GCSE grade pathways from year 9

[Everythingnotsavedwillbelost22]

Aibu to ask-
Can someone explain this to me! DS is in year 9 and got a 6 in his GCSE mock test & his teacher said that means he’s likely looking at an 8 in 2 years in his actual GCSE’s. Is that about right? Is it usually 2 grades up? Seems a lot in a short period of time but I am going on what teacher said- he’s just sat an actual GCSE mock exam.

Also, in old money what does it all mean?! What’s an 8 - DS said 7, 8 & 9 were all A grades but how does that work? Is 9 like A** or something? It’s a bit baffling!?!

2 grades is perfectly feasible - DD2 was predicted a 4/5 all the way through into mid Yr 10. Then she got a new maths teacher, something clicked, she carried on working incredibly hard but this time it got her somewhere and she ended up with a 7. Same thing in Chemistry and Physics, only it was 3 grades.

@TheHighStreetsAreDying that’s the thing too- DS got 39/60 in his English language paper & teacher said that was 4/5 which I guess sounds right but then that’s over 50% so is it? 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Everythingnotsavedwillbelost22 to be fair I don’t understand it that well - my Dd is only in year 8 so I’m no expert. At her school they have caps for what you can be awarded as a grade - so you can only get 5s for some subjects, 4 for others etc in year 8. But these are the children expected to eventually get 8s and 9s. I don’t really understand it! But the music teacher went “off piste” and gave a bunch of them 9s anyway for doing the best it was possible to do at that stage 😁

Gertrude really?

No one has mentioned cap's to us?
The whole thing is so incredibly confusion

I am amazed / frustrated by all your schools in equal measures.
My DDs' school published an explanation of their grades along side every single report, explaining everything pretty clearly.
If your schools don't then ask what they mean and suggest that in future they provide more clarity.
It is total waste of everyone's time to publish reports that parents can't understand.