Your child has just spent an hour concentrating on a full 11+ Maths mock exam. You mark the paper, calculate the percentage, and present them with the score.
What happens next is the single most important – and most often neglected- part of the entire process. For many families, the score is the end of the story. It’s either a source of celebration or a cause for disappointment, and then the paper is filed away. This is a huge missed opportunity.
The real learning from a mock exam doesn’t happen during the test; it happens in the review. The score itself is just a single data point. The real value is in the mistakes, as they provide a treasure map pointing directly to the areas where your child can make the most progress.
At elevenplus.com, we believe that a powerful review process can turn any mock exam result into a positive and productive learning experience. This guide will provide you with a definitive 3-step framework to analyse your child’s performance, identify the root cause of their errors, and create a laser-focused action plan.
In this definitive guide, you will learn:
- Why the review is more important than the score.
- A 3-step framework to deconstruct your child’s performance.
- How to categorise mistakes to understand the why behind them.
- The powerful “Mistake Notebook” technique for consolidating learning.
The First Step: Manage the Emotion
Before you even look at the first question, you must manage the emotional reaction to the score—both yours and your child’s. A disappointing result can knock a child’s confidence, and your anxiety will only amplify this.
- The Technique: Frame the mock exam as a detective mission, not a final judgment. The score is not a grade; it’s a set of clues.
- What to say: “Okay, great effort! This paper has given us some really useful clues about which topics are the trickiest. Let’s be detectives and see what it’s telling us.”
- Why it Works: This depersonalises the result. It separates your child’s self-worth from their score and turns the review into a collaborative problem-solving exercise rather than a critique of their ability.
The 3-Step Review Framework: Deconstructing the Mistakes
Once you’ve set a positive tone, it’s time to analyse the errors. Don’t just look at which questions were wrong; look for the pattern behind them. Every mistake falls into one of three categories.
1. Knowledge Gaps
- What it is: The child simply did not know the method required to solve the problem. They looked at the question and had no idea where to start.
- How to spot it: These are often the questions that are left blank or have a random guess as an answer. When you ask your child about it, they’ll say, “I didn’t know how to do that one.”
- The Action Plan: This topic needs to be re-taught from the ground up. No amount of timed practice will help. You need to go back to basics, using workbooks, online tutorials, or tutor support to secure the foundational knowledge.
2. Accuracy Errors (or “Silly Mistakes”)
- What it is: The child understood the method but made a careless error in the execution.
- How to spot it: This could be a simple calculation error (7×8=54), a misread question (calculating the total instead of the change), or a mistake with mixed units. When you point it out, their reaction is usually, “Oh, I knew that!”
- The Action Plan: This is not a knowledge problem; it’s a process problem. The solution is to drill a systematic checking routine. Our “Accuracy Game” guide, with its five key checking techniques, is designed specifically for this.
3. Pacing or Timing Issues
- What it is: The child understood the topic and could have answered correctly, but they ran out of time.
- How to spot it: This is evident from a string of unanswered questions at the end of the paper. It can also be identified by analysing the Time-per-Question, where a child might spend 5 minutes on one difficult question, costing them the chance to answer several easier ones.
- The Action Plan: The solution is to practice time management. This involves working with a timer, learning the “strategic skip” (moving on from a question after a minute if stuck), and building fluency on core topics to increase overall speed.
[Image: A simple table with three columns titled “Knowledge Gap,” “Accuracy Error,” and “Timing Issue,” with brief descriptions in each.]
The Power Tool: The “Mistake Notebook”
To ensure the learning from a review really sticks, we recommend creating a “Mistake Notebook.”
- The Technique: For every “Knowledge Gap” error identified, your child should write the question out in their notebook. Below it, they should write out the full, correct, step-by-step solution.
- Why it Works: The physical act of writing out the correct method is far more powerful than just looking at the answer key. This notebook becomes a personalised revision guide, filled with the exact topics your child needs to focus on before the next mock exam.
From Setback to Stepping Stone
A mock exam is a snapshot, not a final verdict. Its purpose is to guide your preparation, not to predict the future. By using this structured review process, you can transform every mock exam—good or bad—into a powerful stepping stone on the path to 11+ success. You will replace vague worries with a clear, actionable plan, and build your child’s resilience and confidence along the way.
Ready to put this framework into practice?
➡️ Explore our range of timed, exam-style Mock Exams. Each one provides the perfect opportunity to diagnose, analyse, and target your child’s revision for maximum improvement.
