How do US colleges evaluate IB diploma students?

<p>The question pretty much says it all. Students who are in the IB diploma only take their exams until after acceptances. Hence, we mostly rely on our predicted grades. But - we ALSO get semester reports, but unfortunately these are almost never as high as the predicted grades because they are only meant to show 'progress' over a 2 year program.</p>

<p>Is this how it is done in every school, or am I the unlucky one? Do other IB schools give high semester reports too? Just for a frame of reference - in my school, students getting semester grades of 32-34 (excluding 3 bonus points) points are getting predicted grades of around 39-41 (including 3 bonus points). Pretty odd. I heard that predicted grades dont count for much and semester reports are more important, in which case I am pretty much screwed. my mid-year report is 33 but my predicted is 38.</p>