Online mock exams
Smart Revise can be used to simulate a real exam, albeit online. As a great alternative to Exam Builder, Exam Pro and other mock exam creation tools, Smart Revise Tasks can automatically choose the questions saving teachers a lot of time.
Students complete the exam online. This can be marked by the teacher, self-assessed or peer marked. Results are recorded automatically in the mark book.
How Smart Revise can be used to create online mock exams
Tasks
A teacher can:
- Create a task to simulate a real exam for any course unit.
- Set a time when the task is automatically submitted regardless of whether the student has finished.
- Choose teacher, self or peer marking.
- Record the results in a mark book.
- Use analytic reports to investigate the outcomes of the exam to identify learning priorities.
A student can:
- Complete the exam online.
- Submit their virtual paper when they have finished.
The research
The testing effect is a well-known concept referring to gains in learning and retention that can occur when students take a practice test on studied material before taking a final test on the same material.
Research demonstrates that students who take practice tests often outperform students in nontesting learning conditions such as restudying, practice, filler activities, or no presentation of the material. Results reveal that practice tests are more beneficial for learning than restudying.
Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A., & Sundararajan, N. (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of practice testing. Review of Educational Research, 87(3), 659–701
Setting the task experience to match a real exam
- Topics: Select multiple topics for one unit only.
For example, in OCR J277 topics for paper 1 start with a 1, and topics for paper 2 start with a 2.
- Experience: set appropriate to the exam board requirements.
For example an OCR J277 Computer Science component one includes multiple choice, medium answer and just one extended response 8 mark question. The paper is 1 hour, 30 minutes. Typically you may configure the task as follows:
Note the task content screen adapts to the subject. The screen shown is for OCR Computer Science J277. There will be a different screen for Business to reflect that course.
An OCR J277 Computer Science component two includes multiple choice, medium answer and just one 6 mark algorithm question. The paper is 1 hour, 30 minutes.
- Questions: Reduce workload by accepting the default questions chosen. They will be presented in order of topics in an appropriate journey for the student through the paper.
- Schedule: Choose a deadline enforced task that will automatically submit the task at the deadline, simulating the end of the time for the exam.
