IB IA moderation system

[TykeDragon]

I was just wondering whether (particularly from those of you who did the IB a year or two or more ago) the IB ever actually moderates orals or courseworks UP. So far all I can seem to imagine is that the IB will ALWAYS tear courseworks down by at least one mark, no matter how pessimistic the teacher initially was. So do the IB ever (or more than rarely) leave a mark alone, or even better honorably disagree and raise the mark? Or are they really always compelled to tarnish grades and reduce scores?

[cjy]

My geography teacher's IA marks have always gone up. By 2 marks at least. The IB actually moved on up to full marks.

[TykeDragon]

I like this.

[Sandwich]

I had my Spanish oral mark bumped up by two marks as well

[difiCa]

Marks can be left alone too, for example this has happened at my school with regards to Economics and Psychology IAs on an almost constant basis.

[Absolutely Positively]

Some marks at our school have gone up, others down, and some were left alone. Our Maths HL Portfolios were marked down by 2 points, whereas English oral marks were raised.

[TykeDragon]

It's reassuring to hear all this after all I hear are 'horror stories' of how IAs (especially sciences) get moderated down by upward of 10 marks. :/ I'm mostly worried for my ESS mark (currently at either 41/42 or 42/42) as if they decide to move an IA of, say, 30 down to 28, they'll probably move mine down by like 7 marks. And I kinda need that IA mark, the paper 1 was a bit dodgy hopefully it gets left alone apart from maybe 1 mark as I bet they'd tear it down without seeing it because it's so high. I wasn't the only one to have it that high though. Fortunately last year the staff at my school managed to succeed in not 'overmarking' the students too much as they were only marked down by one, I hope it's the same this year..

The other one I'm worried about is philosophy - it's not unheard of that the philosophy IA gets slashed by like 3-7 marks (out of 30) because of the subjective nature of the marking, and I don't want to lose any marks off it because philosophy grading means that EVERY essay needs to be of that standard... stupid I know

I'm less worried about maths, history, english and Japanese. Maths because my IA wasn't too strong but the papers went perfectly. History for pretty much the same reason - it's already really high and the papers went well so a couple of marks won't ruin me. My japanese orals were marked at 10/10 and 17/20 and obviously the IB can only take the 17/20 individual oral. I was surprised to hear I had been graded 17/20 but it would be really helpful if it only got moderated down 1 mark max. Hopefully they took samples of my teacher marking really harshly I doubt 27/30 would be bumped up though. Sandwich, your teacher must have been harsh and marked yours lowly so it would get bumped up, right? Because I bet that the best thing to happen to 27/30 would be that it is left alone as 27/30.

@AbsolutelyPositively ; I hope that I get that for English too... unfortunately the one I think I was harshly marked on was the IOP that wasn't recorded. My IOC went a lot better and was marked a lot better but I don't think it'd be bumped up though. An extra mark or two would be great though, of course. Could make a difference All I know was that my IOP got a 'mid5' (about 20/30?) and my IOC got a 'mid 6' (about 24/30?) I would believe my IOP is more susceptible to a grade raise, but I don't think my IOC will. I wish it would though - I really wish I had gone into those orals with a better idea of the criteria and their importance, they've pulled me down

I guess overall I've just been worried that the IAs and orals will be pulled down, I've been quite confident they wouldn't be until reading so many horror stories about people expecting 7s and getting a 5 after their IA was ripped to shreds (without even being considered! I hate that system.)

Edited May 19, 2013 by TykeDragon

[Sandwich]

Really it just depends on how good your teacher is at marking accurately to the IB's standards. Every year they'll know if they get marked up or down and you'd hope they'd become better or worse accordingly. I experienced a big dive (from a 7 to a 4 in my Chemistry coursework...) because my teacher was totally crap, basically. If I'd known it was only worth a 4, I would have re-done it all! Strangely I got a 7 in my Biology coursework which just goes to show that completing science IAs apparently isn't a transferrable skill between sciences

If you want to know about going up or down you should just ask the year above. They'll have had the same teachers marking so the same level of error (unless any teachers pulled their straps up and got a bit more accurate!). Most of my subjects stayed the same or went down by a point or two, it was only Chemistry where the teacher had no clue about the IB marking (or indeed about Chemistry) and I could have told you that I expected to receive some sort of extreme moderation just based on how rubbish she was throughout the year.

[TykeDragon]

Wow, that's such a shame with the chemistry did your grade suffer too much?

And lol, it seems that a few years ago grades nose dived with ESS losing several marks as did philosophy. Some guy got 30/30 on his philosophy IA, even the harshest philosophy teacher at my school (and trust me he's fairly harsh) just decided that he could not ask any more of it and it was of university standard. He couldn't question it and after trying to find flaw for ages he awarded 30/30. The IB did not take this one (foiling the idea that the IB takes the top and the bottom as well, as the ESS IAs of myself or the other guy in my class who got full were not taken either, they literally took the bottom five IAs of the class. Good sign? Maybe they'll see the teachers as too harsh if looking at the bottom?) yet based on one that got 27/30 (next one down) they moved that one to about 24/30 and then randomly decided to move the 30/30 down to 24/30. I wish I could write numbers in capital letters poor guy deserved a 7 and he got a 6 because of it..

Fortunately since then my teachers really have been learning and the next year things only went down by one mark. my worry though is that the examiners hardly know all this, plus they change... it will be entirely subjective and/or dependent on certain mistakes THIS time.