The IB Final Grades Fiasco

We are already in tragic circumstances, and so, is it necessary to make students suffer more? Education Consultant, Karan Gupta, offers some insights into the IB Board's unfair grading practice

Earlier this year, we praised the IB board as they cancelled final exams of students in light of the pandemic. They put the safety of the child first and that was praiseworthy. But a few days ago, they released the final grades of exams and to say that students were disappointed, is a huge understatement. Offering no clarity as to how they reached the final grades, the board stuck to their unfair logic that they looked at the historic performance of the school, the assignments submitted by the student and the predicted grades that the student received.

Students who have studied for years and were waiting for this one moment, have been let down. Students who consistently scored 7s, suddenly got 5s as their final grades. While this may not seem like the end of the world, put yourself in the shoes of the student and imagine how disappointed you would be if you worked for years for something and then get a grade which is way below your expectations and to top it off, no one can tell you how that grade was actually calculated.

Does it make sense to apply for revaluation of results? If you don’t know how the final grades were calculated, it doesn’t make much sense to apply for a revaluation. But for students who have got 3s and 4s, it makes sense to try for a revaluation anyway. Besides spending more money on this process, there is no harm in applying for a revaluation.

If you are a student who has not met your UK university conditional offer because of these low grades, you can send an email to your university and request them to consider your admission with your final grades. In many cases, if you are close to the condition but don’t meet it fully, universities will make exceptions.

At the moment, the IB board is not willing to reconsider their stance and is not answering questions on the grading process. The only solace to the students is that in the long run, these grades will not matter and once they earn their Bachelors degrees, no one would care about their 12^th grade results. But the damage done to the reputation of the IB board and how they have treated students and behaved highhandedly, will not be forgotten.