Teach Secondary Issue 13.6

can sometimes be overlooked. Through rigorous practice and rehearsal, students can learn how to better manage their time ‘in situ’, and thus become more informed as to precisely howmuch time they’ll need to allocate to each section of the paper. Teachers can certainly offer some helpful input, but every exam is ultimately a solitary and individual experience. Timing strategies that work well for one student might not be ideally suited to the next. When carried out in tandemwith regular completion of past papers, exam rehearsals can get students fully accustomed to the structure and format of GCSE exams. Completing past papers will help students learn how questions are typically worded, the types of instruction given and how exam papers are laid out, but it’s in the ‘doing’ that students will become properly aware of their own exam techniques, and how these can be refined to improve their performance. What’s the best way of approaching multiple choice questions? How should their essay response be planned and structured? Should they use diagrams or graphs in their answers, and if so, how? It’s also important to remember that presentation matters. Repeated practice will help students improve the quality of their handwriting under timed conditions, and hopefully ensure that they can write quickly, yet legibly. Close simulation Exam rehearsals provide students with opportunities to assess what they do, and more importantly don’t know. The close simulation of exam conditions can expose hitherto unnoticed strengths and weaknesses, help to highlight any areas needing rapid improvement and give students a reliable way of targeting knowledge gaps. From the teacher’s point of view, exam rehearsals can shed useful light on areas of need within different classes, streamline the process of choosing what to cover in revision lessons, and flag up those parts of the paper where students are gaining and losing the most marks. Rehearsals will be used to ensure that a theatrical production proceeds seamlessly, by identifying the potential for errors and reducing the likelihood of them occurring on the night. Just the very act of rehearsing itself can help to reduce performers’ anxiety, and open up the possibility of making adjustments in response to constructive feedback. Mock GCSEs may already occupy a spot on virtually every school’s academic calendar, but the extent to which a school’s mock exams emulate the real thing can and should be explored further. It could be helpful for mock exams to be held more frequently, entail lower stakes and play more of an active role in reducing students’ anxiety. Because what this is ultimately all about is ensuring that students are both mentally and physically prepared to perform at their very best during their final exams. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ama Dickson is a maths teacher and contributor to Collins’ series of maths revision guides; she also regularly posts maths instruction videos to TikTok as @mathscrunch INCLUDE EVERYONE Another benefit of exam rehearsals is how they let students with additional needs familiarise themselves with different adjustments and find out what works for them. Some examples include... Extended time – Some students may require extended time for SEND- or SEMH-related reasons. Exam rehearsals can help to identify students who might be eligible for such support, and then give them a chance to practice managing the increased amount of time they’ll have. Supervised breaks – Exam rehearsals can help to show students how any breaks they might be entitled to can be best utilised. It could be time spent stretching, using the bathroom or simply closing their eyes. Rehearsals allow for the trialling of different ideas to see what works. Exam aids – Enlarged exam papers, magnifiers, coloured overlays and prompters are some examples of the aids that certain students may be entitled to use during exams. Exam rehearsals can show students how and when to use such aids in the most efficient and effective way possible. Supportive devices – The use of a typing accessory, dictionary or or other communication aid can be practiced as part of exam rehearsals to build confidence in its use before the final event of an exam. I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H + TEACH SECONDARY SPECIAL ASSESSMENT 33 teachwire.net/secondary