The Student Room Group

IB results 2023

Hey all, I've been wanting to open a thread on IB results this year, from May 2023. I recently got back my results, and I ended up missing both my main and insurance choices by 1 mark in my HL classes. Remarking, all three of my HLs, none of them went up, despite being close. I had a few questions:
1) Do you feel like you were graded justly this year? Especially considering that year 2023 had so few 45s (something like 150 this year, compared to 700 and 1000 the last two years, and even in the 300s before COVID)
2) For those of you that did remarks, how did they go? Did you get your grade increased at all for any of them?
3) Do you think that A-levels this year are going to be graded as harshly as the IB, or do you think its just us?
4) Are you planning to re-sit the exams, and if so which, November 2023 or May 2024?
Appreciate any and all thoughts or experiences on this. Just wanted to hear other peoples opinions, as at the moment I feel like all my hopes and dreams had almost crashed.
Hi I am in the same boat - I had a 6.4 as average in my school with predicted grades between 6 and 7 and tanked in the IB exams. Missed both my offers - one rejected and the other still waiting... My school sent my TOK for regrading but came back with the same mark. Very frustrating and regret having done the IB. Biggest mistake.
Reply 2
Original post by MarianaCDMX
Hi I am in the same boat - I had a 6.4 as average in my school with predicted grades between 6 and 7 and tanked in the IB exams. Missed both my offers - one rejected and the other still waiting... My school sent my TOK for regrading but came back with the same mark. Very frustrating and regret having done the IB. Biggest mistake.

Thank you so much for sharing! Are you thinking of re-sitting the exams in the "worst case scenario"? Many ppl tell me to go to Clearance but I find it such a waste of opportunity in my case..
Original post by Ellie-13
Hey all, I've been wanting to open a thread on IB results this year, from May 2023. I recently got back my results, and I ended up missing both my main and insurance choices by 1 mark in my HL classes. Remarking, all three of my HLs, none of them went up, despite being close.

So sorry. What are your firm and insurance choice conditions for HLs and overall IB score? Which universities are these? Some universities can be snobbish and would frown on re-takes. So please, please check.

With your near miss in your HLs, had you appealed to your firm and insurance choice?

1) Do you feel like you were graded justly this year? Especially considering that year 2023 had so few 45s (something like 150 this year, compared to 700 and 1000 the last two years, and even in the 300s before COVID)

My school prepared us way ahead, as far back as the beginning of Grade 11 to be mindful of IB's intention to remove all grade inflation, and that we were all going to be graded internally using the 2019 grade boundaries or higher. So for example, to get a 7 in HL Chem, it was 92-94%. In other words, we all had to over-achieve. I therefore, feel that the grading were as expected, not unfair. As for the number of 45s, 179 only for M23 is brutal. It was not 300s pre-Covid. It was 220+ ish.

3) Do you think that A-levels this year are going to be graded as harshly as the IB, or do you think its just us?

It is left to be seen. It depends on the A levels cohort. There can only be so many A* for each subject, so they will also be moderated. The universities will have a serious problem if everyone gets top grades because the universities would have over-offered considering the low % of students meeting their predicted every year. There is the stats somewhere, and it's very common to go into Clearing.
Reply 4
Interesting to hear that your school knew at least two years ago, in the midst of Covid in full swing, the intention of IB commission of year 2023 to grade according to the 2019 standards.. Amazing!
No, it was not 220+ish, it was 270.
I do not want to miss a year so I am going into clearing and also considering a couple of unis outside the UK. I am really frustrated but in any case, this is a BA .. My grades are decent enough to go to a good university and then will do a Masters. But yes, these changes of grade boundaries and gaps between international school predictions and IB results are very frustrating and unfair on us who also suffered from pandemic in the middle of our teenage years............
Original post by Ellie-13
Thank you so much for sharing! Are you thinking of re-sitting the exams in the "worst case scenario"? Many ppl tell me to go to Clearance but I find it such a waste of opportunity in my case..
Original post by Ellie-13
Interesting to hear that your school knew at least two years ago, in the midst of Covid in full swing, the intention of IB commission of year 2023 to grade according to the 2019 standards.. Amazing!
No, it was not 220+ish, it was 270.

https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/bc850970f4e54b87828f83c7976a4db6/dp-statistical-bulletin-may-2019.pdf Oh yes, it was 275. I was way off with 220+.

