Every year, mock exams arrive like a tidal wave. Papers pile up, marking takes over your evenings, and the coffee machine becomes your closest colleague. It’s tempting to see mocks as just another assessment cycle to survive. But if you look closely, mock exam scripts offer some of the richest insights you’ll ever get into your students’ writing—and, by extension, their learning.
Recent developments in the National Curriculum have sharpened the focus on disciplinary literacy. Rather than treating literacy as a generic set of transferable skills, schools are encouraged to recognise that each subject has its own vocabulary, text types, grammatical patterns and ways of constructing knowledge.
In practice, this means asking questions such as:
- How does historical argument differ from scientific explanation?
- What does ‘good writing’ look like in geography compared to English?
- How do exam questions signal the kind of writing students are expected to produce?
Mock exams give us a great opportunity and empirical evidence to explore these questions.
What Mock Exams Reveal About Student Writing
Mock exam scripts give us an honest, unfiltered picture of what students know and how they write when no one is there to guide them. They reveal the habits students fall back on — from beautifully planned responses to stream‑of‑consciousness writing or forgetting to paragraph entirely. These scripts show how students interpret question prompts, use subject‑specific vocabulary, and express their knowledge under real pressure. When we look at these patterns across classes and schools, we gain the insight needed to design teaching approaches and resources that genuinely scaffold learning and help students become stronger, more confident writers.
Working With the BAWESS Team
This is where the BAWESS project comes in. Our current work focuses on investigating disciplinary literacy in exam years. By analysing authentic mock exam responses, we aim to:
- explore how writing differs across subjects and levels of study
- design practical, research-informed resources to support teachers
- develop strategies that can be embedded into everyday classroom practice
To do this well, we need your help!
🌟 Why Sharing Mock Exam Scripts Matters
— and Why Your Participation in the BAWESS Project Makes a Difference
Sharing your mock scripts BAWESS team will help all of us understand student writing more deeply — and it brings real benefits to the classroom, by providing:
- A clearer picture of writing challenges across subjects
See how your students’ writing compares with patterns emerging nationally.
- Insight into the real language demands of your subject
Help identify where students struggle with vocabulary, structure, or explanation — even when they know the content.
- Better tools and guidance for teaching writing
BAWESS uses real scripts to develop practical, ready‑to‑use strategies that feed directly back into teaching.
Your students’ work will be used solely for research and professional development purposes. In return, our findings will feed directly into:
- resources for teaching disciplinary writing
- CPD workshops for departments and schools
- guidance to support exam preparation across disciplines
At a time when workload pressures are high, this is a way to ensure that mock exams do more than generate grades. They can actively shape better teaching and learning. By sharing mock exam writing and engaging with our research, you can help us move towards that goal.
If you’d like to contribute or find out more about the project, please get in touch with the BAWESS team.
Information about how to get involved in the BAWESS project can be found here. Alternatively, you can complete this form, or contact us as bawess@bath.ac.uk.
