United States
Hong KongWorking through a full mock, question by question
Sit it full length and timed, then spend as long reviewing as you spent sitting. Sort every miss into knowledge, misreading or carelessness, and treat each differently - only the first needs more study.
The mock is the cheap part. The review is where the marks come from, and it is the part people skip.
Sitting it
Eighty questions, 120 minutes, one sitting, no notes, phone in another room.
Flag as you go rather than stopping. Write nothing down during the mock beyond the flags - the point is to reproduce the conditions, and you cannot annotate the real thing.
The review
Budget ninety minutes to two hours. If the review is quicker than the mock, it was not a review.
Go through every question you got wrong and every question you flagged - including the flagged ones you got right, because a correct guess is not a mark you can rely on.
Sort every miss into three piles
| Category | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | You did not know the rule | Study it, and write the provision down |
| Misreading | You knew it and answered a different question | Technique, not content - read stems twice |
| Carelessness | You knew it and clicked wrong, or rushed | Slow down; nothing to study |
The sorting matters because the three need completely different responses, and treating a misreading problem with more revision does not fix it.
For each knowledge miss
- Write down the rule, not the letter.
- Note which content area it belongs to.
- Check whether you missed anything else in that area.
- If two or more misses cluster in one area, that is your next study session.
By the end you should have a short list of areas rather than a long list of questions. The list of areas is the plan.
Questions you guessed right are the most valuable ones in the review, because on the day they were unknowns and the score does not show it. Review them exactly as though you had got them wrong.
Pacing data
Note how long the mock took. Most candidates finish inside ninety minutes.
Finishing in fifty is a warning rather than a triumph - it usually means questions were not being read twice. Running out of time means the opposite, and points at second-guessing rather than pace.
Then do it again
A second mock, on fresh questions, after you have worked on what the first exposed. Two above 80 per cent is the readiness signal.
If the second is lower than the first, that is information rather than a setback: usually it means the first bank was familiar, which the review has now corrected.
Common questions
How should you sit a mock exam?
Full length at eighty questions, timed at 120 minutes, in one sitting, no notes, phone elsewhere. Flag as you go and write nothing down beyond the flags.
How long should reviewing take?
Ninety minutes to two hours - about as long as the mock itself. If the review is quicker than sitting it, it was not a review.
How do you categorize a wrong answer?
Knowledge, misreading, or carelessness. Only the first needs more study; the second is a technique problem and the third is a pace problem, and treating them the same fixes none of them.
Should you review questions you got right?
The ones you flagged, yes. A correct guess is not a reliable mark, and on the day those were unknowns even though the score does not show it.
What if the second mock scores lower?
Usually it means the first bank was familiar and the second was not, which is information rather than a setback. The trend across several mocks matters more than any single score.