Unhappy with my IB marks

[katy98]

I feel generally very disappointed in my IB results overall. I got 33 points overall and got the diploma, but with a 6 in English A Lit where I was predicted a 7, and a 3 in Maths SL where I was only one point off from a 4. I also only got a C on TOK despite scoring the top of my TOK class at school. I know I should be happy with my results but I'm feeling a huge disappointment especially in English and Maths. Does anyone else feel irrational disappointment with the results?

[IB`NOT`ez]

TOK seems really weird -- some people have posted getting 19/30 when they were predicted a 29/30, others getting an A when they were predicted a B etc. so I can't say for sure.

I'd personally be disappointed as well if I got a 6 in English and was predicted a 7 for it. If you know your marks aren't too far from a 7, maybe you can ask for a remark.

You could remark Maths SL and be likely to get the 4 if it really was just one point off. 

I was personally irrationally disappointed with my English grade for my most recent mock exams, although it is my most challenging subject (was still really hoping for a 7 :/)

[kw0573]

In some cases, smaller and newer schools have skewed predictions because of inexperience or insufficient data. I say this because in a grade of say 50 IB students, there's no way to tell if you are the top of the class. Smaller classes are inherently at a disadvantage. 

You do have option to submit any or all of your subjects for regrades on the external assessments (at USD$117 per subject), such as Math SL. You may choose to submit your ToK for regrade as well, since A/C and A/D both return a 2/3 core points. 

Even though you may not be excited about your results, your predictions seem to be close to your actual grades. Feelings of disappointment are natural and will soon go away. 

[inriya]

Same, my TOK was predicted an A and turned out to be a C despite my school has been giving predictions for a long long time.  My EE also got a B while predicted an A with the highest mark in my school as Economics EE (Not a new school). However, I do not think I need a remark with my TOK being C because I really honestly think USD$117 per subject is really expensive + got into my university with the lowest requirement.  Don't be disappointed with your IB grades, and your predictions are close with your actual grades too, so I hope those feelings will go away. 

[Ditteee]

Same here. Every single one of my externally assessed components which had been given a prediction by my teachers, were lower than the predictions, some only a bit and some a whole lot. However, the things that I'm most disappointed by has been sent in for reassessment, so I hope that pays off - that's my externally assessed components in English Lit and my Exhibition in Visual Arts. When I saw the final grade, I cracked completely - I had expected quite a bit higher. I got 34 points, but hopefully I'll get it up to 35 or even 36 (if I'm veeery lucky), and my aim and what my teachers had predicted was closer to 38, so that was one hell of a blow to the face. But since I'm having things remarked, I hope things will change. Personally, I feel like the final grade is very very bad in terms of showing our accomplishments, though. I did get good grades - a 7, fives and a single four, including all the additional marks for EE/TOK-matrix, and on it's own that sounds pretty damn good to me, because I'm above average in everything but chemistry, where I got the 4 (but I'm thrilled with the 4 - chemistry never was my strong suit, feared I didn't pass it), but 34 points sounds so lousy, somehow. It puts emphasis on the marks we didn't get rather than the ones we did get, which I think is wrong. Now I also took a 4th higher level subject, but that doesn't show for much anyway. 

What is getting me through with the things that I don't dare have reassessed but am unhappy with is that I know I'm worth more. I'm pretty sure that at least with my history paper 3, some technical error got in the way, because when I left that exam room I felt like I was flying, despite that being my 3rd exam on the same day, and it turned out to be a 4 - with fewer marks than I got on my mock exam a few months before, which I didn't study for due to a lack of hours in the day. I studied so much for the exams in history, and I know I wrote some bloody good essays, so either it's a technical error (and I pray that it actually is and they notice during remarking of my other subjects and react) or the moderator for some reason couldn't follow my line of thought. But that's the thing about exams - it's a super short moment where you have to prove yourself, and sometimes you just cannot, for whatever reason. Luckily I don't really need a specific grade to go to uni, but it was one hell of a slap in the face of my self-esteem.

