Y10 mocks

[LolaLolaP]

DD just got her mock results back.
Are these results likely to be an indication of actual GCSE results?

She's just done her mocks and got:
Maths 5, English (both) 5, science (combined) 4, Geography 4, Spanish 6, Psychology 6.

If I'm honest she probably didn't do effective revision but we are looking at maybe a tutor for Maths and English for year 11 and maybe medley and trying to encourage regular revision throughout the year. How often do students grades improve from year 10 mocks?

It depends on what those results mean.

At my school we would use the mock result to predict a GCSE grade for Y11, we wouldn't give a grade to the mock itself. This prediction is obviously going to be affected by how the pupil works in Y11, but should give you a ballpark estimate.

Some schools give a grade to the mock - i.e. 'currently working at a grade 5' in which case you would expect to see an improvement of a grade or two over the next year.

Either way, there is always room to improve - a prediction is not a promise.
There's also potential to go down grades if effort is not applied!

Agree with @noblegiraffe as so often.

We cannot really say what the mocks mean. It is likely be that the school has set a GCSE-style exam using the elements covered so far (so two books in Eng lit, half the topics in Spanish) and then marked it with GCSE grade boundaries.

It's tricky tho as there is much work still to do. My subject is MFL and at this stage it is not easy to set a mock that gives a truly reliable indication. I would certainly expect an MFL grade that was assessed in year 10 as I describe to improve – simply bc during the next 10 months more grammar will be secure, more vocab will be learned, more structures will be known and used in written and spoken exams. But of course this will only happen with continued effort. And it might not be as simple in more topic-based subjects – your ability to analyse Eng lit will not necessarily improve when you study further texts (though it should).

Those are solid strong grades and if she improves a grade or two she could be looking at 77666555 or even more. A tutor should help tho is not essential; what will (definitely) help is targeted and careful revision in a way that works for her. Search GCSE revision on this board for lots of ideas.

We set two thirds of a paper - so it's impossible to grade accurately and fairly useless to predict from.

The important thing is not the mark but the feedback.

I'm not too sure. She just told me that the teachers marked their mocks and said what the grade was. I'm guessing maybe whatever mark she got was converted to what it would be if it was the actual GCSE (they were past papers that they did)
Thanks will look up revision. I think she definitely needs more help with revision and regular revision.

You say they did past papers – but they cannot have done a full past paper as @MrsHamlet notes. They won't have finished English texts, they won't have completed all topics in science, as I said there will be a good deal of work not covered in Spanish. At best it can only be a fraction of the past paper. Can she get the papers or have sight of them (and take a picture) so she can see where she needs to improve? Just blank grades is not super helpful.

I've asked her to bring them home if she is allowed so we can see where/what she needs help/assistance with/more practice questions on.
English I think wasn't a past paper.
Maths & Geography were definite past papers because she said it said the month and year on it. I'll double check what she said for the others.