Mocks & predicted grades
How do teachers decide predicted grades - and can I get mine raised?
Teachers build predicted grades from evidence: mock results, classwork, tests and their professional judgement about your trajectory - and every school weighs these differently. Predictions matter because sixth forms and universities use them to make decisions before your real results exist. If you think yours is too low, the route to raising it is evidence, not argument: ask what the prediction is based on, then show sustained work at the higher level.
Last updated 29 July 2026 · Written and fact-checked by the GCSEwiz team
How predictions are actually made
There is no national formula for predicted grades - each school sets its own policy, and it is worth knowing that before taking a prediction personally. Some schools lean heavily on the most recent mock result; others average across assessments; others give teachers wide discretion to judge trajectory, effort and how a student performs under pressure. What they share is the evidence base: mocks, class tests, homework and classwork quality, and the teacher's professional judgement of where you are heading by exam day.
Teachers also feel a pull in two directions: predict generously and risk a student missing offers built on it, or predict cautiously and risk underselling them. Most land on "realistic with reasonable optimism". Knowing that tension exists makes the conversation about your own prediction much easier to have well.
What predictions are used for
Predictions do real work at both levels, which is why they are worth engaging with rather than shrugging at:
| Stage | Where your predictions go |
|---|---|
| GCSE | Sixth-form and college applications, conditional places, and setting or tier decisions |
| A-level | Your UCAS application - universities make offers largely on predicted grades |
| Both | School decisions about support, intervention and course guidance |
The raise-my-prediction conversation, done well
Predictions can and do change - they are reviewed as new evidence arrives. But the case that changes them is built from work, not from asking twice. Here is the version of the conversation that succeeds:
- Ask, politely and directly, what your current prediction is based on. You are allowed to know.
- Ask the better question: "What would you need to see from me to predict a grade higher?" - now you have a target instead of a grievance.
- Deliver sustained evidence: the next mock, class tests, and weeks of visibly stronger work. One good homework moves nothing; a term of it moves predictions.
- Mind the calendar: predictions get locked into applications at fixed points, so start well before any deadline your school mentions.
- If the answer stays no, ask what the honest gap is - that information is valuable even when the number does not move.
If your prediction does not budge
A prediction is one professional's evidence-based estimate - it is not the exam. Students outperform their predictions every summer, and the systems downstream know it: results, not predictions, are what finally count, and routes exist at every stage for results that beat expectations. So if the number on the form is lower than the number in your head, let it be fuel rather than a verdict: the same work that would have raised the prediction is the work that raises the grade, and the grade is the one that matters.