 

[inriya]

 

Same here. Every single one of my externally assessed components which had been given a prediction by my teachers, were lower than the predictions, some only a bit and some a whole lot. However, the things that I'm most disappointed by has been sent in for reassessment, so I hope that pays off - that's my externally assessed components in English Lit and my Exhibition in Visual Arts. When I saw the final grade, I cracked completely - I had expected quite a bit higher. I got 34 points, but hopefully I'll get it up to 35 or even 36 (if I'm veeery lucky), and my aim and what my teachers had predicted was closer to 38, so that was one hell of a blow to the face. But since I'm having things remarked, I hope things will change. Personally, I feel like the final grade is very very bad in terms of showing our accomplishments, though. I did get good grades - a 7, fives and a single four, including all the additional marks for EE/TOK-matrix, and on it's own that sounds pretty damn good to me, because I'm above average in everything but chemistry, where I got the 4 (but I'm thrilled with the 4 - chemistry never was my strong suit, feared I didn't pass it), but 34 points sounds so lousy, somehow. It puts emphasis on the marks we didn't get rather than the ones we did get, which I think is wrong. Now I also took a 4th higher level subject, but that doesn't show for much anyway. 

What is getting me through with the things that I don't dare have reassessed but am unhappy with is that I know I'm worth more. I'm pretty sure that at least with my history paper 3, some technical error got in the way, because when I left that exam room I felt like I was flying, despite that being my 3rd exam on the same day, and it turned out to be a 4 - with fewer marks than I got on my mock exam a few months before, which I didn't study for due to a lack of hours in the day. I studied so much for the exams in history, and I know I wrote some bloody good essays, so either it's a technical error (and I pray that it actually is and they notice during remarking of my other subjects and react) or the moderator for some reason couldn't follow my line of thought. But that's the thing about exams - it's a super short moment where you have to prove yourself, and sometimes you just cannot, for whatever reason. Luckily I don't really need a specific grade to go to uni, but it was one hell of a slap in the face of my self-esteem.

 

I hope you will feel better. I failed my chemistry IA and wow that feeling was like "I am doomed". It really destroyed part of my self esteem and I was really worried about my Chemistry. Most of my internally assessed materials were predicted higher than actual in literally all of my subjects, predicted 41 and got lower than it. Then, now one point off to go to my dream university with 766 HL req. The disappointment was devastating. 

I somehow recovered my disappointment when I remembered one hell of a long journey IB was. I hope you will feel happy because damn you don't even need specific grades. 

Much love from another May 2016 survivor. 💞 

[TheNintendoChip]

I'm not really disappointed with my results. Though, that could be because my university acceptance wasn't based on my scores. I was slightly confused by my EE and Bio scores, but that's the luck of the draw I guess. I know I did well, and I'm proud of myself for it.

 

Snip

I completely understand where you're coming from. I was predicted a pretty high B on my EE, ended with a D. Classmates who were predicted C's got A's. It almost feels like you're being copped out of getting that extra bonus point. I did better on the actual exams than a lot of people, but some managed to get a higher total than me solely because of the additional points from the EE and TOK. I too walked out of my History HL exam thinking I killed it, and I got a 6 (1% off a 7, so I might get that rescored just for pride points). 

I'd like to point out that my older brother, who I see as my coequal, passed IB with 35 points. Just because you didn't get 40+ doesn't mean you're any less smart than the rest of us. Sometimes things just happen to work in your favor, other times not. I got really lucky with my Bio Paper 2 Sect. B questions, because I recognized one from a previous exam and knew another one well. If I had gotten something in Ecology, I would've been screwed. And I ended up getting unlucky with the Paper 3 content.

Remember that you made it. You passed. You got your diploma. That's an achievement in itself.

[Hanadai]

The only thing I cannot understand is why I got D for my EE when I was predicted B. 

Very weird.

[Merril889]

The whole crazy thing about the EE prediction being no real indicator of what IB wants in the EE is making me go nuts because I am currently doing mine and I want IB to actually like it and not think of it as a piece of poop.

In my opinion if IB sees that the teacher are either being to harsh or not harsh enough with the EE that people are getting crazy differences that they would think to write an open letter to the teachers or like be more precise with the guidelines for both student and teacher. 