I don't know about your country but by Aug 2021 when school started, lockdowns were a thing of the past, and our borders had opened for travels. We were also on the path towards normality. Our HS principal told us to expect Covid adaptations to be removed at some point, and so the internal advisory to all of us was to revert to pre-pandemic standards and that was interpreted all components to be reinstated. By early 2022, we were told with greater certainty, it would be 2019 grade boundaries as guidance. The official statement released by the IB in March 2022 can be seen in the link provided. We were prepared.

https://ibo.org/news/news-list/preparing-for-the-2023-examination-sessions/
(edited 1 year ago)
hi, quick question for the IB lots (i did A Levels, waiting for my results) were the grade boundaries for you guys higher than 2019 levels??

i anticipate that the A Level grade boundaries for the 2023 cohort will be a couple marks higher than 2019. When my teachers were marking my most recent mock they shifted grade boundaries so they were about 5 marks higher than 2019 and i got ABB. That's what i predict will happen this year. Most i've spoken to found the papers easy so its looking that way. Ofc i won't know until 2 weeks.

congrats on your results btw!!
Original post by Hellokitty123abc
were the grade boundaries for you guys higher than 2019 levels??


Close but not the same nor higher than 2019 levels.

I'm guessing that scores are moderated in the A Levels, in addition to setting of grade boundaries?

Good luck with your results in 2 weeks!
Original post by BubblesBB
Close but not the same nor higher than 2019 levels.

I'm guessing that scores are moderated in the A Levels, in addition to setting of grade boundaries?

Good luck with your results in 2 weeks!


Yeah they are, there’s apparently going to be some “grade protection” due to disruption faced by covid, teacher strikes etc meaning they’ll be marking more lenient but they still aim to have grade boundaries similar to 2019. Idk what that means for A Level lots, just have to wait and see 😭😭
Original post by BubblesBB
So sorry. What are your firm and insurance choice conditions for HLs and overall IB score? Which universities are these? Some universities can be snobbish and would frown on re-takes. So please, please check.

With your near miss in your HLs, had you appealed to your firm and insurance choice?

1) Do you feel like you were graded justly this year? Especially considering that year 2023 had so few 45s (something like 150 this year, compared to 700 and 1000 the last two years, and even in the 300s before COVID)

My school prepared us way ahead, as far back as the beginning of Grade 11 to be mindful of IB's intention to remove all grade inflation, and that we were all going to be graded internally using the 2019 grade boundaries or higher. So for example, to get a 7 in HL Chem, it was 92-94%. In other words, we all had to over-achieve. I therefore, feel that the grading were as expected, not unfair. As for the number of 45s, 179 only for M23 is brutal. It was not 300s pre-Covid. It was 220+ ish.

3) Do you think that A-levels this year are going to be graded as harshly as the IB, or do you think its just us?

It is left to be seen. It depends on the A levels cohort. There can only be so many A* for each subject, so they will also be moderated. The universities will have a serious problem if everyone gets top grades because the universities would have over-offered considering the low % of students meeting their predicted every year. There is the stats somewhere, and it's very common to go into Clearing.


Just a point on your last response. They have made it clear that there is no qouta on the number of A*, A's etc, this is a fallacy (you can research this if you like - also on Gov website). So grades given based purely on the boundaries no matter how many sit within those boundaries.
There is also the issue that lower offers may have been set to overseas students in order to get thier higher fee payments into the coffers. This might have the effect of Unis not excepting slightly lower achieved grades for UK applicants.
Original post by Blindbat
Just a point on your last response. They have made it clear that there is no qouta on the number of A*, A's etc, this is a fallacy (you can research this if you like - also on Gov website). So grades given based purely on the boundaries no matter how many sit within those boundaries.
There is also the issue that lower offers may have been set to overseas students in order to get thier higher fee payments into the coffers. This might have the effect of Unis not excepting slightly lower achieved grades for UK applicants.

I think it is only a matter of different tools used to achieve the same outcome. I had actually not mentioned about the usage of quota.

I read in the Guardian that for this year "To get back to 2019 levels, however, the percentage of A*s will have to fall from 14.6% last year to 7.8%, meaning 59,000 fewer A*s and 36,000 fewer As, according to the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER) at the University of Buckingham."

With this objective in mind (as what we IB students have seen in our own May 2023 results), the removal of grade inflation would upset a lot of students and their families. :frown:
Original post by BubblesBB
I think it is only a matter of different tools used to achieve the same outcome. I had actually not mentioned about the usage of quota.

I read in the Guardian that for this year "To get back to 2019 levels, however, the percentage of A*s will have to fall from 14.6% last year to 7.8%, meaning 59,000 fewer A*s and 36,000 fewer As, according to the Centre for Education and Employment Research (CEER) at the University of Buckingham."

With this objective in mind (as what we IB students have seen in our own May 2023 results), the removal of grade inflation would upset a lot of students and their families. :frown:


Yes I've read similar articles. I wonder what will happen next week. If the number of offers for overseas students is higher than usual, the unis have over offered in general, more UK students don't make the required grades, oversea grade offers are slightly lower (have heard elsewhere) - does this all add up to the loss of more places to UK students in the most competitive Unis? The question is will they allow slight grade slips in thier acceptances?
All speculation I know , but the nearer it gets the more stressed I'm getting! That last maths paper is giving me nightmares!! Need an A ..
Reply 13
IB was very hard this year, I also didn't get my HL results :frown: