The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a challenging two-year programme of international education for students aged 16 to 19, leading to a qualification that is widely recognized by the world’s leading universities
The IB Diploma Programme prepares students for university and encourages them to:
- ask challenging questions
- learn how to learn
- develop a strong sense of their own identity and culture
- develop the ability to communicate with and understand people from other countries and cultures.
- The IB Diploma Hexagon
The curriculum contains six subject groups together with a core made up of three separate parts, illustrated by a hexagon with the three parts of the core at its centre. Students study six subjects selected from the subject groups. Normally three subjects are studied at higher level, and the remaining three subjects are studied at standard level. All three parts of the core — Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge and CAS (creativity, action, service) — are compulsory and are central to the philosophy of the Diploma Programme.
At the end of the two-year programme, students are assessed both internally and externally in ways that measure individual performance against stated objectives for each subject.
In nearly all subjects some of the assessment is carried out internally by teachers, who mark individual pieces of work produced as part of a course of study. Examples include oral exercises in language subjects, projects, student portfolios, class presentations, practical laboratory work, mathematical investigations and artistic performances.
Some assessment tasks are conducted and overseen by teachers without the restrictions of examination conditions, but are then marked externally by examiners. Examples include world literature assignments for language A1, written tasks for language A2, essays for theory of knowledge and extended essays.
Because of the greater degree of objectivity and reliability provided by the standard examination environment, externally marked examinations form the greatest share of the assessment for each subject.
The grading system is criterion based and so results are determined by performance against set standards, not by each student’s position in the overall rank order. Each of the 6 subjects studied is graded on a 7 point scale. Thus a total of 42 points is available from subjects as well as 3 bonus points based on a student’s performance in Theory of Knowledge and the Extended Essay, giving a maximum possible point score of 45.
This page was last updated on September 7, 2010.