 

Edited July 9, 2016 by Merril889

[ultimateone]

 

I'm not really disappointed with my results. Though, that could be because my university acceptance wasn't based on my scores. I was slightly confused by my EE and Bio scores, but that's the luck of the draw I guess. I know I did well, and I'm proud of myself for it.

I completely understand where you're coming from. I was predicted a pretty high B on my EE, ended with a D. Classmates who were predicted C's got A's. It almost feels like you're being copped out of getting that extra bonus point. I did better on the actual exams than a lot of people, but some managed to get a higher total than me solely because of the additional points from the EE and TOK. I too walked out of my History HL exam thinking I killed it, and I got a 6 (1% off a 7, so I might get that rescored just for pride points). 

I'd like to point out that my older brother, who I see as my coequal, passed IB with 35 points. Just because you didn't get 40+ doesn't mean you're any less smart than the rest of us. Sometimes things just happen to work in your favor, other times not. I got really lucky with my Bio Paper 2 Sect. B questions, because I recognized one from a previous exam and knew another one well. If I had gotten something in Ecology, I would've been screwed. And I ended up getting unlucky with the Paper 3 content.

Remember that you made it. You passed. You got your diploma. That's an achievement in itself.

That Bio Paper 2 Section B question you recognised, it was the one about water conservation in plants right?

[TheNintendoChip]

 

That Bio Paper 2 Section B question you recognised, it was the one about water conservation in plants right?

It was actually the one about DNA Replication in Prokaryotes. I pretty much resented all of plant bio so I didn't even read that question fully

I do vaguely remember doing one about it before though.

[ultimateone]

 

It was actually the one about DNA Replication in Prokaryotes. I pretty much resented all of plant bio so I didn't even read that question fully

I do vaguely remember doing one about it before though.

It was actually in the specimen paper I believe! I'm disappointed tbh because the actual science exams were barely like the specimen papers.

Which past paper have you seen the DNA replication question in? If you don't remember, what year ranges did you do?

[TheNintendoChip]

 

It was actually in the specimen paper I believe! I'm disappointed tbh because the actual science exams were barely like the specimen papers.

Which past paper have you seen the DNA replication question in? If you don't remember, what year ranges did you do?

It's in May 2015 TZ1 (Paper 2 of course, question 5)

[ultimateone]

 

It's in May 2015 TZ1 (Paper 2 of course, question 5)

Weird how they recycle the question. Not only that, but in the year following it!

[inriya]

To all of you who are unhappy with your IB marks, you will forget about your marks in the future, but you will definitely remember the progress of how you succeeded in IB. 

[Ditteee]

 

I hope you will feel better. I failed my chemistry IA and wow that feeling was like "I am doomed". It really destroyed part of my self esteem and I was really worried about my Chemistry. Most of my internally assessed materials were predicted higher than actual in literally all of my subjects, predicted 41 and got lower than it. Then, now one point off to go to my dream university with 766 HL req. The disappointment was devastating. 

I somehow recovered my disappointment when I remembered one hell of a long journey IB was. I hope you will feel happy because damn you don't even need specific grades. 

Much love from another May 2016 survivor. 💞 

Are you considering remarking some of it then, to attempt to meet the uni requirements?

The IB-journey is also the most important thing that I'm taking with me. IB was the best (and worst) years f my life, and I'll forever treasure it. At current, my plan is to study Danish and one additional subject so that I may return to IB as teacher at some point, because I love this system so much - especially compared to the national high school education where I live. We made it through!

 

I'm not really disappointed with my results. Though, that could be because my university acceptance wasn't based on my scores. I was slightly confused by my EE and Bio scores, but that's the luck of the draw I guess. I know I did well, and I'm proud of myself for it.

I completely understand where you're coming from. I was predicted a pretty high B on my EE, ended with a D. Classmates who were predicted C's got A's. It almost feels like you're being copped out of getting that extra bonus point. I did better on the actual exams than a lot of people, but some managed to get a higher total than me solely because of the additional points from the EE and TOK. I too walked out of my History HL exam thinking I killed it, and I got a 6 (1% off a 7, so I might get that rescored just for pride points). 

