GCSE mock exams

GCSE mocks, timed like the real thing.

Sit a full-length paper built for your syllabus, on a clock that does not stop when you close the tab. Hand it in and get marked question by question on the 9 to 1 scale, so you know exactly where the marks went before results day tells you.

Start free, no card How the Exam Hall works

Timed mocks are on Plus (20 a month) and Max (75 a month), with a 7 day Max trial for every new account.

How a mock runs

Pick your subject and sit down
Choose a GCSE subject and start. The paper is built for your syllabus, not a generic question set, so the balance of question types matches what you will face in the summer.
The clock runs like the real thing
Full paper length, anchored on the server. Shutting the laptop does not buy you extra minutes. That is the point.
Marked question by question
Not one number at the end. Each question comes back with its own feedback, so you can see which ones cost you and go straight into a lesson on that topic.

Why mocks move grades

Knowing the content and producing it in a room with a clock are two different skills, and only one of them gets practised by rereading notes. In most GCSE subjects the final exams decide nearly everything, and they are the one assessment you can rehearse as many times as you want. Most students rehearse once, at the school mocks in November, and then not again until the real papers in May.

Moving from a grade 6 answer to a grade 8 answer is usually not about knowing more. It is about finishing the paper, judging what each question is actually asking before you write, and leaving nothing blank. The Exam Hall runs that rehearsal under the same pressure, because a mock without the clock measures the wrong skill.

The marking is where the grade actually moves. A raw mark tells you almost nothing. Knowing you dropped every mark on the six-mark extended answers and none on the one-markers tells you exactly what to do next. For essays and long answers, Edapt's marking grades your writing the way an examiner would. Not "good effort", but the marks you would have lost, and why.

The boards' own past papers still belong in your plan. AQA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC all publish them with mark schemes, and nothing beats them for the feel of the real paper. What they cannot do is mark you, or give you a fresh paper once you have memorised the old ones. Use both.

A mock cycle that actually works

One mock is a snapshot. A cycle is a study method. This is the loop worth running from now until the real papers.

Sit the paper under the clock, in one sitting, phone in another room. Half-timed mocks measure nothing.
Read the marking before you reread anything else. The questions you dropped are the syllabus telling you what to revise next.
Go into a lesson on the topic that cost you most, then answer practice questions on it from memory before you look anything up.
Sit another paper on the same subject a week or two later. The gap is where the improvement shows up.
Keep the board's real past papers for full-dress rehearsals a few weeks out, when you want the exact wording and mark scheme.

Common questions

Are these real past papers from AQA, Edexcel or OCR?

No, and you should sit those too. Every exam board publishes past papers and mark schemes free on its website, and they are the best picture of the real paper. Edapt's mocks come from a shared question bank plus questions generated against your syllabus, so you never run out of fresh papers once you have memorised the old ones, and every one you sit gets marked. Past papers show you the exam. Mocks here show you your gaps.

How does the timer work?

The paper runs the same length as the real one, and the clock is anchored on the server, not in your browser, so closing the tab does not stop it. A mock you can quietly pause while you look something up is a worksheet.

How is it marked?

Question by question, with feedback on each rather than a single score at the end. You can see exactly which questions cost you marks and go straight back into a lesson on that topic. For extended answers, Edapt's marking grades your writing the way an examiner would, on your syllabus's own 9 to 1 scale, with what to fix to climb a grade.

My school already runs mocks. Why sit more?

School mocks happen once, usually in November or December, and the result arrives weeks later as a single grade. That is one rehearsal and not much of a debrief. Sitting your own mocks means you choose the subject, sit it when a topic is fresh, and get the marking back straight away while there is still time to act on it. School mocks tell your teachers where you are. Your own mocks tell you what to do next.

Which plan do I need?

Timed mock exams are on Plus (20 a month) and Max (75 a month), and marking for essays and long answers is on Max. Every new account starts with a 7 day Max trial, no card.

When should I start sitting mocks?

Earlier than feels comfortable. Most students save timed practice for the weeks before the summer exams, which means they discover their timing problems when there is no time left to fix them. Sitting a paper once a topic is covered, even badly, tells you what to revise next while that information is still useful.

Keep going

GCSE mocks, timed like the real thing.

Timed mocks are on Plus (20 a month) and Max (75 a month), with a 7 day Max trial for every new account.

How a mock runs

Pick your subject and sit down

Choose a GCSE subject and start. The paper is built for your syllabus, not a generic question set, so the balance of question types matches what you will face in the summer.

The clock runs like the real thing

Full paper length, anchored on the server. Shutting the laptop does not buy you extra minutes. That is the point.

Marked question by question

Not one number at the end. Each question comes back with its own feedback, so you can see which ones cost you and go straight into a lesson on that topic.

Why mocks move grades

A mock cycle that actually works

One mock is a snapshot. A cycle is a study method. This is the loop worth running from now until the real papers.

Sit the paper under the clock, in one sitting, phone in another room. Half-timed mocks measure nothing.

Read the marking before you reread anything else. The questions you dropped are the syllabus telling you what to revise next.

Go into a lesson on the topic that cost you most, then answer practice questions on it from memory before you look anything up.

Sit another paper on the same subject a week or two later. The gap is where the improvement shows up.

Keep the board's real past papers for full-dress rehearsals a few weeks out, when you want the exact wording and mark scheme.