PAT mock papers are being rebuilt

Why the page is empty rather than half full

There were twenty questions here, and they were sound: every answer key had been proved by computer algebra and every wording read and confirmed. They were made before the machine existed, though, and the page had to explain a way of working that is being replaced. Two accounts of how a paper is made, on one site, is one too many.

Rather than leave them up under a description nobody should have to read, they are withheld until they can be rebuilt the way the ESAT papers are. Nothing is lost: they are kept, and the rebuild is a rewrite rather than a fresh start.

What they will be, and how they will be made

The same way as the ESAT papers, which are published in full and free to use today. That means:

• Measured against the official material, not against an opinion. Question length, diagram share and answer distribution are compared with what the exam board publishes, and anything outside that range is rewritten rather than argued for.
• Every option recomputed, not pattern matched. Each wrong answer is worked out independently, which is also what catches two options that are secretly the same value written differently.
• Mapped to the specification, question by question. Every question is written against a named sub-topic, so coverage is a fact that can be counted rather than a claim.
• Gated before it ships. A build gate refuses a paper over a malformed question, two questions of the same shape, credited answers bunching on one letter, or a timing budget overrun.
• Read by a person. None of the above tells you whether a solution explains anything, which is why every one of them is read as well.

You can see exactly what that produces: the ESAT worked solutions are free, complete, and the same writing these will be.