What is a predicted grade?

At this time of year you may hear your teachers mention predicted grades.  This may make you nervous and you may worry about what this is, but it shouldn’t worry you at all.

The IB asks your teacher to give a best guess of what your final IB result will be.  This is based on your in-class work, our IA and any type of exam practice that has been done.  This information goes to the International Baccalaureate and is there for back-up.

Back-up?  What type of back-up?

• Well, imagine that you are a really strong student and your IB result is, well, less than stellar.  The IB will know this due to the predicted grade, and if your grade is calculated to be substantially lower than what your teacher predicted, your work will be flagged and re-marked to determine if there was an error in the initial marking (once in a blue moon, an examiner makes a mistake) or if you  just had a bad day.  The grade could be adjusted – if the former were the case.
• Another scenario: on the day of the exam you get strep throat.  You are incredibly contagious, and ill.  In that case, your school documents the situation, sends the information to the IB and, depending on what other assessments they already have, may use the predicted grade to determine your grade so that you don’t have to re-sit the exams in a future session.
• Or – it’s the day of History HL Paper 3 and there is a massive flood in your city.  There is no way to conduct the exams as the power is out and many of the students cannot get to school.  The IB can use the predicted grades to determine the final grades for the students in that class.

The Predicted Grade is humane; it is meant to give you the benefit of the doubt in averse circumstances.  It is not public knowledge, nor is it something that can be calculated.

Look – poof!  You are a 6!