I'd like to point out that my older brother, who I see as my coequal, passed IB with 35 points. Just because you didn't get 40+ doesn't mean you're any less smart than the rest of us. Sometimes things just happen to work in your favor, other times not. I got really lucky with my Bio Paper 2 Sect. B questions, because I recognized one from a previous exam and knew another one well. If I had gotten something in Ecology, I would've been screwed. And I ended up getting unlucky with the Paper 3 content.

Remember that you made it. You passed. You got your diploma. That's an achievement in itself.

I do see it as an enormous accomplishment that I passed, but through my IB life, I've been predicted higher, and being the perfectionist that I am, I felt so confident in my exams and components that I sat way high expectations up for myself, and having those smashed was terrifying - not because of uni requirements, but because it hit me so hard in my knowledge of myself, because I've always identified myself so so much on being one of the smart kids who always did her work on time and did it well, and I've done so through the past 2-3 years, and then (apparently) flunking it in the exams was just too much, because I worked so hard to get that high score that would prove to myself that I was right about myself. That backfired, so somewhat of a void opened to me. However, talking with my IB coordinator, who was also my English teacher, helped me understand that exams are just a 2 hour test of everything we can do - wht we've accomplished in the 2 years as IB candidates. It's not necessarily accurate, and for some reason it flunked for me. I just hope now that I do get that 1 or 2 extra points from remarking, to help stitch up my pride. But if not - well, I know I'm better than what the moderators think.

[inriya]

 

Are you considering remarking some of it then, to attempt to meet the uni requirements?

The IB-journey is also the most important thing that I'm taking with me. IB was the best (and worst) years f my life, and I'll forever treasure it. At current, my plan is to study Danish and one additional subject so that I may return to IB as teacher at some point, because I love this system so much - especially compared to the national high school education where I live. We made it through!

I may remark but I just got into another university with a better major (hehe). IB was the worst years in my life when I was having depression throughout the whole 2 years, constantly panicking whether I would get a high mark. But still, I have learnt a lot throughout this journey. 

Edited July 10, 2016 by inriya

[katy98]

On 7/9/2016 at 6:04 AM, Ditteee said:

Same here. Every single one of my externally assessed components which had been given a prediction by my teachers, were lower than the predictions, some only a bit and some a whole lot. However, the things that I'm most disappointed by has been sent in for reassessment, so I hope that pays off - that's my externally assessed components in English Lit and my Exhibition in Visual Arts. When I saw the final grade, I cracked completely - I had expected quite a bit higher. I got 34 points, but hopefully I'll get it up to 35 or even 36 (if I'm veeery lucky), and my aim and what my teachers had predicted was closer to 38, so that was one hell of a blow to the face. But since I'm having things remarked, I hope things will change. Personally, I feel like the final grade is very very bad in terms of showing our accomplishments, though. I did get good grades - a 7, fives and a single four, including all the additional marks for EE/TOK-matrix, and on it's own that sounds pretty damn good to me, because I'm above average in everything but chemistry, where I got the 4 (but I'm thrilled with the 4 - chemistry never was my strong suit, feared I didn't pass it), but 34 points sounds so lousy, somehow. It puts emphasis on the marks we didn't get rather than the ones we did get, which I think is wrong. Now I also took a 4th higher level subject, but that doesn't show for much anyway. 

What is getting me through with the things that I don't dare have reassessed but am unhappy with is that I know I'm worth more. I'm pretty sure that at least with my history paper 3, some technical error got in the way, because when I left that exam room I felt like I was flying, despite that being my 3rd exam on the same day, and it turned out to be a 4 - with fewer marks than I got on my mock exam a few months before, which I didn't study for due to a lack of hours in the day. I studied so much for the exams in history, and I know I wrote some bloody good essays, so either it's a technical error (and I pray that it actually is and they notice during remarking of my other subjects and react) or the moderator for some reason couldn't follow my line of thought. But that's the thing about exams - it's a super short moment where you have to prove yourself, and sometimes you just cannot, for whatever reason. Luckily I don't really need a specific grade to go to uni, but it was one hell of a slap in the face of my self-esteem.

 

Yeah, I'm still kind of on the fence about getting math remarked. On the one hand, it's super expensive and it's math so it's not too likely that they'll find the extra point anywhere. But on the other hand.. it's one point to get a 4, which was truly the best I ever could have hoped for in Maths SL...