It's results week, so teachers and students will be finding out how IB Diploma Programme grades have gone.

So far (as of 6th July), we are through the IB's staggered releases of results, which means that you might be receiving some inquiries from your students and IB Coordinator (and you might be celebrating or commiserating).

As you will know if you had classes for the May 2023 session, all assessment components were required - including Paper 3. You might also be aware that the IB has succeeded in restoring the grade distributions and global averages that were typical up to 2019. Both of these factors, combined with the fact that this cohort had disruptions to education between 2020 and 2022, means that there are likely to be more disappointments than last year.

If a student is a handful of marks off the next grade up, they can request a remark via the DP Coordinator (for a fee). They might like to wait until component scores are released late on 7th July to make an informed decision.

You as teacher should take an interest in how the moderation of your IAs has gone when reports are published on 12th July. Your marks may be unchanged or they may have been reduced (at the top or bottom or throughout). Provided that you are satisfied that all IAs were internally moderated (or marked by one dispassionate individual!) then you have nothing to fear; your results will simply have been aligned with the global standard. But it is possible for the school to pay for a remoderation, if the marks have been cut by at least a certain percentage.

If you are interested in how your students have done in a question-by-question analysis, you could ask your Coordinator to spend half an hour with you on IB Insights. So far, this tool is only available to coordinators, which is a shame, because it contains thousands of juicy data points.

And, with your students' permission, you could potentially consider paying to receive marked examination paper scripts. These might inform remark decisions or professional development for the teaching of future cohorts. Saying this, annotations are likely to be concise or not present at all.

Whatever the outcome, well done. You are still a physics teacher, which is worth celebrating in its own right! And you now have another year of experience, examples and explanations under your belt.