My kids have never attended school, so they have never written tests or exams in an external setting (we have written a few exam papers at home as practice). But writing a mock at home is quite different to writing a mock exam at an exam center. So last week my oldest went and wrote two mocks at an exam center.

Firstly I am going to admit that writing International GCSE’s (which is what most home educated kids do) is NOT cheap. School kids get to write their exams for free but home educated kids have to pay for every exam that they write and then if they want to write a mock that is an extra expense which you need to cover as well. So the decision on whether your kids write mocks or not could honestly come down to costs (writing a mock is very close in price to writing an actual exam). And I totally understand that a number of people are going to just say it is too expensive to add in the costs of mocks (believe me I get that).

But we decided to stagger our exams (and I want to say the decision on whether your kid staggers their exams or writes them all in one go is totally a personal decision and like everything with home education it is down to what is best for your family). But one of the advantages of staggering the exams is we don’t have to pay for all the exams in one go so by staggering the exams we actually made it a bit easier on ourselves to pay for the mocks (being able to afford the mocks was not a reason when we decided to stagger them but it ended up being a bonus for us).

So why did we want to write mocks? Simply put it is for the experience. She has never had to write an exam in an external venue before so the exam culture that most student take for granted are new to her. The whole experience of walking into a hall with a bunch of strangers, sitting at an allocated desk, not turning your paper over, making sure you write your name on it, then working quietly, not getting distracted by others, what to do if you need extra space or even going to the toilet during the exam. All of those small things are things she never experienced. And for somebody with sensory processing disorder some of those small issues could become quite big issues.

Also it is practice in doing everything in the build up to the exam. Practice in managing the stress and nerves of – “I am going to write an exam”. Being able to sleep the night before. Waking up the morning of the exam and what do you do – do you just take it easy or do you try and read through some notes. Practice in preparing for the exam, reviewing her work, figuring our how much she should study and when she needs to give herself a break.

So for us the mocks where really about getting to practice the entire experience before it is the real deal.

And how did it actually go?

The exam center is not close to us, we chose it because it is an exam center in which she can write all of her subjects, but it did mean a train trip and a short walk. We arrived at the destination station a bit early so we went to a local coffee shop and had some extra breakfast, then we walked there, signed in and took our seats in the waiting area. The students where called in the hall and I left. I have to admit the walk from the exam center back to the local coffee shop where I was going to sit and read for the duration of her exam was filled with some panic as I kept thinking of scenarios that I may not have prepared her for. But once I went back to fetch her she was calm and happy, and said it went well. Then we went and had a quick lunch before we had to go back for her second exam. For the second exam we where both more relaxed because we knew what to expect.

All in all it was a long day. We left the house at 7:25am and after writing two exams we got home around 4:15pm. It was a long and expensive day but it was 100% worth it. The satisfaction that she can do this is real. She wrote two papers in one day. She went to a strange place, sat in a strange hall with a bunch of strange people and she wrote the exams. She did it. She now knows that she can manage the entire thing. She knows. And for me that is key. She has proven to herself that she can do an exam at an exam center.

Yes it is expensive but for us the experience, the fact that when she actually goes there for the real exam it will not be a first time that for us was worth the cost.

And yes we are getting her papers marked and it will be good to see how she did. But regardless of what her marks are (we have two months before she writes for first exam and then another extra month before she writes the second, all of which is just for revision), the experience was priceless. The experience and the knowledge that she can do this makes the price of the mocks worthwhile.

(This is the two of us on the way to the exam center – and yes there was a freezing wind that day which is why we are bundled up)