Grade+Award

=** IBCA and Grade Award **=

An ITGS Grade Award meeting is held at the end of each examination session which includes the senior examining team and the Subject Area Manager (SAM). For the May session the Grade Award meeting is held at the IB Curriculum and Assessment (IBCA) center in Cardiff, Wales.


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**What is the purpose of Grade Award?** The senior examining team and ITGS Subject Area Manager · review the assessment components for the session including G2 forms (feedback forms on the OCC from ITGS teachers following the examination) · set the grade boundaries for the 3 ITGS examination papers using Group 3 descriptors and ITGS descriptors · resolve any outstanding issues relating to examiner moderation/marking · carries out “at risking” process

· remark papers marked by examiners whose marking causes concern mainly, but not exclusively, inconsistent application of the markscheme · remark papers of candidates whose final grade is two or more grades worse than predicted and who are within two marks of getting a better subject grade · remark those candidates who are only one grade below prediction, and within two marks of achieving that predicted grade, where at least one externally marked component has been marked by an examiner whose marking was not fully satisfactory but who was not re-marked
 * What is “at risking"?**

The ITGS teacher sends their sample to an ITGS examiner. The IA from all of the schools allocated to an examiner is moderated. The examiner then sends a sample of eight projects, selected by the IBNET, to their Team Leader. The Team Leader then moderates the moderated IAs and a correlation factor between the examiner and Team Leader is calculated. Providing this meets the criteria set by the IB the examiner is said to have passed moderation and his/her marks are adjusted by the moderation factor accordingly. ** If the examiner fails moderation all the IAs are remarked by examiners who have passed moderation. ** The same process is followed between the Team Leader and the Principal Examiner. The mark the student receives on the results sheet is known as the moderated mark. This explains why the marks submitted by the teacher may be different from the marks on the results sheets. A similar process exists for script marking.
 * How does the Internal Assessment (IA) moderation process work?

What happens to the students' scripts after they have taken the exam? The scripts are sent to an examiner to be marked according to the updated markscheme. After the scripts are marked, they are all sent to Cardiff where they are stored. They are available on request for about 6 months after the end of the session. For example, the May 2009 papers will be kept until about March 2010. ** Requests remarks for the May 2009 must be made by September 15.

**What feedback is available to schools?** · Examination papers and markschemes are available for purchase · Subject Reports (published on the OCC) provide grade boundaries and feedback on all components of the course. · Schools are provided with the moderated mark and grade for each component of the assessment for each candidate · Schools are provided with an internal assessment feedback form prepared by the moderator · For a fee a school can ask for an enquiry upon results Category 1 - request a re-mark of a candidate’s externally marked work (no fee if the subject grade is increased) Category 2 - request the return of copies of the externally marked work (scripts and extended essays) Category 3 - request a report on the internal assessment (portfolios/extension and projects)

The Subject Report and the Extended Essay Report are vital tools for teachers in preparing students for future examination sessions. They include a detailed analysis of issues that arose in the session and a section that assists teachers in ensuring their students are as well prepared for the session as possible. This year we are looking at making it smaller and providing resources on the OCC to support teachers.
 * What is the importance of the ITGS Subject Report and Extended Essay report?**