In the eight weeks after mocks, schools should analyse results by question and topic, identify learners at risk, and run short, targeted interventions. Small-group tuition for two to five students, about three sessions a week, works alongside frequent low-stakes quizzes, followed by a re-test. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) rates feedback at +6 months’ progress and small-group tuition at +4.
Which intervention strategies work for learners at risk?
The strategies with the strongest evidence are cheap and classroom-based; tutoring adds targeted support on top. The EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit summarises the evidence:
| Strategy | EEF headline | Average impact | Secondary-age impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metacognition and self-regulation | High impact, very low cost, extensive evidence | +8 months | Similar across ages |
| Feedback | High impact, very low cost, extensive evidence | +6 months | +5 months |
| One to one tuition | Moderate impact, moderate cost, moderate evidence | +5 months | +4 months |
| Mastery learning | Moderate impact, very low cost, limited evidence | +5 months | +3 months |
| Small group tuition | Moderate impact, low cost, moderate evidence | +4 months | +2 months |
| Extending school time | Moderate impact, moderate cost, moderate evidence | +3 months | +2 months |
These are averages from studies that are mostly UK-based, so they indicate what tends to work rather than guarantee a result for a particular Cambridge or Edexcel cohort. Two points matter for planning. Tutoring’s effect is smaller for older students. And the high-impact, low-cost strategies, feedback and metacognition, happen in normal lessons.
How do you identify learners at risk after mocks?
Use the mock at question level, not just the grade. A grade tells you who is at risk. Question-level data tells you why, and that decides which intervention fits. Three groups usually emerge:
- Boundary students. Within a few marks of a key grade, such as C/4 or a university offer grade. Usually the best return on intervention time.
- Topic-gap students. Secure overall but losing most of their marks in one or two topics.
- Exam-technique students. Knowing the content but losing marks on command words, timing or unanswered questions.
A question-level analysis separates these groups quickly. For IGCSE students, check tier decisions at the same time, because a mock can move a student between Core and Extended.
How should small-group intervention be organised?
Keep groups small, sessions frequent and the programme short. The EEF defines small-group tuition as “one teacher, trained teaching assistant or tutor working with two to five pupils together in a group”. It notes that “frequent sessions, three times a week or so, lasting up to an hour over about 10 weeks typically show the greatest impact”. It also warns that “once group size increases above six or seven there is a noticeable reduction in effectiveness”.
Its tutoring guide, Making a Difference with Effective Tutoring, gives a range of “six to twelve weeks”, which is where an eight-week plan sits. Its principles include “aligning tutoring with curriculum and assessment”. Intervention sessions should work on the same topics and question types the mock exposed, not on a separate programme.
What does an 8-week post-mock plan look like?
This is our recommended structure, built on the EEF guidance above. For a June-series school with January mocks, it runs from late January to the Easter break.
| Week | Focus | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Analyse | Question-level analysis by class; groups identified; whole-class feedback on the three most common errors |
| 2 | Plan | Groups of 2–5 formed by gap, not by grade; students set targets on the topics they lost marks on |
| 3–6 | Intervene | Three focused sessions a week per group; weekly low-stakes quizzes on the target topics for the whole class |
| 7 | Re-test | Short re-test of the target topics under timed conditions |
| 8 | Review | Compare re-test with mock by topic; confirm tier entries; decide who continues into the revision period |
Two principles hold the plan together. First, retrieval practice for everyone. The EEF’s cognitive science review calls low-stakes quizzing “a promising approach that teachers should consider”, with evidence that is “moderate and generally positive”. Second, spacing: revisiting topics across days and lessons shows “a small positive impact across pupil ages and subject areas” (EEF review).
What intervention strategies work in the classroom?
Feedback that students act on. The EEF’s feedback guidance recommends delivering “appropriately timed feedback that focuses on moving learning forward” and planning “for how pupils will receive and use feedback” (EEF). After a mock, that means lesson time for students to correct and redo the questions they got wrong, not just a returned script. It also means teaching students to plan and check their own answers. That is the metacognition strand, with the largest average impact in the Toolkit.
How schools do this with AI Buddy
AI Buddy shortens the first two weeks. Mocks set on AI Buddy are marked instantly, and cohort analytics show marks by topic and question type for every class, so the three at-risk groups are visible on day one. Teachers then assign targeted quizzes to each group from 200,000+ past-paper-style questions. They track the weekly retrieval quizzes and compare the week 7 re-test with the mock, topic by topic. Teachers decide who needs tutoring; AI Buddy supplies the evidence and the practice.
Frequently asked questions
What should schools do after mock exams?
Analyse the results by question and topic, group learners at risk by the reason they lost marks, run short targeted interventions with regular quizzes, and re-test before confirming entries.
What is the best group size for intervention?
The EEF defines small-group tuition as two to five pupils and reports a noticeable drop in effectiveness above six or seven.
How long should a post-mock intervention last?
The EEF’s tutoring guidance describes sessions about three times a week over six to twelve weeks. An eight-week plan fits within that range.
What are effective intervention strategies in the classroom?
Feedback students act on, teaching students to plan and check their own work, and frequent low-stakes retrieval quizzes spaced across lessons.
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Sources
- Education Endowment Foundation, Teaching and Learning Toolkit: small group tuition, feedback, one to one tuition, metacognition and self-regulation
- Education Endowment Foundation, Making a Difference with Effective Tutoring (November 2022)
- Education Endowment Foundation, Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning
- Education Endowment Foundation, Cognitive science approaches in the classroom: a review of the evidence (2021)