pm. Do something that genuinely relaxes you. Get eight hours. This is not a treat you can earn later — it is the thing that makes the revision stick.
4. The mark scheme rewards showing your thinking
In most GCSE subjects, a correct final answer is not the only thing being rewarded. Examiners are marking for method — they want to see how you got there. A student who writes the right answer with no working shown may receive fewer marks than one who sets up the method correctly and makes a small arithmetic error at the end.
In Maths: write the formula before you substitute values. Show each step on a separate line. If you have time, write a brief check. In Science: use the command words as a guide — “explain” needs cause and effect, not just a description. In English: every point needs evidence and comment. In every subject, marks are awarded for the thinking you make visible, not just the conclusion you reach.
Mocks are not the end of anything. They are information — the most honest feedback you will get on where you are and what needs work before the real thing. If your results are not what you hoped, that is exactly the data you needed. What matters now is what you do with it. If you want support putting that into action, find out how Ariston matches students to the right tutor.