Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

International Baccalaureate is an international educational foundation that directs a pedagogy of international education for a global community of schools. The core organization International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) founded IB curriculum in 1968 in Geneva, Switzerland.

IB curriculum aims to provide comprehensive programmes of international standards to students worldwide. The pedagogy is targeted to provide comprehensive education to students within age group of 3-19 years of age.

The three programmes are:

• PYP – Primary Years Programme for 3-12 years old (Kindergarten to Class 5)
• MYP – Middle Years Programme for 11-16 years old (Class 6 to Class 10)
• DP – Diploma Programme for 16-19 years old (Class 11 and Class 12)

All the three programmes are targeted towards comprehensive development of children on intellectual, emotional, personal, and social aspects to become responsible citizens of a global community.

IBDP is specially designed extensive curriculum for 10+ 2 students in the age group of 16-19 years. The programme aims to bring around a comprehensive development the kids. IBDP revolves around three major components: -

• CAS - Creativity, Action and Service programme
• TOK - Theory of Knowledge
• EE - Extended Essay

A student needs to choose from six subject groups in the IBDP curriculum as follows:

• Group 1: Studies in Language and Literature – First Language (English)
• Group 2: Language Acquisition – Second Language (French, German)
• Group3: Individuals and Societies – (History, Economics, Business and Management, and more)
• Group 4: Sciences – (Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Systems)
• Group 5: Mathematics
• Group 6: Arts – (either Visual Arts or a second subject from Groups 3, 4 or 5)

Against all myths…this statement is true. IB Diploma Programme is officially accepted by all universities and colleges of India. The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) has given IB Diploma equal status as the Plus Two (10+2) Class of all other boards prevailing in India.

The IB uses several ways to assess your knowledge and understanding of your subjects. Each subject is tested through a number of different elements, or components. Exams are taken at the end of the programme of study, and your answers are marked by examiners. As well as exams, you also complete assessment tasks within our school. These tasks are either internally assessed, that is, they are marked by our educators and then moderated by examiners, or externally assessed, meaning they are sent directly to examiners to be marked.

An individual component can be made up of one or more tasks. Different assessment tasks are used to ensure the IB uses the best tool to test the right skills. For example, an essay can be used to assess writing skills, a multiple-choice question can be used to assess ability to recall information related to the course, and a presentation can be used to assess communication skills. Having a variety of assessment tasks means your achievement against all of a subject’s objectives is properly tested.

In the IB, marking and grading learner’s work are two different actions.

When work is marked, you are given credit for the work you have produced against a mark scheme or similar framework. Marks show how much of the assessment task you got right. The mark itself has no other meaning.

In deciding a grade, the examiner is making a judgment on the quality of your work against a defined standard. This takes into account the difficulty of the task as well as the number of marks given. Grades have a particular meaning and relevance, and they are intended to be comparable with grades in other subjects.

Consider: Marks are how far you have walked, but grades take into account how steep the path was.

Grade awarding (the process of converting marks into grades) takes place shortly before the issue of results.

Where a subject is made up of a number of components, the overall grade boundaries are worked out based on the grade boundaries set for each component. The total number of marks you were awarded across all of a subject’s components is then converted to a subject grade.

Subject grades are converted into points, and the total number of points goes towards determining whether you pass the programme. Certain minimum levels of performance are required across the whole programme. Please ask our IB coordinator if you would like further details regarding the point calculations for individual programmes.

IBDP students are evaluated based on the grading system ranging from 1-7. Universities and colleges give admission to IBDP students on the basis of percentage/marks in Class 12th. Results in IBDP is declared in July of every year, but as admissions in Indian universities are completed before July, so, IB board provides their students predicted scores which is based on their prior academic performance. Universities provide provisional admission to IBDP pass outs based on these scores.

The following table is used by most of the universities in India to convert the IB Score into percentages:

The IB only appoints examiners who are subject experts and have teaching experience. The majority of examiners are experienced IB educators. Examiners undergo training before marking and receive detailed information about how to award marks.

There are a number of different examiner roles with varying responsibilities. The principal examiner (PE) leads all the examiners for each component. It is the duty of the PE, supported by a group of senior examiners, to prepare the set of examinations and mark schemes for each exam session as well as lead the marking.

The PE decides what the “right answer” is and how to give marks. Every other examiner must follow the views of the PE when marking.

All examiners are responsible for marking. Team leaders are senior examiners who provide guidance and feedback to the examiners. PEs provide guidance to the team leaders. If there are several components in a subject, a chief examiner manages all the PEs in that subject.

To ensure the marks awarded to all learners’ work are appropriate, the quality of marking of educators and examiners is monitored. The IB does this in different ways depending on the marking method used.

E-marking

E-marking is the process used when your work is marked on-screen by examiners. It involves your work being scanned into a computer unless the educator submitted your work electronically or you sat an onscreen examination. Once an exam is completed and learners’ answers are submitted, the PE and a few senior examiners mark a number of learners’ answers, or responses, which are then used to monitor the marking quality of all examiners. These responses are considered definitively marked responses, known as seeds. Examiners must pass a test to demonstrate they can mark correctly before they are allowed to mark any responses. Once examiners have passed this test, their marking is monitored regularly using the seeds. An examiner who doesn’t mark the seeds accurately enough will automatically be suspended from marking. Examiners do not know which responses are seeds, so they cannot treat them any differently from the rest of their marking.

Moderation

For an internally assessed component, the educator will upload a sample of their marking to be moderated by an examiner. The examiner checks whether the educator’s marking of the sample work is appropriate. The educator’s marks and the examiner’s marks are compared, and any necessary adjustment is then applied to the educator’s marks. For example, if the IB finds that the educator has marked the sample work too generously, all the educator’s marks will be adjusted down. On the other hand, if the educator has marked the sample work too harshly, all the educator’s marks will be adjusted up. The marks your educator awards your work will therefore not necessarily be the final marks you receive.

Traditional boards have a unidimensional curriculum that means the focus is always on knowledge, all a learner does is to learn, either by understanding or by memorizing. On the contrary, in IBDP learners have to both understand what they are learning and develop their skills simultaneously, which makes this education form multi-dimensional. The teaching approach used by IB schools in India is multidisciplinary, which helps the students grow individuals with a global mind and thinking process.

For succeeding in a competitive exam, aspirants need to practice timing and strategy, irrespective of which board they belong to. The fundamental concepts are similar in every board, however, how you interpret and conceptualize your learnings is taught by schools. IB curriculum since it focuses on a comprehensive understanding and implementing their knowledge, the students are very much competent to excel in competitive exams.

This is again a myth that needs to be shattered. Students of the IB board are equally accepted by all the universities and colleges of India. There are a lot of IB school students who want to pursue their higher studies only in an Indian institution. It is also true that studying in International Baccalaureate gives students a competitive edge over others in abroad studies because of the inclusion of foreign languages in the curriculum. Additionally, all the disciplines are taught to IBDP students with a breadth and depth which makes learning more intense and helps students realize their potential.

The IB DP is a two-year comprehensive curriculum with a culminating set of externally graded final exams. IB, Advanced Placement (AP) and other college-preparatory curriculums like Cambridge are all university preparatory, academically rigorous programmes. There are important differences, however, in the content and exams. The DP is a cohesive and comprehensive programme, not a collection of individual courses as is the case with Advanced Placement. The most important distinguishing factor is the core of the Diploma Programme (CAS, TOK and extended essay).

• Visit the IB website at www.ibo.org
• Attend school meetings and events
• Speak with our school’s DP coordinator
• Speak with our child’s DP classroom educators