Target Grades
Grade Gap Planner
Start from the grades you need, not the ones you have. Enter your current grades and your targets, and see the gap across every subject, where the effort should actually go, and whether the whole set is realistic in the time left.
The weightings here are rules of thumb drawn from how grade boundaries behave, not measurements of any individual student. Use them to rank where effort goes — and your teachers to judge what a specific target needs.
4 grades of movement needed across 3 subjects
Demanding but done every year
More movement than average, and it happens — usually when the cause of the gap is specific rather than general. Find out exactly which topics and which paper are costing the marks before adding hours.
Where the effort goes
Weighted by gap size and by how hard the target grade itself is — an 8 to 9 is not the same job as a 4 to 5.
| Subject | Gap | Sessions a week |
|---|---|---|
| Maths Needs a diagnosis | +2 | 5 |
| Biology | +1 | 3 |
| English Language | +1 | 2 |
A gap of two grades or more is usually a signal about cause, not effort. Find out exactly where the marks are going — a specific topic, a specific paper, or running out of time — before adding hours. Two grades of missing knowledge and two grades of poor timing need completely different work.
Want help finding what is actually costing the marks?
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The top of the scale is harder than the middle
Moving a 4 to a 5 and moving an 8 to a 9 are both “one grade”, and they are not the same job. Grade boundaries are widest in the middle of the scale and narrowest at the top, and the last few marks come from exam technique and the hardest questions on the paper rather than from covering more content.
That is why the split above weights a hard target above an equal gap at an easier one. A planner that treats every one-grade gap as identical will send you to the wrong subject — usually the one that feels worst rather than the one costing you the offer.
A two-grade gap is a diagnosis, not an effort problem
When a subject is two or more grades below target, more hours is rarely the fix on its own. The useful question is where the marks are going: a topic never properly learnt, one paper much weaker than the other, or running out of time in the exam. Two grades of missing knowledge and two grades of poor timing look identical on a report and need completely different work.
Get that from a marked paper rather than a grade. Put the marks through the grade calculator to see which boundary you are near, then plan the weeks with the mock revision planner.
Use your mock, not your predicted grade
Predicted grades are a forecast of where a student will be in the summer, and they sit slightly above current performance by design — that is what makes them useful on an application and misleading for planning. Plan the gap from the most recent mock, which describes today.
If the target grades came from a sixth-form offer, check what they actually need with the sixth form entry checker first. Some of the targets students carry around turn out to be higher than anything they have been asked for.
Frequently asked questions
How many grades can you realistically move in a term?
One grade in a subject, across a term of consistent work, is the ordinary answer. Two happens most often when the cause is specific and fixable — a topic never properly learnt, or marks lost to exam technique rather than knowledge. Moving several grades across several subjects at once is where plans usually come apart, which is why this tool scores the whole set rather than each subject on its own.
Why does it give a grade 9 target more time than a grade 5 target?
Because they are not the same job. Grade boundaries are widest in the middle of the scale and narrowest at the top, and the top grades reward precision rather than coverage — the last few marks come from exam technique and the hardest questions on the paper. An effort split that treats every one-grade gap as equal sends you to the wrong subject.
What does it mean when a subject is flagged as needing a diagnosis?
That the gap is two grades or more, which is usually a signal about cause rather than effort. Before adding hours, find out precisely where the marks are going: a specific topic, a specific paper, or timing. Two grades of missing knowledge and two grades of running out of time need completely different work, and more revision only fixes one of them.
Where do I get my current grades from?
Your most recent mock or assessment is the honest source. Teacher predicted grades tend to sit slightly above current performance, because they forecast where a student will be in the summer rather than where they are now — useful for an application, less useful for planning. Use the mock; plan the gap from there.
Should I put my effort into my weakest subject?
Not automatically. Put it where the gap is between where you are and where you need to be — a strong subject with a grade 9 target may need more work than a weaker one already at its target. That is what this tool ranks. The subject that feels worst is not always the one costing you the offer.
Are the time estimates here exact?
No, and they are not presented as such. The weighting of harder targets and the thresholds between a realistic and an unusual set of gaps are rules of thumb drawn from how grade boundaries behave, not measurements of any individual student. Use them to rank where effort goes; use your teachers to judge what any specific target needs.
Two grades to find, and no idea where they went?
Working out whether a gap is knowledge, technique or timing is the first thing our tutors do. Book a free trial session.
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