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.
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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.
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The ESF’s average score among its 949 students taking the IB also increased after the adjustment from 35.9 to 36.9, a record high for the international school operator, while the proportion of students scoring 40 points or above rose from 25 to 33 per cent.
Both the Canadian International School (CDNIS) and local elite school St Paul’s Co-educational College reported two more top scorers each, bringing their totals to two and six, respectively. The average score among the 107 students at CDNIS also rose from 37.1 to 37.8.
Victoria Shanghai Academy also had a perfect scorer after the adjustments, with the student’s score going from 44 to 45. The school’s average score also increased from 36.2 to 37.2.
But one parent of an ESF student said he was still disappointed after the adjustments, as the change was small for his Year-13 son. He believed the damage had already been done. His son, who was expected to score 34 based on his predicted grades, was only given one additional point in the adjustment, taking his score from 26 to 27.
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“My son’s predicted grade was six for economics, but he actually only got three … He now gets a four,” the father said. “He feels completely defeated by the system. That’s what makes him really sad. These children have worked really, really hard to get the best scores they could, and then the system basically robbed them of their possibilities of going to universities.”
But the ESF and at least three other schools told the Post they were mostly satisfied by the evaluation, which has reopened doors for some students.
The IB, which offers students an internationally accredited qualification for entry into higher education institutions, is a two-year programme for students aged between 16 and 19. Pupils are required to take six subjects and complete three components, including a 4,000-word essay.
