Hi all - My D is wondering about the spot on the coalition app for “predicted IB exam scores.” It looks like “predicted IB exam scores” is a term of art - from IB website:
“The predicted grade is the teacher’s prediction of the grade the candidate is expected to achieve in the subject, based on all the evidence of the candidate’s work and the teacher’s knowledge of IB standards. Predicted grades are also required for theory of knowledge and the extended essay. It is important that each prediction is made as accurately as possible, without under-predicting or over-predicting the grade. The IB takes measures to work with schools that consistently under- or over-predict student grades.”
As far as I know, my D’s US high school does not do anything like this. Do most US schools predict IB exam scores? Assuming ours does not, skip that section right? She plans to take several IB exams next spring, but it looks like the section is meant to report “predicted scores” not just inform colleges of what exams are anticipated, so without “predicted score” I think she leaves the section altogether blank…
US students applying to US schools can leave blank since they also get traditional grades. This is more of a thing internationally when the IB scores and predicted scores are the only grades they ever receive.
US IB students applying overseas may need to work with their teachers. My daughter had to supply predicted exam scores and it was not something her teachers were familiar with.
You probably can get those predictions, if you ask. Ask your director. I didn’t know my kid had them until they had them LOL. Completely useless though, as I suspect you would already know.
Hmm, interesting discussion. @VickiSoCal - my daughter attends an international school, gets a “traditional” report card with semester grades but will also get predicted IB scores.
Generally predicted IB scores (at least at our school) are to be based on the last semester of Junior Year and the first Semester of Senior Year grades. IB schools are VERY careful with predicteds because consistently OVER predicting kids will get you in big trouble with the IB.
@VickiSoCal - it is all reported to the IB. Teachers are required to be very, very close to the official score when predicting grades. If they are off by more than two score “bands” on, say, the Internal Assessment, the entire class’s grades are boosted/knocked down accordingly. Teachers learn very quickly what IB is looking for.
Only one UK university asked for predicted IB scores and my daighter’s guidance counselor queried all her teachers then sent them in an email, directly to the univeraity.
Thanks everyone for the information and your dialogue - interesting and helpful. The section is self-reporting (“would you like go report…”), so It seems like just leaving it empty makes the most sense. If her HS does or is required to predict exam scores, it seems like colleges and students (and the predicted score process) might be better served by direct reporting by schools to colleges if they view it as relevant to admissions, rather than students seeking access to that info from the school/teachers. I’m not sure most students or classroom communities benefit from students knowing what teachers are predicting they will do on the tests. Maybe overseas that info is regularly reported to students with full transparency like grades are in the US, but given it is not the practice at my D’s high school to give them out if they are done at all (and it sounds like from some of the comments that maybe IB actually requires schools to do it), I think it not worth pursuing. Plenty of other things for her to spend her time and energy on, and she has grades, an IB exam score from last spring, AP scores, and the ACT - enough!!!
The sequence of events for my daughter at a US IB school applying to UK schools was this:
Beginning of senior year she filled out the UCAS and applied to 5 UK schools. She put her existing 2 IB and 5 AP scores in. The app asked for predicted scores for all exams she would be taking end of senior year. (4 IB and 5 AP) these would be self reported. She asked her guidance counselor what to do he said leave them blank “we don’t do predicted scores”.
4 of the UK schools gave her a decision without any predicted scores. (2 unconditional, 2 conditional based on senior year scores) One school came back and said they needed the predicted scores.
Her guidance counselor reported those predicted scores in an email. That university rejected her. (We really have no idea why, it honestly makes little sense that the lowest ranked of the 5 UK universities she applied to was the only one that rejected her)
She is currently a first year student at St. Andrews and very happy so far.
None of the above went through IBO. And since St. Andrews accepted her unconditionally and we had already enrolled her and paid deposit before her final IB and AP scores went out, I’m not sure if those were sent to them. We did not request they be sent and St. Andrews never asked for them.
She is the first student form her high school in 8 years to go to a UK university, so the process was not terribly familiar to her counselor and teachers despite them being an IB school.