Teacher was Unclear about IB Assessment - What to Do?

[AndyDandy]

Hello all,

I’m reaching out because of a situation with my teacher ...

Here’s some background: I am in my last year of high school, and last year, I took the French B SL exams in May 2019 as an Anticipated candidate. 

I thought I did well on the exams... In fact, I was 3 marks away from a 7. I got the individual marks for each assessment today (from my IB Coordinator), I got what I expected on the exams, but the written assignment (externally marked) a surprise...

I noticed that my Written Assignment had a significantly lower mark (about 20 percent lower) than the papers, even though I greatly considered the expectations the teacher gave and put in as much effort as on the 2 papers. In fact, Paper 2 has basically the same structure, and between writing the assignment and the exam, I doubt I did worse on the assignment that I had more time to do.

When I look back at the assignment, my teacher vaguely explained it and gave us her own rubric, which, now that I think of it, doesn’t seem to reflect IB’s own rubric.

I don’t know whether I’m really able to do something about this; although the teacher may have been unclear, it doesn’t change the fact that it is still my own work and that I could’ve questioned the teacher about the rubric from the very beginning, but at the same time, I trusted that she had explained everything I would have to know about the assignment.

I’m frustrated that my mark ended up being lower than it could’ve been (especially considering I was so close to the next grade over).

Does IB have a procedure or policy about changing grades due to teachers being unclear about IB’s expectations?

[kw0573]

You should look for the subject report from any recent exam session. IB examiners will note how students and teachers misinterpret the criteria and list the common weaknesses.