How are students assessed?
The IB uses several ways to assess students' knowledge and understanding of a subject. There are tasks or assignments throughout a course and exams at the end of a course. These assignments and exams are either internally, graded by GHHS teachers and then moderated by IB examiners, or externally by IB examiners only.
Tasks that are sent directly to IB examiners to be marked are:
exams
extended essays
written assignments
theory of knowledge essays
Tasks that are marked by teachers and moderated by examiners can include:
oral work in language classes
lab or field work in science classes
investigations in math classes
artistic performances
portfolios
projects
INTERNAL ASSESSMENTS
In nearly all subjects at least some of the assessment is carried out internally, by the classroom teacher who marks individual pieces of work produced as part of the course. Each year IB requests specific students' work for moderation by external IB examiners. This provides a consistency of scores across all of IB, as a teacher's scores for his or her students can be changed by the external examiner if they are deemed too high or too low.
EXTERNAL ASSESSMENTS
Some assessment tasks are conducted and overseen by GHHS teachers, but are then marked externally, by IB examiners. Examples include world literature assignments for language A1, written assignments for language A2, essays for theory of knowledge and extended essays. Because of the greater degree of objectivity and reliability a standard examination environment provides, externally marked exams and assignments make up the greatest percentage of an IB score.