Details about the Final Mark?

[greaterthaninfinity]

Hey guys, this has been vexing me for quite a bit of time now. Can anyone give me the specifics of how the IBO markers arrive at your final numerical mark on the scale of 1 - 7? I know that this mark is based on a bell-curved scale of marks from IB students everywhere. However, what I'm really confused about is how they factor in the internal assessment. I'm aware that the IA and the EA both bear different weightings. However, is the IA also marked on a bell-curved scale (based on global results)? I'm particularly perplexed about the Language B internal assessment. I'm aware that it's worth 30% of the grade but at my school, we have one oral exam worth 15% and three oral assessments along the way which are averaged out to be worth 15%. This apparently will then constitute the 30% of the Language B mark. But I've read some topics in this forum and it seems like there's discrepancies between different schools and how their teachers are assessing the IA for Language B. I'm really confused and I would appreciate it greatly if someone could give me a clear explanation of how IBO arrives at your final mark, with both the IA and EA being taken into consideration.

Oh yeah, does IBO disclose the different component marks of your exams? (i.e. what you received for paper 1 and what you received for paper 2)

Edited March 3, 2009 by greaterthaninfinity

[Abu]

To answer your last question, you get the component grades 2 weeks after your results.

[deissi]

Alright, this is a bit difficult to explain but I'll try explaining the basics of assessment in any case. It isn't as simple as it looks on the outside, IBO is really putting in effort to give equal treatment to candidates. First of all, for a conclusive description of assessment, I recommend you to read [i]Diploma Programme assessment - Principles and Practices[/i]. For ease of view, I'll split this into several subtopics:

[u][b]Finding the scaled mark out of 100.[/b][/u]

The first thing that you should understand about your grade is that the marks from all different assessment components will be scaled according to their value so that their total equals 100. This means that your scaled total marks will be between 0-100. As I mentioned, the scaling is done according to the "weight" of each component. Because these differ highly, I'll give you a few examples on how it is done:

Example 1: Mathematics SL - Paper 1 (40%), Paper 2 (40%), Internal Assessment (20%).
Paper 1 and Paper 2 are both graded on a scale 0-80. Internal Assessment is graded on a scale of 0-40. The marks of these are added up so that the total mark is on a scale of 0-200. To get the final mark with a scale of 0-100, this score is divided by two.

For example, the scores of person A are as follows: Paper 1: 56 points. Paper 2: 73 points. Internal Assessment: 26 points.
Total score: 56+73+26 = 155/200. Total final score is (155)/2 = 77.5 = 78 points. Note that the score is rounded up.

In language A1, this is done somewhat differently:

Example 2: Language A1 HL - Paper 1 (25%), Paper 2 (25%), World Literature Assignment (20%), Internal Assessment (30%).
The maximum score on Papers 1&2 is 25 points. The maximum score on the World Literature Assignment is 40 points. [i](NOTE: This Applies for HL only!)[/i] The maximum score on the Internal Assessment is 60 points.

Here, the total score is not calculated out of 200, but directly from 100. The scores from Papers 1 & 2 need not be scaled, but the scores from WLA and IA will be divided by two to reach a total of 100 marks.

For example, the scores of person B are as follows: Paper 1: 23 points. Paper 2: 21 points. World Literature Assignment: 34 points. Internal Assessment 49 points.
The mark is then calculated: 23+21+(34/2)+(49/2) = 85.5 = 86.

[u][b]Calculating your final grade between 1 and 7.[/b][/u]
The IB uses a bell curve to find suitable mark boundaries for exams in order to ensure that their level of difficulty will not affect the mark that a student receives. In practice, this means that although students might score poorly on an exam, they might still receive a high mark if the test has been hard for everyone. However, this is not the only factor in setting a grade boundary.
Likewise, if the test has been very easy, a high mark will be required to score a high grade. The system that IB uses to find these boundaries is, as far as I know, undisclosed, and probably far too technical to be discussed here. What can, however, be discussed is the way that your final grade is found from your component grades and your scaled (0-100) mark.

