Yesterday (Thursday 7 October) saw the first two tranches of NTI's Joint Board students attend the actual Kaplan exam centres for their mock exams in both London and Manchester.
Normally we would make a very big thing of this and let you all know how good the experience was, and how well it went. However, we don't need to this time, as our students have done it for us. We set out below excerpts from emails received from some who attended the 'event' yesterday. Decide for yourselves:
The main benefits of a highly positive experience were:
Being in the same environment as the real exam, particularly the noise you will experience from a room full of people typing, was invaluable, as was having a dry run of getting to the venue is always appreciated.
Becoming familiar with the hardware you will use on the day furthers exam preparation in a way that cannot be replicated at home.
Doing the mock exam in the exam centre was such a great experience. It took all the pressure off for the actual day and you got to experience doing the exam in exam conditions; on the software using their computers.
It was the small things for me which made a difference – finding the exam centre, nearest coffee shop, quality of the keyboard, size of the monitor, desk, chair, air conditioning (I know now that I need to layer up!).
It would have been awful if that was the actual exam; this has just taken all the pressure off which you would experience the day before the exam, and you can now just simply prepare for the exam.
I just wanted to say what a great experience it was to have done the mock exam at the actual exam centre yesterday morning.
Not having sat an exam in over 10 years, I would have been quite nervous going to the exam centre on the actual exam day, but completing the mock at the Kaplan centre under proper exam conditions and experiencing this feeling before the exam day it is very helpful. It gives you a chance to test yourself on time management, the use of the keyboard/screen etc. I feel a lot more motivated now to do mocks under proper exam conditions.
[We are SO chuffed ...!!]
