Is the AISG Grading System Fair?

Your opinion regarding the title question is already set. Whether you are one who struggles to keep up with the mounting school work, stresses over deadlines, has mental breakdowns alone in your room and has simply given up hope; or, one who aces all tests while still being able to play League of Legends until 4 in the morning and get 7s in Physics and Math HL, everyone has a definitive opinion regarding AISG’s grading policies. It is either “yea it seems fair” or “the school wants us to fail”: there’s no “eh maybe.” As students, this is a topic close to our hearts, as it very much affects all of us.

One would assume that the majority of those dissatisfied with the difficulty of achieving excellence in terms of GPA and course grade are those who aren’t doing so well. However, that isn’t the entire picture. The complaints aren’t only from the students who always seem to get Cs or Bs, but also from those who try their hardest but only get a maximum grade of an A. The frustration of not being able to do well and the frustration of not being recognised for excelling co-exist among students.

 As a student of AISG, I categorised the rants from students into 3 categories; I’m sure you will find at least one of them relatable.

1. Frustrating/sad rant:
   1. “OMG that test was so hard I think I’m gonna fail.”
   2. “Dude I got a C my parents will disown me”
   3. “Is there a retake?”
   4. “I screwed up the finals; [insert teacher’s name] will lower my predicted for sure”
   5. “There better be a massive curve on this test”

2. Angry rant:
   1. “**** was that test?!”
   2. “We didn’t learn any of that!”
   3. “That test was so much harder than the homework and the practice test!”
   4. “Why did [insert teacher’s name] predict me a 5 when I have an A?!”

3. Lowkey showoff + unsatisfied rant:
   1. “UGH so close to A+”
   2. “I don’t know why I can never get a 7”
   3. “[insert teacher’s name] never predicts 7s; I only have a 6!”

Looking at the commonly-heard complaints, one would assume that AISG grades quite harshly. However, based on the school profile from the high school office, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The grade distribution from the class of 2018 shows 20/67 students that took English had a grade in the A range, and 38 were at a B. The science department had 31 students at As, and 32 students at Bs. The math department had 35 students at As, 17 at B, and 11 at Cs. The Social Studies department had 62 As and 24 Bs.

Don’t panic if you suddenly realize you are well below the median. Statistics can make meaningful general points, but it is simply impossible to compare one graduating class directly against another. The students have mixed abilities, different learning atmospheres, and also, the curriculum is adjusted every year.

Furthermore, the grade distribution data groups all classes together. Mathematics includes Math HL and SL as well as Studies. The difficulty differs greatly, and there are certainly more students getting As in SL and Studies compared to HL. Therefore, does this mean that the grade distribution itself is meaningless?

Ms. Lindsay says no: “This information is very important to colleges. However, I would argue that the IB exam result is even more important.” She’s referring to the IB exam results of previous seniors that are also included in the profile. Most of the courses show AISG students achieving above world average marks, something the teachers can certainly be proud of.

However, a worrying exception can be found in social studies. History HL (11 students) and Economics HL (44 students) both have AISG averages that are lower than world average IB results. The average IB exam result of social studies hangs around the 5 mark, with the only exception being Economics SL. Furthermore, looking at Economics HL’s result, 4 students got a 3 and 1 student even got a 2. Psychology did slightly better than the other social sciences, having a higher average at AISG compared to the world average of 4.69 for HL and 4.36 for SL.

Average AISG IB Social Studies Exam results from 2018:

History HL: 4.92

Economics HL: 5.07

Economics SL: 5.38

Psychology HL: 4.89

Psychology SL: 4.75

Yet, looking at the grade distribution, social studies has the highest number of As as well as the highest A ratio among all departments. Therefore, considering the stats, the grades seem to be inflated and do not accurately correlate to how students will perform on the IB exam.

How is that the case? Most teachers use past papers as exams—shouldn’t your letter grade in class accurately reflect your understanding and give the teacher a good idea of how you will do on the IB exam?

According to Ms. Martin-Bauer, no. Using Math HL as example, she stated that “In math, all my homework, all my quizzes and tests are past paper questions. They are all available to you, you can look them up if you want. For my HL kids, I am expecting you to have looked at it.” Therefore, she says, “on unit tests, I am expecting them to get 100%. . . I assumed you had all [the past papers and mark schemes].”

It is no secret that many students do all the past papers, either getting them online or via academies, and can often predict test questions on their AISG assessments. Furthermore, Ms. Martin-Bauer also brings up the retake policy: “It’s possible for you to use the retake, or do well on the Final, and have your grade adjusted.” This means it’s possible to achieve a high letter grade without actually meeting the required level of understanding, because subsequent retakes with the same format become easier and easier for students. The teachers know this, and such practices undermine their willingness to use test grades as the sole basis for their predictions. Students won’t have the sly edge of knowing the questions or having memorized the answers prior to the real IB exam, which may explain the substantial gap between average letter grade and IB exam results.

