On IB Examinations...

On occasion, students will question whether they should choose to sit for the IB examinations during May of the G12 year. In order to further illuminate this decision, we wanted to share a few points for all to hear…

• Colleges and universities evaluate students based on what their transcripts and grade reports say at the time of application. Consequently, it is essential for students to make any changes before applications are submitted because it is required to report any changes after applications are submitted. This can negatively impact students’ candidacy in admissions processes. “Changes” in this regard includes changes in courses, levels of courses, and status as a student, among others. 

• However, whether a student is sitting for the IB exam or not is a more complicated situation: when universities see courses with the “IB” label on them on a transcript – as is the case with all Graded IB courses – they may assume or even expect that students will sit for the IB exams, even without notifying students. 

• Students who are pursuing the full IB Diploma Program (DP) should assume that universities are expecting for them to sit for the IB exams. This is commonplace.

• Students pursuing IB certificates should proceed with caution and simply assume that colleges may expect them to sit for exams. We also strongly recommend that students thoroughly research their universities’ exam expectations before making the decision not to sit for exams. 

If the decision is made for a student not to sit for the IB exams, it is essential to know that all students will be held accountable for all IB work through to the exams, even if not sitting for the exam. Colleges and universities will see final transcripts, which reflect Graded grades that are independent of the IB exams. 

A couple additional notes about IB exams and related matters…

• While it had previously been common for universities to share conditions of acceptance at the time of the offer, typically on the letter of acceptance, in the past few years it has become increasingly common for universities to share their expectations that students taking IB courses must sit for the IB exams after the fact. Last year, for example, one university that had previously not required IB exams notified students of their new expectation during a new student online orientation program in June.

• If you were not to sit for an exam and then were to learn that your university requires it, you could wait for the following May (a year after graduation) to sit for the exam, but only if all non-exam components of the course (IAs, IOs, process portfolios, etc) were submitted. You cannot sit for the exam at a different sitting date. (Students may only sit for re-exams in November if they sit for the original exam.) 

• Also not always publicized are merit scholarships for high performance on IB exams; Graded students are often surprised to learn that their university has awarded them scholarship money for outstanding performance on their IB exams. 

• Some universities also grant advanced course credit for performance on IB exams; this is most common for HL exam results, but some may even grant this for SL exam results. This can reduce the number of courses or semesters required for a university diploma, thus saving a family a significant amount of money, or it can allow students to avoid annoying introductory-level courses, which tend to be larger in size.

• Deadlines for reimbursement: Students who register for the IB exams and who subsequently decide to withdraw from the exam session after the registration deadline of November 12 will still be required to pay the full registration fees to the IB. 

• It must be emphasized that, even if a student chooses not to sit for an IB exam, the expectation is that the student will complete all work for the course through to the exam, including all IAs, IOs, and process portfolios. If the student does not, then the course name must be changed on the student’s transcript to reflect a failure to meet with the IB expectations; changing of course names like this, consequently, is required to be reported to any universities already in possession of a transcript.

• In regards to reporting scores, all scores must come from the IBO directly; Graded cannot provide IB score reports to universities, so students must provide these reports themselves. The IB coordinator will communicate with students close to the exams about how to do this. One important note about this… when students report scores from the IBO, they must report all of the exam results they have (whether full DP or certificates) and may not report just single scores. This becomes challenging when students have one or two low scores, but they want to report one HL score, for example, to earn advanced credit. This puts students in a predicament: do they report all of their scores, including the low ones, or do they not pursue the credit? There is no easy way to answer this question. As such, we strongly recommend that students make sure that they finish strong! 

• Finally, and we will remind you of this again and again and again... All official IB records, which are often required by universities, must come directly from the IBO as arranged by individual students through their accounts. Put differently, no one at Graded (in the OCC, the IB Office, the main office, etc) can send IB results for students! It is essential for students to know this and to make preparations on their own for IB results to reach their universities. More information will come out closer to the exams, but please direct all questions about requesting reports to Mr. Morris, the IB Coordinator (justin.morris@graded.br). 

In the end, it is the recommendation of the OCC that all students who are taking IB classes sit for the IB exam… and finish strong (which is a topic for another time)!