Why are IB exams split into different time zones?

[robot125]

I've never been able to answer that...why though? doesn;t it make it kinda unfair? different time zones mean different tests right? Also i think all of you who are writing right now are very lucky..I can't wait for my finals...360 days left

[Darta Jenn Bush]

Oh, you could suggest writing exams at 1am or 11pm.. go for it !

[DeBrogliez]

Simply because the whole world can't take the exam at the same time

If it's 8 AM here

It might be 3 AM in America

If they are going to wait for it to be 8 AM in America

Then I would be already done with my exam by then

So I can distribute the questions and cheating happens

So I think it is fair

It is a psychological thing that everyone thinks that their exam was more difficult

When, in fact, both are almost the same

[Emmi]

^ Actually I believe it's the TZ2 papers that are rumored to be harder, not our papers. Nice try

But yeah basically what's been stated above is true. There's different time zones to prevent cheating. Since Europe/Asia/Africa is ahead of the Americas time-wise they all take their exams before we do. If I had a friend in the UK and we were both taking the HL chemistry exam, I could call them up and ask what was on the exam, thus getting an unfair advantage. The IBO tried to discourage/prevent it by making different time zones.

[JoeZell]

To stop plagiarism and so people don't have to sit it at ridiculous hours.