How is the final mark calculated?

[azara]

I apologise if this has been asked before, but I'm really curious and I've never been able to get a whole answer.  How is the final grade calculated? 

Thanks for any input

[kw0573]

IBDP(Diplomma Programme) scores are out of 7 for Group 1-6 subjects and out of 3 for ToK/EE. The ToK/EE is just a matrix combination of your ToK Essay, ToK Presentation, and final EE which you can look up.

For each Group 1-6 subject, the final mark is assigned as a weighted sum of all your IB assessments. 
For example, for the course Language A: literature HL. A candidate scores 23/30 in IOC (weighted 15% of final grade), 25/30 in IOP (at 15%), 22/25 in WA (at 25%), 12/20 in Paper 1(at 20%), and 16/25 in Paper 2(at 25%). 

Then, the accumulated score is 23/30 * 15% + 25/30 * 15% + 22/25 * 25% + 12/20 * 20% + 16/25 * 25% = 74% out of 100%

IB then compiles the score for every candidate. Then they decide on the boundaries based on historical boundaries and difficulty of the exams (therefore IA bounds changes minutely). They decide that 74% falls on level 6; the candidate receives 6 as a final grade.

IB also publishes boundaries for each assessment but these have little direct impact on a candidate's final grade. What IB does is they look at the boundary marks for each assessment, then using the same formula as above, they calculate the overall boundary marks. So what this means that a candidate who has gotten all 6's in the assessments will get a 6 as the final mark, but you can't say that someone who gets some 3s and 7s average to a 5--you have to calculate using weighted sum, as shown above.

 

[IB`NOT`ez]

8 hours ago, kw0573 said:

IBDP(Diplomma Programme) scores are out of 7 for Group 1-6 subjects and out of 3 for ToK/EE. The ToK/EE is just a matrix combination of your ToK Essay, ToK Presentation, and final EE which you can look up.

For each Group 1-6 subject, the final mark is assigned as a weighted sum of all your IB assessments. 
For example, for the course Language A: literature HL. A candidate scores 23/30 in IOC (weighted 15% of final grade), 25/30 in IOP (at 15%), 22/25 in WA (at 25%), 12/20 in Paper 1(at 20%), and 16/25 in Paper 2(at 25%). 

Then, the accumulated score is 23/30 * 15% + 25/30 * 15% + 22/25 * 25% + 12/20 * 20% + 16/25 * 25% = 74% out of 100%

IB then compiles the score for every candidate. Then they decide on the boundaries based on historical boundaries and difficulty of the exams (therefore IA bounds changes minutely). They decide that 74% falls on level 6; the candidate receives 6 as a final grade.

IB also publishes boundaries for each assessment but these have little direct impact on a candidate's final grade. What IB does is they look at the boundary marks for each assessment, then using the same formula as above, they calculate the overall boundary marks. So what this means that a candidate who has gotten all 6's in the assessments will get a 6 as the final mark, but you can't say that someone who gets some 3s and 7s average to a 5--you have to calculate using weighted sum, as shown above.

 

I always found it somewhat strange though that the overall grade boundary for a certain grade may not necessarily correspond to the boundaries for a level 7 for each internal/external assessed work, and I wonder if it is intentional. 

For example, for English Language & Literature HL, the overall minimum grade boundary for a 7 is 80% during May 2015. However calculating a weighted sum of all the assessed works at their minimum grade boundaries for a 7: [25/30 for IA (30%), 17/20 for Paper 1 (25%), 20/25 for Paper 2 (25), 34/40 for Written Tasks (20%)]

would mean that 25/30 * 30% + 34/40 * 20% + 20/25 * 25% + 17/20 * 25% = 83.25% out of 100%, which is a 7 for sure. But since it the minimum overall % for a 7 is only 80%, that would mean getting a level 6 for everything (except Paper 2) as below:

24/30 * 30% + 32/40 * 20% + 20/25 * 25% + 16/20 * 25% = 80% out of 100%, which is still a 7 according to the May 2015 overall grade boundary. 

Is this actually intentional? (Hoping it is so since I know getting a 83.25% is a stretch for me :D)

[azara]

Thank you for that.  I could imagine a myriad of methods to come up with a final mark, and it's nice to have it cleared up!