Assessment

Assessment can take place in many forms; you may have a test, a presentation, an essay, an investigation, a lab report, or a research project. All the work you do will be marked against the MYP criteria (more information about these for each subject can be found here). You should remember however, that different assessment tasks might be weighted according to the difficulty, length and importance of the assessment. This means that major projects or unit assessments may count more towards your final grade than smaller home-learning tasks.

Assessment can happen at different times throughout a unit. At the start of a unit you may have a pre-assessment, so that your teacher and yourself can determine what you already know and can do. During an assignment you may be assessed formatively, so that you receive feedback on how to improve your work. This formative assessment may be written, or the teacher may talk to you about your work. You may also experience peer-assessment, when you share your work with your fellow classmates so that they can provide you with feedback.

Summative assessment occurs when you complete and hand in a finished piece of work, which will be graded against one or more of the assessment criteria. The grade will take the form of an achievement level (out of 8) for each criterion that is being used to judge your work. Summative assessment(s) may take place during or at the end of a unit.

Rubrics

Your work will always be graded against an assessment rubric, and you should be given this at or near the start of each assignment, so that you know what your teacher is expecting in terms of content and format. Each subject has four assessment criteria, and each criterion has its own rubric. Each criterion has a maximum mark of 8.

Sometimes your teacher will change the wording of the assessment rubric so it matches the assignment you are working on. This is called a task-specific rubric and it to help you understand the requirements of the assignment.

It is important that you understand how your work will be marked before you start an assignment, so check with your teacher if there is anything that you do not understand. You should also check your work against the assessment rubric before submitting the assignment to ensure that you have met all the requirements of the task.

Grades

The maximum mark you can achieve for any piece of work is 8. An assignment may be marked against one assessment criterion, or it may be marked against two, three or even all four criteria. This means that you may receive one mark out of 8 for an assignment, or you may receive up to four marks out of 8.

Assessment rubrics do not work like percentages, letter grades, or a linear scale. For instance, if you receive 3 out of 8 for criterion A and 6 out of 8 for criterion B, it doesn't mean that you have done twice as well for criterion B than for criterion A. It is very important that you read the rubrics.

At the end of the year, your teacher will look at your grades and decide on the most consistent and best fit level of achievement for each criterion. These four marks (out of 8) will appear in your June report card.

A final attainment grade out of 7 will also be included in the June report card. To calculate this, your teacher will add together the four marks you received for criteria A, B, C and D, and then use this grade boundary table.

Grade 7: (Excellent)

Produces high-quality, frequently innovative work. Communicates comprehensive, nuanced understanding of concepts and contexts. Consistently demonstrates sophisticated critical and creative thinking. Frequently transfers knowledge and skills with independence and expertise in a variety of complex classroom and real-world situations.

Grade 6: (Very good)

Produces high-quality, occasionally innovative work. Communicates extensive understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, frequently with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and unfamiliar classroom and real-world situations, often with independence.

Grade 5: (Good)

Produces generally high-quality work. Communicates secure understanding of concepts and contexts. Demonstrates critical and creative thinking, sometimes with sophistication. Uses knowledge and skills in familiar and real-world situations, and, with support, some unfamiliar real-world situations.

Grade 4: (Satisfactory)

Produces good-quality work. Communicates basic understanding of most concepts and contexts with few misunderstandings and minor gaps. Often demonstrates basic critical and creative thinking. Uses knowledge and skills with some flexibility in familiar classroom situations, but requires support in unfamiliar situations.

Grade 3: (Needs improvement)

Produces work of an acceptable quality. Communicates basic understanding of many concepts and contexts, with occasionally significant misunderstandings or gaps. Begins to demonstrate some basic critical and creative thinking. Is often inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, requiring support even in familiar classroom situations.

Grade 2: (Poor)

Produces work of limited quality. Expresses misunderstandings or significant gaps in understanding for many concepts and contexts. Infrequently demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Generally inflexible in the use of knowledge and skills, infrequently applying knowledge and skills.

Grade 1: (Very poor)

Produces work of very limited quality. Conveys many significant misunderstandings or lacks understanding of most concepts and contexts. Very rarely demonstrates critical or creative thinking. Very inflexible, rarely using knowledge or skills.