Something help with the exams? Yes please, bike it over. Here Roger Frost looks at a tool to help you assemble tests and exams. But first a glance at a packages aiming to help with exam revision. 

Exampro - exam making software - below

Revision software: 

Such is the buying power of a good exam grade has that if you can nudge a grade 'D' pupil up to a 'C', there's a very rich future ahead.

Software publishers know this. They have passed their maths with an equation where computers plus exams is an answer to a prayer. They have multiplied it with claims to 'dramatically improve grades' and to 'help children excel'. You will wonder if it's time for schools to hype their marketing like this too.

DK's Acacia Revise long ago settled on the strategy to offer lots of exam practice with multiple choice questions. Worked through studiously - meaning that pupils make best guesses and assimilate the right answers - it helps brush up knowledge. With around 1000 questions per subject, REVISE can even offer a session on just one theme or level. This has led some schools to run revision sessions every half term in the exam years - running sessions as class exercises, or 'homework'.  

The software works if you can handle the idea that 'revision' doesn't teach anything new. You can test this very easily: work on a subject you know nothing about and then see how much you learn. Work on one that you do, and facts start to ease out of your filling system. This has led other brands to offer a little tutorial support. For example, Granada Learning's Exam Tutor offers on-screen help 'cards' to swot from.

The nice feature of Granada's series is that the questions break out of the 'ABCDE' mould and offer all sorts of matching and gap filling exercises. This is not only good technique, it makes for a less tiresome session than with the Acacia range. As a bonus I guess you didn't ask for, Granada's titles come with a generous license where you can buy inexpensive extra discs for school while students can have copies for £19.99.

Anglia's Essential Companion's for English and Maths are a bit special too. Though sold as home titles they offer text tutorials that explain the key areas, a scheduler to plan for the big day plus a significant timed exam section with hundreds of questions.

As the lists that follow show, the choice is daunting. Most seem to work on the idea that doing SOMETHING about the exams is better than nothing. In the rough month ahead some pupils will realise how much they do not know but some will see where they're  headed and work harder. Using software might just tip the scales.

Details: 

Home titles cost £15-£20 per subject from mail order or retail outlets. School editions cost £20-£50 and usually more for site licences. There ARE differences in between home and school products, so do use education suppliers. AVP's online catalogue at www.avp.co.uk should help or Tel: 01291 625439

DK Acacia home packages are for GCSE maths, chemistry, biology, physics and geography. Education packs come as science, maths and geography. A 'Test for Success' series covers maths, geography and science at age 14. From DK

Exam Tutor is available for biology, chemistry and physics. Also available is 'Practice science for national tests at age 11' with a sister maths title for age 7. From Granada Learning Tel: 0161 827 2927

Anglia's Essential Companion series includes home titles for maths and English. From Anglia Multimedia 

'The Inside Track to GCSE Success' comes as school and home editions from Logotron Tel: 01223 425558. Subjects include English, maths, science and geography. The home range has similar content to GSP's 'Revise for … ' series and WH Smith's own branded revision titles. Logotron also have a new literature series for GCSE and SATs.

Europress offer home study GCSE titles for Maths, Physics, English, SAT's titles for Science, Maths and Mental Arithmetic; 'Language Labs' for numerous tongues and many titles for younger pupils. From Europress 

Aircom also have a vast range for GCSE with each subject covered over several discs. From Aircom 

Exam making software - Exampro

On the other side of revision tools is an entirely different breed of software. Imagine banks of past exam questions that let you assemble a paper based test. The key brand name is EXAMPRO where you buy a package that matches your syllabus and can create a mock paper complete with a mark scheme. But this is just touching the surface of what is possible when you put things on a computer.

If you haven't covered every topics in time for the mock, it's no matter to remove them and have Exampro recalculate the marks. If you want a test that lasts 30 minutes, the package tells you how long each is allowed for each question. And if you want to produce revision material because the class needs to brush up on photosynthesis, or punctuation you can produce custom material quite quickly.

Reports from schools speak highly of it: they say they select easier questions for younger groups, or make exams that become progressively harder. Some schools even let their keen pupils make their own papers. Teachers who want to edit the questions or indeed recycle countless graphics in the package will find themselves with a rich cache of material.

Exampro covers GCSE and advanced level syllabi from EDEXCEL, NEAB and CCA. Unless your syllabus is particularly special, such as Salter's Science, the 1000 questions in the double award GCSE title ought to work well enough with most exam boards.

More recently version have arrived for each of the QCA key stages - starting with the tests for age seven and leading to a key stage 4 science title due in the autumn. Teachers will find here some intriguing benefits - for example at key stage one, you quickly run out of desk space hopping between guidance notes, questions you ask the kids, resources sheets, answer sheets and the mark scheme. But now, because the computer information is cross-referenced you can pull all the pieces together in one document.

Details

Exampro typically costs £95 per subject, £50 for key stage 1 subjects and this offers a site licence. Internet: www.exampro.co.uk Available via Nelson Thornes Publishers