On all GCSE and A-Level trackers, as well as many more trackers for other qualifications, both a Current Grade and an Average Unit Grade column will show in the Summary area to the right hand side of your units. In some cases, these grades will be identical, but you'll find that they often vary. Read on to find out what these grades mean for your students.
Why does each grade differ?
The Current Grade is based on the overall total marks that a student has attained
The Average Unit Grade is only taking into account the units that each student has attempted, and is commonly referred to as a working-at grade.
Click to expand the images below ↓
As shown in the image above, all of the students have either a grade 1 or 2 on their Current Grade (highlighted in the blue box). We can also see that Paper 2 (shown in the green column) is empty, meaning the students haven't attempted any of the Paper 2 content yet. This means that their mark from Paper 1 is compared to the overall boundary, leaving them at the bottom end of the grading scale.
Alternatively, as highlighted in the green box above, the students' Average Unit Grade column is showing a far more accurate spread of grades. This is due to the tracker creating an equivalent mark for paper 2 based on their performance in paper 1, meaning that an accurate overall grade is produced.
If there is still a fair portion of the course left to complete, you can look at Average Unit Grade for a more accurate depiction of where your students are tracking towards.
When would I need to use the Current Grade?
The Current Grade column can be super useful when your students are coming towards the end of their qualification, or if you have completed full mock series. The tracker is then telling you exactly how many marks they have attained, and what grade they would have ended up with should these have been their actual exams.
Couple this with features such as the Target Grid to understand exactly how many marks each student needs to achieve their MTG, and the Topic Summary to ascertain where they can get these marks from.
📖 Pupil Progress Tip
You can choose which assessments are counting towards the summary grades. Read this article to find out how.