How Are IB Psychology Grades Calculated? May & November 2022 Modifications

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Your overall IB grade from 1-7 is calculated based on your scores on both the internal assessment (your experiment report) and the external assessment (the exam). For details on how the external assessment is scored, see this post: https://psychexamreview.com/how-is-the-ib-psychology-exam-graded/

How much each section counts toward your IB grade depends on whether you take SL or HL.

Here’s how to calculate percentage scores for SL for 2022

Internal Assessment is 35% of the overall grade:

The internal assessment for SL contains 22 possible marks, so each mark is multiplied by 1.59 for points counted towards your overall raw score out of 100.

External Assessment is 65% of the overall grade:

This is usually split between Paper 1 and Paper 2 but for 2022 there is no Paper 2 for SL. SL students will only complete Paper 1. Paper 1 is worth a total of 49 marks (3 SAQs each worth 9 marks and one long essay worth 22 marks) so each mark on this paper is multiplied by 1.32 towards your total points out of 100.

Here’s how to calculate percentage scores for HL

Internal Assessment is 30% of the overall grade:

For HL the internal assessment contains 22 possible marks, so these are multiplied by 1.36 to calculate points for the raw score out of 100.

External Assessment is 70% of the overall grade:

For 2022, this is split between paper 1 (50%), paper 2 (20%). There is no Paper 3 for 2022.

Paper 1 is worth 49 marks (same as SL) and each mark is multiplied by 1.02 toward the total score. Paper 2 is shortened to just 1 ERQ worth 22 marks so each mark is multiplied by 0.91 points for the percentage score.

Total Points (out of 100) Conversion to IB Grade

If you add up the total points (not to be confused with “marks”) above you’ll get a percentage score out of 100 that can be used to estimate your overall IB grade for psychology. Note that the exact grade boundaries may change for each exam so this isn’t perfectly accurate. These numbers are from May 2021 time zone 1; students taking the exam in 2022 can expect similar but not identical grade boundaries.

SL Grade Boundaries (May 2021 TZ1)

0-5 = 1

6-12 = 2

13-19 = 3

20-35 = 4

36-50 = 5

51-66 = 6

66-100 = 7

HL Grade Boundaries (May 2021 TZ1)

0-6 = 1

7-12 = 2

13-24 = 3

25-38 = 4

39-50 = 5

51-64 = 6

65-100 = 7

Preparing for the IB Psychology Exam? The Master Introductory Psychology guide can help!

2 Comments on “How Are IB Psychology Grades Calculated? May & November 2022 Modifications”

  1. Pingback: How is the IB Psychology External Assessment Graded? | Psych Exam Review

  2. Pingback: What’s on the IB Psychology Exam? | Psych Exam Review

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