1. Moving the Middle by Making the Most of Mocks (AKA Mmmmm...)
Aims
to articulate some of the key issues associated with making mock feedback as learning-focused as
possible, whilst remaining manageable in terms of time and resourcing
Key questions to consider
How 'high-leverage' is our mocks process – how much learning and progress is resulting from the
time and effort we put into setting, administering and marking the exams?
How can we build learning-rich formative activities into the mocks process?
How might we use ICT to help us to generate high-quality feedback?
How confident are we that students, particularly middle-achievers, understand the advice they are
being given?
How far are we requiring students to engage with the targets that they've been given – are we
following up feedback with tasks that make them work hard to act on the advice?
A Possible Approach
Detailed here is a possible route through the mocks – this isn't produced with the expectation that
all faculties should follow this, but it may be of use to stimulate reflection on existing / planned
approaches. It’s similar to the approach MG has taken with the English mock this year.
1) Marking the Mocks
Teachers mark with very light annotation and record the mark / comments / targets for each
question on an Excel spreadsheet – no marks are written on the paper itself. This enables peer /
self-assessment of the paper and provides valuable data for each student and each class which
can be used to inform teaching post-mocks.
The data gathered is then mail-merged onto a Word template, providing personalised feedback
for each student.
The data can also be used to generate whole-class analysis for the teacher / students, indicating
strengths and weaknesses in performance.
2) Feedback lessons
Feedback lessons involve students self / peer assessing their own performance, using a student-
friendly mark-scheme (not necessarily that provided by the board).
Lessons maintain focus and coherence by looking at particular skill areas / types of question,
rather than asking students to engage with the entire mark scheme at once.
A typical approach might be to discuss each question / a series of questions, then students self-
mark in a structured, disciplined way, alongside success criteria – no problems with periods of
silent work here.
It's essential that targets are not set then 'left-hanging' – students need to be required to engage
with the targets as soon as possible. One simple way to achieve this is to get students to rewrite /
redo the exam questions for the areas in which they didn't achieve, implementing their targets
and showing progress.
Here are two examples of an elearning feedback lesson – let me know if you’d like to do
something similar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpeKfKeR6pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50v5DTYeSDM
3) Post-mocks analysis

2. Use the Excel data / work scrutiny to 'thin-slice' performance – what are the absolute key skills /
knowledge / exam techniques that the middle-achievers need to improve in order to push on?
4) Post-analysis actions
Use the knowledge gained from analysis to reflect on and refocus learning intentions for the new
year – what are the key areas / skills to revisit / re-teach?
Re-print Word feedback sheets for mentors, PCEs, tutors of target students etc and provide
specific advice / resources as to supporting these students
Support with learning and teaching resources / strategies for identified weak areas
Produce short Jings or films which target the key areas which students are weaker at and show
models of strong performance in these areas
This is high-leverage because:
Teachers get a lot back from doing the marking: planned feedback lessons, analysis of their class'
performance, reusable feedback sheets
Students are made to focus on their performance before the distraction of getting their marks –
this works well when the teacher feedback is withheld until the student shows evidence of
having engaged fully with the self-assessment
Elearning resources are created which store teacher explanation of key points in a highly
accessible and reusable form
If you are interested in pursuing the sample approach mentioned in the document, these short screencasts
will take you through the IT bits:
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqw49Wquv0o - overview of the process
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1m6j9xh9YM – Using Mail-Merge to create personalised feedback
sheets
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itTmo7ECwy4 – Using Conditional Formatting