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So, where were you after your first year of IB?

chrism12

Hey everyone,

Congratulations to all those who got their results from the May 2010 exams! I was just wondering to those of you who have just graduated IB, whereabouts were you this time last year in terms of attainment levels or what were your predicted grades at the end of the first year compared to your final results? It's just that I'm coming to the end of my first year (actually more than half way through the course now :eek3:

) and I'm not happy with the grades I achieved in the mock exams we just sat!

Today, the year above got their IB results and they were lower than expected; the highest was 37 points and a few people failed! (For example, there was someone I know who got an offer from Cambridge but in the end got 33 points; well below his predicted points.) This didn't make our cohort feel that optimistic, as you can imagine! To be fair, they are the first cohort to complete the IB, so in a sense the school (which is mixed A Levels and IB) has not 'got used' to IB yet. I just hope that our year will achieve better!

Reply 1

ragnar_jonsson

Predicted After IB1 l Actual results:
English - 6/7 l 6
Biology - 7 l 6
Chemistry - 6 l 6
Maths - 5/6 l 6
French - 3/4/5 l 5
Psychology - 6 l 7
TOK - A l A
EE - N/A l A

Reply 2

The Man of the Hour

I can report a very different story. I was barely getting a 4 in my HL physics class (mainly because we didn't have a class textbook and he was teaching basically by notes, explanations and questions). My other scores were decent, but I poured it on in year two. (I go to a very new IB school, so year two was where just about where everything happened.).

So before exam to after:
French B SL -- 7/ 4 *couldn't quite get the IB format :frown:

Chemistry SL-- 5/4
Math Methods SL-- 5/6
English HL-- 7/6
Physics HL--4/6 (Once I received the Tsokos book and downloaded the questionbank, I started acing physics things.)
History HL--7/5

EE and TOK, I did second year. I was predicted two Bs and ended up with two As. :biggrin:

So yes, if you aren't getting it now, you're in serious trouble. But there's still hope if you try hard.

Reply 3

Iapetus

chrism12

I didn't get my predicted grades till almost October last year. We got something called EPGs after IB1 (early predicted grades), but everyone knew they were pretty much just bullshti grades to try and make the school look good.

You really shouldn't worry too much because a lot can be changed in a year. Just focus on internal assessment, because if you ace an English oral commentary (for example) no-one can take that away from you, but it's dead easy to mess up an essay in the exam room.

Reply 4

Focus08

I would say that the people who get 40+ started to get to work on DAY 1.. They took every mock test seriously throughout the two years. This way, they got the exam technique down early on, and in the final exam it would be like having done the same question 5 times before. You know the style and the way it should be answered. Compare this to someone who slacked for two years, without having had the same experience when it comes to exams, where it is their first time of tackling those type of questions. Consistency is key, and don't expect any miracles.

Reply 5

WhateverNevermind

In the first year my grades were always in the low 30s since I was slacking off a bit, especially in maths and chemistry where I was getting 4s and 5s. I got predicted 34 points and even then it felt like my teachers were being extra nice. However the two months before the exams I finally got myself together and studied my ass off! In the end I got 37 points with 6s in both maths and chemistry :biggrin:

So I think it is definitely possible to increase your score from the predicted ones if you are determined, but its a lot easier if you just work hard consistently throughout the two years. I know that if I had spend just a little more time on my studies during these two years I could've gotten a higher score.

Reply 6

Swiffy

Hi! My predicted grade was 44, and my result was 42. It turned out I was predicted fairly accurately for my subjects (41/42), but was over-predicted for my TOK and EE (ended with 1 bonus). Although I'm perfectly satisfied with this score, a tiny voice is starting to reprimand my slackness during the y12 summer holidays, which I could've used to finish my EE - -.
My school gives a long study leave before the exams though, which was nearly 2 months before the start of exams. If you use that time wisely, you can easily improve your grades by just doing tons of past papers and making sure you understand reading the syllabus statements. This is especially pertinent to the sciences.

Reply 7

AnonymousPenguin

I was predicted 7s in all my subjects and I dropped 1 point in Chemistry HL (due to options) and 2 points in Maths HL (I just couldn't keep up when all the coursework was due and due to my other commitments).

Reply 8

Thingeh

Predicted 31/32 (can't remember) with 3 in TOK. Got 35 with 1 in TOK at the end.

At the beginning of the first year I was regretting doing the IB at our school; our school's IB program was awful and I was incredibly demotivated (due to irritating circumstances), I literally stopped studying until March next year.

Reply 9

Azer

Focus08

There are of course exceptions to this. I didn't understand anything and had a 4.3 GPA in the first semester of IB1. Probably predicted something like 28-30. Ended up getting 40.

Reply 10

tc47

Could you still get in to Cambridge even though you were predicted 28-30 though? :s-smilie:

Don't you have to send them your predicted grades and all that in the application process?

