September 2024
Doing mock exams massively increases your chances of passing the real thing. Louise Grant explains why.
Completing all of the mocks available to you in the weeks before an exam can be a laborious task, especially for the level 4 units where a mock may be three hours long. So how many should you be aiming to sit and how much difference will it make to your results may be questions you ask yourself while trying to decide if to watch the soaps then have an early night or sit down and commit to completing a mock.
As a student I asked myself those same questions many times; after a long day at work and family commitments in the evening finding the motivation and energy for mocks could be really tough.
Now as a tutor, with access to real data on the real impact of mocks, I will always encourage my students to sit every mock available to them and to do this with enough time to review their results and revise any areas where they have struggled.
The data shows a clear difference between students who complete the mocks and those who do not – for Business Environment at level 2 we can see that four out of five students who did not pass an exam had not completed a mock.
The vast majority of students who did complete their mocks did go on to pass their exam.
This exam is the first time students will need to complete a written task, and as well as feedback on the computer marked questions we can see that students benefit hugely from feedback on their written answers. This feedback, which will be obtained through the completion of mocks, will enable students to learn from their mistakes and build on their skills and confidence. There is a general consensus that AAT students dislike the written tasks and this continues throughout levels 2, 3 and 4. Being able to work with a tutor and learn the skills needed and the approach to take with these tasks early on will ensure students are well prepared for the higher level exams such as Internal Accounting Systems and Controls, where the written tasks are the majority of the marks available. Students studying without a training provider may find it useful to find a study buddy; many students across the AAT social media pages do this and review each other’s answers.
Similar results can be seen across all exams at all levels.
We can clearly see that students who attempt the mock exams are better prepared, with repeated practice under exam conditions students are able to plan how to manage their time, allowing themselves more time for the tasks they find more difficult and ensuring they can complete the full exam in the time allowed. Students can find completing individual tasks at different times manageable; however, they struggle to manage their time in exam conditions. Completing mocks in full in exam conditions, with books closed and phones turned off, will highlight this and enable students to prepare themselves in advance.
Students can find concentrating for the hours required to complete a mock quite difficult and may find it best to build their stamina up first, committing to smaller revision sessions and slowly increasing the time until they feel prepared to attempt a full mock paper.
Making errors in the mocks is an important learning process too, with both the calculation and written tasks, highlighting those areas where more revision is needed. Repeatedly practising and reviewing these tasks will improve the long-term retention of the information and skills needed for the exam.
The process of reviewing your own answers and the model answers is just as important as completing the mock itself.
The AAT mocks not only provide valuable question practice they also help students familiarise themselves with the system layout, how to navigate between the tasks and use functions such as the highlighter and the reference material that is available as a pop-up for certain units.
As well as highlighting weaknesses mocks are also an important tool for improving a student’s confidence. Exam day anxiety affects many students and feeling well prepared and confident about what to expect in the live exam will improve the overall experience.
Therefore when preparing to book an exam students must ensure they have adequate time to complete all of the mocks available to them, with time to review their results and seek tutor support where necessary. While this may mean students take longer to complete each unit the data clearly shows this will increase their potential of passing the exam.
- Louise Grant, AAT Distance Learning Tutor at First intuition
