Awarding grades to candidates

Working to very strict deadlines that barely permit any flexibility, examiners and IBO staff work hard to ensure that for every subject candidates’ marks and examination material are available for the grade award meeting in June (May session) and December (November session). This is the time when the chief examiner and other senior examiners for a subject meet at IBCA to determine the grade boundaries for their subject and, therefore, what grade each candidate will be awarded.

Each meeting is chaired by a subject area manager or curriculum area manager from the IBO. Their job is to guide the examiners through a meticulous process. They start by reviewing reports written by the assistant examiners, then the feedback from teachers on the quality of the examination papers. The grade boundaries are determined using established criteria, taking into account the boundaries established in previous years and teachers’ predicted grades.

After the boundaries have been finalized, the work of many candidates is reviewed again to ensure they receive the grade they deserve, for example, candidates whose final mark is adjacent to the next boundary and who are several grades away from their predicted grade. This procedure is another vital stage in reinforcing the quality of assessment.