IB Mocks: How to Revise for Mocks in 4 Weeks (Plan + Common Mistakes) [IB2]

How to revise for I-B mocks in four weeks. This plan fails.

The student starts by re-reading every page, because it feels productive. Can you see the mistake?

Re-reading feels familiar, but it never shows you what you don't know. Week one starts with a traffic-light list.

That's step one of a six-step plan. Five more, and each one hides a trap like that.

So what goes on a traffic-light list? And which red topic do you fix first?

Take the syllabus for each subject. Every topic gets a colour. Green, you could answer an exam question on it today. Amber, you half know it. Red, you'd lose most of the marks.

But don't colour it by feel. Close your notes, and write down everything you remember about the topic. If you can't write much, it's red, even if it looked fine when you read it. Step two.

Now you have three red topics. Which one do you fix first? The easiest, the newest, or the one on most past papers?

The one that comes up most on past papers. It can cost you marks on more than one paper. Fix that first, and save the small ones for later. Step three. So once you know your reds, how do you actually fix them?

Week two. Not re-reading. Exam-style questions, with a timer running. Then you mark them yourself, with the mark scheme, line by line. Keep the sessions short, and spread each subject over different days. Spaced practice sticks better than one long day on one subject.

Why does that work? When you pull an answer out of your memory, you remember it better later. Researchers call it retrieval practice. Re-reading only makes the page look familiar.

And marking matters as much as answering. Don't just check the final answer. Find the exact line where the mark went, and write it down. Step four. So what do you do with all those lost marks?

Week three. One full paper for each subject, in real time, with no notes. Next to it, you keep a mistake log. Every lost mark gets one line. What went wrong, and the fix. And watch the clock. If you ran out of time on the last question, that's a lost mark too. Write down where your time went.

Some marks aren't lost on content at all. They're lost on the command term. Describe means give a detailed account. Explain means you also give the reasons, or the causes.

So try this. Explain why ice floats on water. Two marks. Three students answered it. Give each one zero, one or two.

Answer A says ice floats on top of the water. That only describes it. Zero. Answer B says ice is less dense than water. That's a reason. One mark. Answer C says why. Hydrogen bonds hold the molecules in an open lattice, so ice is less dense. Two marks.

That's the trap. A true sentence can still score zero if it doesn't answer the command term. Every slip like A goes in your mistake log, as one line. Step five. So what's left for the last week?

Week four. Nothing new. You revise only from your mistake log, and you redo the questions you got wrong. Here's a line from a log. Lost a mark: no units on the final answer. What's the fix? Pause if you want to try it first; here it is.

Write the units on every final answer. Then take one old paper, and check it only for units. One small habit, and that mark stops leaking.

And sleep. Sleep is when your brain stores what you practised. So in the last two days, short reviews and early nights. Not an all-nighter.

Then your results come back. Don't just look at the grade. Go back to your mistake log, and find the pattern. Content, command terms, or time? That pattern is your plan for the final exams. Your school may also use mocks for predicted grades. Rules differ, so confirm with your coordinator. Step six.

Week one? A traffic-light list. Re-read or test? Test yourself. Explain or describe? Explain gives the reasons.

How do you mark your own answer like an examiner? That's next Sunday.