Hi, I am a high school student aspiring to go into chemistry. I recently got a B in IB Chemistry despite being very confident with my understanding and the amount of work I put into it. My problem is either:
A) I poorly evaluate my understanding
Or
B) I poorly communicate my understanding.
There are signs that point to B, as on my midterm more points were taken off for details the mark schemes were looking for than poor accuracy… For example, I explained why two variables rise steadily together, but didn’t mention the term “directly proportional.” However, if A had any influence it has great implications for my career path and skill in general. If I can’t rely on my grades or my own insight…
How do I soundly evaluate my skill?
The good and bad news about IB is that it has very specific marking schemes, so there is a third option: C) I understand the material but haven’t mastered the IB approach to metrics. IMO, get yourself off to your teacher and work with her/him to identify common elements in the areas where you lost points. For the example above, I would guess that it is something along the lines of ‘nomenclature counts’. Ask if you would you have gotten points off if your answer had simply been “the variables are directly proportional”, or does the marking scheme want both description and name of the thing you are describing?
Without knowing anything but the above, my guess is that some time with your teacher, learning what the keys are, should see you right.
Thanks, I’ll see if I can go over that with the teacher.