Some students also wonder why the grading scales for tests aren’t curved to the IB percentage. 14.31% of Physics HL students were awarded a 7 worldwide, 17.42% got a 6. The 2016-17 IB grade boundaries for Physics HL for timezone 2 is shown below:

For physics, Mr. Megarity uses a point system, and sets grade boundaries accordingly. He disagrees with using the IB grade boundary as unit tests don’t include nearly as much content as an IB exam. “If you get an A in your junior year, does it mean you will get a 7? No way. The content is merely… 10% of the entire IB content,” said Mr. Megarity. “A C student is a 4, a solid B will get a 5. To get a 7, you must be the genius type.”

Therefore, the argument that since 67% is a 7 on the IB exam, a student who gets 70% on a test should get an A does not stand. Take a look at the IB expectation for Physics HL students:

“The aims of the DP physics course are to enable students to:

1. appreciate scientific study and creativity within a global context through stimulating and challenging opportunities
2. acquire a body of knowledge, methods and techniques that characterize science and technology
3. apply and use a body of knowledge, methods and techniques that characterize science and technology
4. develop an ability to analyse, evaluate and synthesize scientific information
5. develop a critical awareness of the need for, and the value of, effective collaboration and communication during scientific activities
6. develop experimental and investigative scientific skills including the use of current technologies
7. develop and apply 21st century communication skills in the study of science
8. become critically aware, as global citizens, of the ethical implications of using science and technology
9. develop an appreciation of the possibilities and limitations of science and technology
10. develop an understanding of the relationships between scientific disciplines and their influence on other areas of knowledge.”

A ‘7’ student will be able to excel in meeting all the goals stated. Is it reasonable to assume that a student who scores 70% on unit tests will be able to achieve the same level of understanding? Mr. Megarity believes a student has to show consistent understanding to be able to get the “C=4, B=5, A-=6” conversion. “Getting accurate predictions is perhaps the hardest thing in my career,” Mr. Megarity adds. “It’s always hard because the IB exam truly tests your understanding. It’s something you can’t just ace by memorising mark schemes.”

Perhaps the only reasonable complaints about the harshness in grading are targeted towards courses that don’t have right or wrong answers, courses such as History HL, and Chinese A Lang & Lit and English Lang & Lit. Those courses have assessments that are essays, instead of the definitive answer that’s either right or wrong as seen on math and science exams. The vagueness of the rubric as well as the inherent subjectivity of the assessment means those courses are very difficult to excel in. Only 2.17% of History HL students got a 7. 4.79% of English Lang & Lit student had 7s, and 15.78% for Chinese L&L HL. Both Ms. Barga (who teaches IB2 English L&L HL and SL) and Ms. Dean (who teaches English L&L SL2), stated that they don’t have any student with an A+ as their semester letter grade, and didn’t predict any 7s for the seniors this year. Ms. Erica also stated in a previous conversation that she did not give any predicted 7s, nor any A+ in the grade book. Mr. Kennett, the IB history teacher, often mentions the infamous difficulty of IB History, and joins the Lang & Lit teachers in not giving any A+ and not predicting any 7s.

As a student who takes all 3 courses at a HL, this seems extremely harsh. I don’t have a problem with not getting a 7 prediction, as it seems, looking at the percentage, close to impossible. Ms. Erica claims that no one in the current IB2 Chinese A class is at a level to achieve a 7, which I will reluctantly agree with. However, I think that an A+ in assessments of those courses should be offered more frequently, as it places humanities or language students at a disadvantage regarding GPA and transcript grades. A student can be as outstanding in Lang & Lit as they are in math, for example, but unlike math, which is on a score-based right or wrong system, they can never get a perfect grade in Lang & Lit. Sure, a perfect essay does not exist, but it should not be so difficult to show a level of understanding that meets the expectations of the teachers.

A counterargument brought up by Ms. Barga is that it is harder to fail these courses as well. It’s almost impossible to get a 3 in English or Chinese Lang & Lit, as demonstrated in the IB results from 2018. As long as you write something, you will receive some credit. That’s not the case for the maths or the sciences; if you score a 30/100, you are most certainly going to get an F. The inconsistency of standards for different groups of courses is something that is due to the way the IB itself is designed, but it doesn’t mean our school’s own grading has to follow such undesirable trends.

Perhaps the school will benefit if it cancels letter grades as a whole for IB students. There is no requirement that a school has to have letter grades, and the abundance of different GPA weighting systems already devalues the credibility of GPA to universities. Since, as Ms. Martin-Bauer said, most tests and tasks are past papers, and for many subjects, IAs, FOAs and Written Tasks are already summative grades, why not just give a student a grade on a scale of 1 – 7? That way, students wouldn’t complain about the difference between their letter grade and predicted score, and it would be much easier for students to have an idea of where they stand, and not suffer disappointment when the predicted grades don’t match their expectation.

Students and teachers—we all have strong opinions about grading and assessments. Share yours below! Keep it civil, though…