To IB or not to IB ... That is the question

sarap
Sat, 23 Sep 2006 14:57:52 +0000

2dsdad- my kids went to int’l schools abroad. It seems to me that the IB program overseas is VERY different than those in the US. Last year, due to an impending move as a result of a corporate merger, I looked at IB programs in a number of states, looking for a program my then rising sr could transfer into. And found one…out of about 8 states. Sometimes the course offerrings just didn’t line up…but often the program just wasn’t anywhere as strong as the one she was coming out of.

And FYI…she was admitted reg decision to Harvard. It is a long story but there was some ? about whether or not she could return to the country we came from to sit her exams…when we contacted H believe me they cared about whether or not their diploma candidate admit would actually get her IB diploma!

All of the schools (and all were US) she applied to asked for predicted grades. But predicted grades do not have an influence on a individual candidates final grade…it is just a prediction by the teacher, who has access to all internal assessment, externallly assessed assignments, papers and the students mock IB exam grades. When the IB talks about using the predictions to determine the grade awards, I think it is after all exams are graded when they decide where the cutoff for 7/6/5 etc is…in other words, each exam has it’s own curve and they vary by both subject, exam session and paper type (there are 1,2 or sometimes 3 “papers” (exams) per subject). A 50% in math HL might be a 7…but a 50% in math methods might be a 5…and a 50% in Chem SL might be a 3…

The “special consideration” referred to in the info from the IB generally refers to candidates who, for some reason cannot actually take the exams. In the past things like life threatening illnesses, death of a parent, national disasters, etc might result in a predicted exam grade replacing an actual exam grade. This is then combined with internal assessment and other completed portions of the courses/diploma and then diploma grades are finalized.