UK students have achieved a slightly above-average score but slightly below-average grade in the latest International Baccalaureate (IB) results published today.
The average score on the Diploma Programme (DP) of the IB for students who were assessed in the November 2023 series was 30.09 points for the UK. This is slightly above the average global score of 29.06.
However, UK students received an average DP grade of 4.45, slightly below the global average grade of 4.62.
These are both down on the average DP grade for summer 2023, which was 5.51 in the UK and 4.84 globally.
For November, the pass rate for UK students was 75 per cent, compared with the global pass rate of 71.93 per cent. Twelve per cent of UK students, who were mostly taking resits according to the IB, received 40 points or more, compared with 1.56 per cent globally.
In total, 204 students in the UK have received results for the DP and the Career-related Programme (CP) of the IB for November 2023.
A total of 20,385 students took the exams worldwide - a 12.18 per cent increase from last year, the IB said.
The global pass rate has dipped from the November 2022 results, when it was 82 per cent. It is now closer to 2019 levels (69.95 per cent) after it increased during the pandemic from 75.76 per cent in 2020 to 87.16 per cent in 2021.
Matt Glanville, head of assessment principles and practice for the IB, said that grade boundaries were “roughly the same” in 2023 as those set in 2019.
IB results: discouraging comparisons
The IB said it had decided to stop publishing data on how many students achieved the highest top mark (45 points) from May last year to discourage students and schools from comparing results.
For November 2023, it said it had decided not to share assessment data to prevent comparisons between schools of “varying contexts, socioeconomic positions and cohort sizes”, and also to take account of the pandemic’s long-term impact.
Mr Glanville told Tes the move was “about recognising the holistic wellbeing of students in the international school community”. He added that the IB would still publish performance distribution data “but we’re not focusing on that very small number of students getting those highest grades”.
Grade distribution set by the IB returned to pre-pandemic levels from May 2023. However, it said that students who took exams in 2023 would have faced learning disruption, which would be taken into account when grade boundaries were set via mitigation.
In November 2023, 63 IB world schools in the UK participated, with 1,344 in total worldwide taking part.
The previous set of results in summer 2023 saw the UK receive an average total score of 34.67 compared with the global average score of 30.24.
The UK beat the global average for summer 2023 but saw a drop in its scores from summer 2022 (when the average score was 36.35).
The IB DP has a core and six subject groups offering one subject choice per group to students. Each subject is graded from 1 to 7.
The CP is for 16- to 19-year-olds wanting to take courses related to careers and skills.
