How To Read... the subject report
There is so much information in the subject report that it pays to revisit the document several times. Rather than reading it all in one go, consider breaking it down in to chunks - depending on what you are looking for. The sections of the report are as follows.
1. Grade Boundary Information.
2. Information on the IA.
3. Information on the multiple choice paper
4. Information on the longer answer papers
Schools in the Southern Hemisphere should, if possible, take the opportunity to read the whole subject report in advance of their candidates sitting their final examinations in November.
Grade Boundary Information
At the very beginning of the document are tables showing the grade boundaries on the individual papers along with the overall grade boundary for each level. If the examining team have done a good job, the hope is that the grade boundaries for individual paper are similar in each time zone and reasonably constant from year to year. As explained in a previous blog, the grade boundaries for the IA should not change during the life of the current syllabus.
It's worth noting that the overall grade boundary is just the addition (with the appropriate weighting) of the individual grade boundaries on the different components. As far as the candidates are concerned, the grade boundaries on the individual papers are irrelevant - they just have to get a high enough total score on the combination of the different components - the overall grade boundary. In other words, it is perfectly possible to get a grade 3 on Paper 1a, 1b and paper 2 but get a grade 4 (or even a 5) overall if their IA mark is sufficiently high.
If a student has just missed an overall grade they can contemplate a resit. These can be taken in the next available IB session i.e. in November if they sat their exams first time around in May and in May if they originally sat in November. It is, however, important to see where the marks were lost and to decide whether the hoped-for improvement is realistic. If a resit happens in the next available IB session, then the candidates' IA marks are carried forward. If they have ended up with a poor grade in their IA, it is going to be a real challenge to pull up the total grade by only improving the written examinations.
Information on the IA
This year, perhaps more than in future years, the commentary on how the students performed on their IAs is particularly important. Given that this is these are the first examinations using the new IA criteria, the comments from the examining team contains plenty of relevant advice to help future candidates improve their IA along with mistakes to avoid. The comments are listed under the same titles as they have ever been listed:
- The range and suitability of the work submitted
- Student performance against each criterion
- Recommendations and guidance for the teaching of future students
- Further comments
Now (the beginning of the school year in the Northern Hemisphere) would be a good time to read this section. Doing this now would allow you to share this advice with final year students before they embark on doing their own IAs.
Information on the Multiple Choice papers
After some general comments - always worth a read to pick up some tips - there follows a question-by-question statistical analysis of the paper with some comments.
The statistical analysis highlights the correct answer along with the numbers choosing the different options. There are also three pieces of information for each question:
- The number of occasions when candidates left the answer blank. Leaving a MC question blank is a pointless thing to do as candidates might as well pick any letter in the final seconds of the examination - they have a one in four chance of getting it right! Typically more blanks are recorded in the questions towards the end of the paper indicating candidates running out of time.
- The Difficulty Index. This is really a facility index as it is just the percentage of candidate who got the right answer.
- The Discrimination Index. This is interesting information as it indicates the extent to which the question was able to discriminate between candidates with a high overall score and those that did not go on to score well. The more positive the number, the better the question. Negative numbers here would indicate that good candidates were tending to get that question wrong whereas poor candidates were getting it right! All such questions are reviewed in detail at the grade award.
Occasionally the grade award team identify questions that have, in their final form, ended up being ambiguous or even impossible to answer. These questions can be removed before calculating overall grades. There were no such questions in the May 2025 session.
The final section of this part of the subject report includes discussions on:
- The strengths and weaknesses of the students in the treatment of individual questions
- Recommendations and guidance for the teaching of future students
Both these sections are definitely worth a read before using the questions as practice for future candidates.
Information on the longer answer papers.
The format for comments on paper 1b and paper 2 are identical.
- General comments
- The areas of the programme and examination which appeared difficult for the students
- The areas of the programme and examination in which students appeared well prepared
- The strengths and weaknesses of the students in the treatment of individual questions
- Recommendations and guidance for the teaching of future students
The central three sections unpick candidates responses to individual questions and are worth reading before using the question. Alternatively you may want to read this section after having using them with your students to review whether your students encountered the same problems as candidates worldwide.
Now would be a good time to read the opening remarks and the final guidance section. Doing this would allow you to share this advice with final year students as they build their examination skills.