[i]Diploma Programme assessment - Principles and Practices[/i] sums the process as follows:
[quote]The setting of grade boundaries is... the reconciling of information from different sources: the experienced judgment of senior examiners, statistical comparisons and the expectations of experienced teachers[/quote]

As mentioned, the final grade will not be found using component grades, but rather component marks. This means that although a student would reach two low 7s in 60% of the assessment, 3 low 6s in the remaining 40% might bring the grade down to a 6. The grade boundary out of 100 can be found as follows:
7 - (lowest grade 7 mark from component 1) + (highest grade 6 mark from component 2) + (highest grade 6 mark from component 3) + (highest grade 6 mark from component 4)
6 - (lowest grade 6 mark from component 1) + (highest grade 5 mark from component 2) + (highest grade 5 mark from component 3) + (highest grade 5 mark from component 4)

I'll illustrate this with an example. The grade boundaries for Finnish A1 SL are as follows:
Paper 1:
7 - 24-25
6 - 22-23
...
Paper 2:
7 - 23-25
6 - 21-22
...
WLA:
7 - 17-20
6 - 15-16
...
IA:
7 - 27-30
6 - 24-26
...
Thus, the aggregate marks required for grade 7 would be:
P1: 24 + P2: 22 + WLA: 16 + IA: 26 = 88
For grade 6:
P1: 22 + P2: 20 + WLA: 14 + IA: 23 = 79.

[u][b]Moderation of grades:[/b][/u]
All IB assessment work is moderated. As you all should know, a sample of IA scripts from each school are always sent for moderation to an examiner. The same is done with external assessment, as 15% of each examiner's scripts will be marked by a senior examiner. Then, accordingly to the level of marking, the assessment of all scripts by that examiner is either raised or lowered. Mathematically, IB requires a correlation coefficient of at least 0.90 for the examiner's marking to be considered reliable. Further, IB uses linear regression to ensure just results. If the assistant examiner's sample scripts do not meet these criteria, they will be marked by a different examiner. Again, this is more closely discussed in [i]Diploma Programme assessment - Principles and Practices[/i]. There is also a process called "at risking" used to reassess the work of candidates who have been awarded a final grade that is two or more grades lower than their predicted grade and within two percentage marks of getting a higher overall grade. However, if a school continuously predicts over the actual ability of candidates, it is unlikely that the school will participate in "at risk" remarking.

To answer your more specific question about lang B:
The lang B oral is composed of the Individual Oral Commentary (IOC) and the Interactive Oral Presentation (IOP). Each are worth 15%, but are graded out of 30 marks. The candidate should only do the IOC [b]once[/b] (although practice IOCs can be held), and the IOP [b]three[/b] times (again, practice IOPs may be held). The [b]best[/b] (not average) IOP mark and the IOC mark will be added together to find the final Internal Assessment mark, which will then be divided by two because it must be scaled.

[KLSmash]

Deissi, I'm not too sure I follow.

For example, these were the grade boundaries for May 2007 candidates:

*A 77/100 would be the minimal mark to obtain a 7 on the EA*

Paper 1: 20% (24/30 = 7)
Paper 2: 32% (39/50 = 7)
Paper 3: 24% (30/40 = 7)
IA:24% (38/48 = 7)

For the exam, let's say I would get a 26 on P1, 34 on P2 and 33 on P3. This would translate to 93/120, or simply 78/100 which would translate to a 7--correct?

Now let's say I ended up getting a 30/48 on my IA. This would be a 5.

How could you calculate what my final mark (in terms of levels) in SL Chemistry would be/what would be my final mark?

Edited March 4, 2009 by KLSmash

[moneyfaery]

[quote name='KLSmash' post='38868' date='Mar 3 2009, 07:55 PM']Deissi, I'm not too sure I follow.

For example, these were the grade boundaries for May 2007 candidates:

*A 77/100 would be the minimal mark to obtain a 7 on the EA*

Paper 1: 20% (24/30 = 7)
Paper 2: 32% (39/50 = 7)
Paper 3: 24% (30/40 = 7)
IA:24% (38/48 = 7)

For the exam, let's say I would get a 26 on P1, 34 on P2 and 33 on P3. This would translate to 93/120, or simply 78/100 which would translate to a 7--correct?

Now let's say I ended up getting a 30/48 on my IA. This would be a 5.

How could you calculate what my final mark (in terms of levels) in SL Chemistry would be/what would be my final mark?[/quote]
24/30*0.2 + 39/50*0.32 + 30/40*0.24 + 30/48*0.24 = [b]0.7396[/b]

Without looking at grade boundaries, I'm guessing that's a 6.

[greaterthaninfinity]

Thank you so much! I can't really express my gratitude for this post in an electronic message over a forum, so yeah, just know that you made someone's day halfway across the world! There have been VERY few times of my receiving such a plethora of helpful information over the Internet but yeah, this was definitely one of those few times. Your post was so informative and you completely cleared up my confusion. THANK YOU AGAIN!