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 will be identical, but this article will explain how these differ from one another and why they may show different grades.
In short, the Current Grade is based on the overall total marks that a student has attained, whereas 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.
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In the example above, all of the students have either a grade 1 or 2 on their Current Grade (highlighted in the blue box), as they 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, 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. In most cases, particularly if there is still a fair portion of the course left to complete, the Average Unit Grade is the most accurate depiction of where your students are tracking towards.
When would I need to use the Current Grade instead?
The Current Grade column can be really useful as 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. You're then able to 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.