Progress from mock exams to the real GCSEs

[HeadbandsandFlowers]

Hi.
Dd has just finished her mock exams. I am so proud of the way she prepared for and coped with them after a bit of a rough time with hormones, health issues and friendship issues.
She got her maths mark back this week and she got a high level 6, She was happy with this (as was I) - 6’s will get her into her chosen a level courses and are a equivalent to a B in the old marking scheme.
She said her teacher was a bit grumpy because only one child got a level 7 and that was the highest in the class (top set y11!) this seems quite poor , I have no experience of high school teaching but would imagine a top set would get some 7/8 grades?
Would you expect to see a jump in grades from the mock exam results to the real thing or are the locks a good indicator of the final results?

Ah. I was referring to mock results, which I think should be pegged towards the known boundaries.

I think it is quite reasonable to not predict 9s. If anything I would think it leads to far too much pressure on the pupil. (Not that mine is anywhere near 9s so this is definitely a moot point for me.)

Yes I sometimes agree a low predicted grade with a student if they're feeling very anxious to help take the pressure off.

Bestseller no idea why your DS’s maths teachers are saying it will be harder this year or that they don’t know where the grade boundaries will be. The exam won’t be harder and the grade boundaries will probably be a bit higher than last year, but in roughly the same place - so no different to previous years on the well-understood old GCSEs. Grade boundaries were never guaranteed but we had a ballpark figure.

Re: marking harshly, this news story today suggests that while marking for subjects like English and History can be wildly inconsistent, marking for maths is pretty dependable so there’s no real scope for ‘marking harshly’. In the more subjective subjects, it’s probably a good idea to be cautious with mock marking.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6449365/Exam-lottery-means-nearly-HALF-GCSE-Level-grades-wrong-study-finds.html