May 2010 IB Year 1 exam scores.

[JoeG]

I got a 5 in Psychology SL, and I'm a little bit dissapointed. I was expecting a 6, but that didn't happean.

Although, I'm happy that I recieved the score that I got, and not anything lower.

[Tsubaki]

I would like to point out that it's actually rather uncommon for IB students to take an exam in their first year, so I don't know to how many people this will actually apply.

That said, I DID take an exam my first year due to a scheduling error. French B SL; I got a 6. I was predicted a 7, but I'm pretty sure my teacher had no idea how to grade for IB, so I was not surprised with my 6. It was the highest score in my class and a really good mark anyway, so I couldn't really complain.

[iScore]

I got a 5 in Psychology SL, and I'm a little bit dissapointed. I was expecting a 6, but that didn't happean.

Although, I'm happy that I recieved the score that I got, and not anything lower.

I wouldn't worry about. I got a 5 in Biology SL. I was predicted a 6 and expecting a 6. I wonder how close I came.

~ D. Nguyen

[JoeG]

I would like to point out that it's actually rather uncommon for IB students to take an exam in their first year, so I don't know to how many people this will actually apply.

That said, I DID take an exam my first year due to a scheduling error. French B SL; I got a 6. I was predicted a 7, but I'm pretty sure my teacher had no idea how to grade for IB, so I was not surprised with my 6. It was the highest score in my class and a really good mark anyway, so I couldn't really complain.

In my school, all students take an exam in the first year of IB. I'm quite surprised that this is different for most IB students.

[Sandwich]

In my school, all students take an exam in the first year of IB. I'm quite surprised that this is different for most IB students.

The IB is designed to run as a 2 year course You're meant to take all six subjects and TOK over both years and then be examined in them all simultaneously at the end. In America there's a much greater tendency to take things a year early, I assume because of the way courses usually run over there (to my understanding, subjects seem to be studied very intensively in a big block during a term or two terms, and then never touched again... it'd be very crazy if they did that then made you take the exams a year later!).

Actually it's probably a good thing to take some exams a year early. A lot of the difficulty of the IB is generated from having to know everything for six subjects all at once and take a shedload of exams all back to back. That's the source of the stress! Getting them out the way beforehand gives you room to focus better on all of the subjects, both the ones done in IB1 and the one done in IB2, and you're much less likely to have to ditch revising things because you're too busy trying to fit all the revision in!

[Tsubaki]

I would like to point out that it's actually rather uncommon for IB students to take an exam in their first year, so I don't know to how many people this will actually apply.

That said, I DID take an exam my first year due to a scheduling error. French B SL; I got a 6. I was predicted a 7, but I'm pretty sure my teacher had no idea how to grade for IB, so I was not surprised with my 6. It was the highest score in my class and a really good mark anyway, so I couldn't really complain.

In my school, all students take an exam in the first year of IB. I'm quite surprised that this is different for most IB students.

My understanding is that it's mostly an American thing; the product of block scheduling or some such nonsense (no offense to fans of block scheduling if you exist. It just seems, to me anyway, to be detrimental to the learning process). I was actually glad to have written my French exam a year early, though, because it made my final year of exams end much earlier than it otherwise would have.

It makes sense to me for someone to take French (or any other second language, for that matter) in their first year, because the second language courses (language B courses, especially) don't have specific things that need to be learned, and it is entirely possible to learn enough of the language in a year of instruction (provided you have enough background in the language already), whereas courses like Psychology or Chemistry have specific objectives to learn; too many to be learned easily in a year.

Either way, it doesn't really make a difference. Though having only 5 or even 4 exams in your second year can relieve some of the stress of IB.