Internal Assesment (IA) in IB : A comprehensive guide.
The method of Internal Assessment (IA) of the International Baccalaureate (IB) is unique to this curriculum. The three parties involved, ie, the student, the teacher and the external examiner, together work from the exact set of criteria regarding construction, guidance and evaluation of the finished project.
The IA is an assessment that is assessed and marked by the teachers at the school and is passed to the IB for grade moderation. It is usually worth 20% of your final grade for the subject.
How is it done?
The IA can be in the form of a paper, project, oral exam, workbook, or series of experiments, depending on the selection of the student's IB class.
- Artistic Performances and Portfolios
- Fieldwork in Geography
- Investigations in Math
- Laboratory Work in the Sciences
- Oral Work in Languages
For example-
In the sciences, the IA requires you to research about any subject related topic and create and conduct an experiment where you investigate a specific aspect from the chosen topic. The IA will consist of the explanation of the details behind your topic such as background information, and the rest will be similar to a lab report with as much details as possible regarding your entire experiment.
Similarly, in humanities, a study is required to be conducted on a topic of interest.
In economics, an article that falls with in the area of study is chosen and a mini analysis is to be done. By the end, you are expected to submit 3 IA’s for each area of study.
How is it scored?
Your teacher is required to guide and give you feedback throughout and in the end the teacher will mark and grade you. As it is internally assessed the possibility of bias, unfairly strict or lax correction, etc is possible. The IB came up with a way to regulate this issue.
An external IB examiner will ‘moderate’ a few of the assignments from every school in order to make sure the teacher has fairly assigned grades. Moderation here refers to the process of reviewing the accuracy of the internal marking. This examiner will judge if your teacher has given grades according to the IB guidelines. In the case that your teacher graded the assignments too harshly or too leniently, the examiner will adjust all scores for the class to ensure you get the grade you deserve.
Grades are then forwarded to all the students who completed the IA. For example, if a paper is rated internally at a 20 and is moderated at an 18, then all papers rated at a 20 (those not included in the sample) will receive a score of 18.
Experienced IB teachers who have prior experience with IA moderation often are accurate regarding the criterion-referenced markers. In such cases, the moderator will confirm the teacher’s internal marking with an occasional point added or taken away.
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