The IB grading system
The IB Diploma Programme is no different to any other pre-university programme in that students are assessed through a combination of coursework and external examinations. The examinations take place in May of Year 13. The Diploma Programme is not a modular course so there are no external examinations before this time. While this can be viewed as pressure upon students at the end of their course, it does allow them to develop their examination techniques fully and to mature before they sit an examination proper. There is a maximum total examination time of five hours for Higher Level subjects and three for Standard Level.

All subject areas will also contain a coursework component in some shape or form and the weighting of these are as follows:

 

Group

Group Name

Proportion

1

Language A1

50%

2

Language B

Ab Initio

30%

3

Individuals and Societies

25-45%

4

Experimental Sciences

25-36%

5

Mathematics

20%

6

Music

Theatre Arts

Visual Arts

50%

100%

100%

Core

Theory of Knowledge

Extended Essay

Creativity, Action, Service

 

100%
 
Each student will be awarded a mark between 1 and 7 as total for each subject area, with 1 representing unsatisfactory and 7 being excellent. A further total of 3 combined marks are available for students’ Theory of Knowledge presentations and essays and the Extended Essay. This takes the maximum marks available to 45.

To obtain a full IB Diploma students must score a minimum of 24 points. There are several conditions to this however. If students produce poor quality work in their TOK presentations or their Extended Essay, they will obtain a 0 score, which would result in a fail. Also students must obtain a total of 12 marks in their 3 HL subjects if they are to be awarded a full IB Diploma. Lastly, all students wishing to obtain a full IB Diploma must have successfully completed their CAS course, having their work signed off by the CAS Coordinator. Whilst there are no marks available for CAS, the successful completion of this course is an essential pre-requisite and without this students will be considered to have failed the Diploma Programme. If students meet all of these criteria they will receive the full IB Diploma.
If students do not gain the full IB Diploma the marks which they receive will still count towards university applications.