Reply 11

ragnar_jonsson

tc47

Could you still get in to Cambridge even though you were predicted 28-30 though? :s-smilie:

Don't you have to send them your predicted grades and all that in the application process?

Well, if you are predicted 28-30 points I sincerely doubt that you will attain the grades necessary to complete the conditional offer. I also doubt that they would offer anyone a place with those grades. That doesn't mean you cannot get the necessary grades, and those who do tend to take a gap year.

Reply 12

Thingeh

ragnar_jonsson

I personally don't have much faith in the prediction process. Accuracy rate has been as low as 40% in the UK in previous years.

Though advice is sound in my opinion^^ Little point applying with those predicted grades (I seriously doubt you'll get an interview), but if you do much better take a gap year and reapply (if you want to).

Reply 13

bondj02

ragnar_jonsson

That's making the assumption that the school is honest! I did very badly in my mocks (21 points...*cough*) but still got an interview, and offer from Cambridge. Cambridge say that you cannot see your reference from your teachers before it is submitted, so my school, being good, abiding citizens, didn't show me. When I got my offer, I realised they must have lied.

That said, my 21 points wasn't an accurate reflection. We'd never seen IB exams before. Whilst I didn't meet my Cambridge offer, I still have managed to finish school with 37 IB points. Treat mocks as your first practice and wake-up call. It doesn't reflect your ability in the subject. Just be wary that though your work ethic will improve, your teachers won't. Identify straight after the exams the subjects you are gonna have to teach yourself. That's what the IB is all about.

Reply 14

Swiffy

Predicted grades like 28-30 won't matter if you apply after getting results, like those peeps who do national service...
I think you need do to be predicted 38+ pts overall for an interview in oxbridge. My school is really reluctant to write references to anyone less than a predicted of 40 though and at least a 7,7,6 at HL.

Reply 15

moonlight_freakout

End of year results ; real IB results:

History HL 5;7
Italian B HL 7;7
Bio HL 7;6

Maths SL 7; 7
English A1 SL 5;5
Econ SL 6;7

But for my predicted grades they were higher that the end of year exam; i was predicted 44 points (all 7s except 6 in english) and ended up getting 42 - so the predicted were pretty damn good!!

Reply 16

clare.is.rice

I was predicted 35-37 even though at that point (Oct 2009) there was no way I was doing that well. I ended up get 36 with the specific subject grades I needed for uni!! Mind you our teachers have a lot of experience with IB, there is not one teacher who was more than one point off what they predicted me, and most were spot on. I suppose what I'm saying is it depends on your teachers and what experience they have with IB, as well as how hard you work to see if you can improve. I found my last year of IB a lot harder than the first, and as other people have said the amount you study before the exams can make a huge difference. The exams themselves also have a huge influence on determining the final grade, for history a few of my friends studied all the wrongs things in terms of what questions actually came up on the exam and this was just the luck of the draw.

Reply 17

blindpet

It'll depend on your school and how experienced your teachers are. My signature shows my predicted vs actual. I can tell you that many other students in my class got way below their predicteds. That's why there are so many new materials released by the IB in the form of sample exam scripts annotated by the examiner that teachers can use to teach their students how to answer exam questions.

Reply 18

JJFinch

Most of us did better or at least equal to our mocks. As well as having mocks at the end of first year, we had mocks in the February of our second year, just a few months before our real exams. In biology and chemistry in particular (probably in physics too, though i didn't take it, so don't know), several people in my class got 2's and 3's in their mocks, which really gave them a kick up the backside, because these were higher level students, many of whom were applying for competitive courses and would need 5's, 6's and 7's. Our biology teacher told us that on average, students (at our college) get one grade higher in their real exams than in their mocks. In chemistry, we were told not to panic - people who had, in the past, got 2's or 3's in their mocks had got 6's and 7's in their real exams before (I don't know if this happened at all this year).

The predicted grades that my tutor put in my UCAS reference // actual grade:

Biology HL: 7 // 7
Chemistry HL: 7 // 7
French HL: 6 // 6
English SL: 6 // 6
Anthropology: I think I beat my tutor down to 5 on this, not being very confident (at that time) in anthro, and wanting to keep my overall predicted to no more than 41. Ironically, I ended up getting a 7.
EE and ToK: A //A
Overall: 41 // 43

I already had my maths (I tool studies fast-track, and got a 7).
I hadn't realised until now that (except anthropology) I got exactly the same as my predicted grades. The thing is, I surpassed my own realistic expectations of what I could get - my predicted grades were (I thought) a stretch.

Reply 19

marselenia

was predicted 40 got 36

art 7/7
history 6/7
english 7/6
biology 6/4
russian 7/7
maths 5/3

Tok-A/B
EE-C/B

my boyfreind at the same school predicted 29 achieved 38