Predicted Grades

Predicted Grades

Predicted grades are a worry for students as they are often shown to potential universities. I have found that students, at times, believe that only their mock exams will count towards their predicted grades. I have taken time to explain to students and parents that it is not only the mock exam results that will count towards the predicted grades, but teachers will also take into account the students’ performance in all of the assessment components, including the Internal Assessments. I explain that the predicted grades are based on the International Baccalaureate’s grade descriptors (which I ask staff to include in their student guides for each subject). I also make it clear that there is room for students to make further progress after the mock exams and this is taken into account when creating a predicted grade.

I ask teachers to take their overall knowledge of their students into account when creating predicted grades. As well as academic ability this can also include motivation, work rate, attitude to learning and self-management, all of which can have an impact on results.

When collating predicted grades I create one of the predicted grade documents below for each student. The document is put onto a Google Doc so all subject teachers can edit it. The correct subject groups and subjects need to be inputted for each student depending on the route they have chosen through the Diploma. Once the results are in I check the students’ predictions across the core and their points across their SL and HL subjects (where a minimum of 9 in SL and 12 in HL are needed), and take into account the other criteria that need to be met for a full Diploma to be awarded. I then give a final points prediction and whether the student is predicted to pass the full Diploma or not.

Once the predicted grades have been received, they are inputted onto IBIS and I add them to the student data tracking document.