IB May 2021

[rasputinnn]

Just wondering if anyone else has a DC in the May 2021 IBDP cohort? DD is on exam route and finished her exams last week. All feels pretty anticlimactic to be honest - she had 14 exams in 2.5 weeks which was very overwhelming but now it’s all over and I don’t think she knows what to do herself. She keeps overanalysing how she’s done and saying she wishes she could redo her last few exams; she also feels like if she narrowly misses her uni offer, unis will be less lenient than they will be with A Level students because they don’t understand the system as well. She’s just generally very down about results day now (as I understand are most other students in her year) as she feels that exams were handled terribly by her school and feels that she personally underperformed. Anyone else worried about IB Results Day?

DS finished the IB this year. No exams, they were done in in class tests, coursework and teacher assessments. They finished classes before Easter and the course officially ended 30 April. All very surreal and at this drags, we’ll just be pleased if he passes! He has no plans to continue in education/Uni - doing the IB under Covid conditions completely destroyed any motivation for self learning he had.

Sorry - terrible typos! No exams due DS and at this stage we’ll be happy with a pass in July!

I didn't know there was an exam option

@AntonMeyersNo1Fan DD feels the same re lack of motivation. It’s such a difficult programme to begin with but with hardly any teaching and no clear communication from her school + constant changing information from the IB regarding how grades will be administered, she feels completely wiped out.

@chopc The IB left it up to schools to decide whether they could carry out final exams or not. I think around 60-70% of IB schools globally did exams which their grades were based on and the rest were given grades based on coursework/IAs and teacher predictions. Students in DD’s year group wrote a petition to the school (which was in the newspapers) to encourage them to switch the school to non-exam route but the government here said all students had to sit public exams regardless of COVID concerns.

@rasputinnn I guess you’re not in England then? To be fair though, DS has said he’d have preferred exams over teacher assessment. Possibly because his attendance dropped off (even online - he’d switch his computer on, join a lesson then start gaming alongside and not interact, so would get an absence mark).

She keeps overanalysing how she’s done and saying she wishes she could redo her last few exams; she also feels like if she narrowly misses her uni offer, unis will be less lenient than they will be with A Level students because they don’t understand the system as well.

I think there is often more leeway with IB, at least that was what we were advised when my DC did IB and was concerned as they were ill for one exam. He had a firmed offer of 38 with 3x6s at HL required (AAA standard A level offer) and an insurance offer of 34 (AAA equivalent offer). He was told (if there were any places for students who hadn't made their offers after those who had got the grades had been accepted) he would likely be ranked above all the A level students who had dropped a grade if he had a score of 35+ as long as he had achieved the HL scores. I think dropping a grade at HL was equal to dropping a grade at A level so it would come down to by how many marks. Obviously different universities will do things differently and it's more complicated than that eg some A level students might have got 2 A in the compulsory subjects for his degree and just missed in a third subject irrelevant to the degree.

The other advantage about doing IB is getting the results long before A-level results so you can start looking at accomodation options if it looks like they might not make their first choice or alternative universities/courses if they haven't made either of their offers.

I don't know how it will work with mitigating circumstances this year as everyone is affected by COVID but if your DD gets lower grades than her teachers would have awarded her if it had been done by assessment because the school was compelled to take the exam route by government policy, she should be able to put in an application for mitigating circumstances if her school will provide evidence eg they didn't cover all of the syllabus to the same level because of COVID and her IAs/classwork/school tests and were a higher level than her exam results.

I wonder if my DD's experience from 2 years ago might be useful. She needed 38 (3 x 6 for HL) and got 36 (inc 3 x 6 for HL). She was neither accepted or rejected on IB results day. School wrote letter to the uni saying how she deserved a place. And she settled in for a long, anxious wait.
A level results day - still no news. They were obviously filtering through the near misses.
The day after results day she was accepted. She knew A level candidates who missed a grade and were rejected.
So, I think so long as you meet your HL grades, or the grades in the most relevant subjects, there'll be more leniency than with A level grades, because unis know you've had more to juggle.

@menotastic That’s interesting feedback. My DC is considering studying IB and I was wondering what would happen if he got the grades at HL but not in the SL levels he didn’t want to study at university. Would you be prepared to say which uni or course that was for?

I've PMed you @Dancingdreamer

St Andrews medicine. She got a 5 in maths and a 1 in extended essay/TOK, but 6 in everything else.