Hong Kong International Baccalaureate students see grades improve after scores adjusted worldwide
- Some students had been dismayed to find they received lower marks than expected after exams were cancelled in favour of grading by algorithm
- After the new adjustments, marks rose across the board, as did the number of students attaining perfect scores
Many Hong Kong students saw their marks improve in this year’s International Baccalaureate (IB) exams following a review prompted by complaints from tens of thousands of candidates around the world that their grades were poorer than expected.
The city’s biggest international school group, the English Schools Foundation (ESF), as well as five other local and international schools, told the Post on Wednesday their schools’ average scores had risen, and the number of top scorers had also increased significantly after the students’ grades were adjusted.
Following the release of the IB grades to more than 174,000 pupils on July 6, more than 25,000 people around the world signed an online petition demanding an explanation for the marks.
The signatories included students from Hong Kong, where the number of perfect scorers had dropped by nearly a third, from 34 to 23, compared to last year.
The IB organisation announced on Monday that an adjustment had been made based on students’ predicted grades and coursework marked by IB examiners. All marks had either remained the same or increased.
A similar situation occurred in Britain after the government ruled A-level and GCSE students would also be awarded grades based on their predicted scores – instead of by algorithm – after an uproar over lower-than-expected marks.
Following the IB review, at least 14 more students at the schools contacted by the Post attained the top score of 45 – including nine at ESF schools, bringing their total to 21. Last year, the ESF had 23 students who earned perfect scores.