Year 10 mocks

I’m in year 9 going into year 10 and I’m curious on how many marks I need to do the higher paper,I’m currently set 3 for science doing foundation and I would like to know how many marks I would need in the mocks to get onto the higher paper.Also I’ve been seeing posts saying Yr11 mocks only matter,is this true?

It would be very unusual for a teacher to be certain that you’re a foundation student in year 9. I would talk to your teacher & have a go at higher paper questions and if you score well, show your teacher you can do it. I wouldn’t say there’s a certain amount of marks you need to get on the foundation paper because the questions don’t go above a grade 5 on that paper, so definitely have a go at higher paper questions. If you find that you really struggle with the higher paper in year 10 and 11, it’s probably going to benefit you more being on the foundation paper as the questions are easier to understand and you’ll probably find it easier to get a grade 4/5 on that paper than you would for the higher paper. If you’re desperate to do higher and you know you can do it with evidence, definitely speak to/email your teacher about it

It depends on your teachers. Getting a 5 consistently would be your best bet. Yr 11 mocks matter in what sense?

It would be very unusual for a teacher to be certain that you’re a foundation student in year 9. I would talk to your teacher & have a go at higher paper questions and if you score well, show your teacher you can do it. I wouldn’t say there’s a certain amount of marks you need to get on the foundation paper because the questions don’t go above a grade 5 on that paper, so definitely have a go at higher paper questions. If you find that you really struggle with the higher paper in year 10 and 11, it’s probably going to benefit you more being on the foundation paper as the questions are easier to understand and you’ll probably find it easier to get a grade 4/5 on that paper than you would for the higher paper. If you’re desperate to do higher and you know you can do it with evidence, definitely speak to/email your teacher about it

I’ve heard that year 11 mocks tell your teachers wether you do foundation or higher?But as they are only 2-3 months before GCSE,will I have time to revise because I’ve heard the higher paper covers different topics?

Not really - it can happen in any case but you need to have a talk with your teacher if you can move because they will unlikely move you unless they think you can and I only saw that happening like very few times and it was very late into the year so its better to persuade them earlier. Wdym 2-3 months? You have so much time to revise if you aren't in yr 10.

That’s a really good score! Foundation and Higher cover the same topics, except higher will have an extension onto some topics with concepts that are a little harder to understand. If you give her enough evidence that suggests you can do higher, I don’t see why you wouldn’t do that paper. Also, everyone usually starts with higher (except for bottom sets), so that if they end up doing foundation, they can just forget all of the extra higher info they learnt

So they have the same topics but more extensive and complex questions?