MYP eAssessment Explained: What the IB's On-Screen Exams and Certificate Mean for Your Child

If your child is in the middle years at an IB school, you may hear the words 'eAssessment' or 'MYP certificate' mentioned around Grade 9 or 10 - often without much explanation. In the IB Diploma, externally marked exams form the basis of assessment for most courses, with teacher-assessed internal components alongside. The MYP's external assessment, by contrast, is optional: the school chooses whether to register for it at all. Here is what that option actually involves, drawn from the IB's own published assessment pages, so you can ask your school the right questions.

How MYP assessment normally works

Through the five years of the MYP, assessment is internal: teachers create and mark tasks against the IB's prescribed criteria for each subject group, in every year of the programme. There is no board exam at the end of Grade 8, 9 or 10 unless the school opts in to external assessment. In the final year, every MYP student completes one compulsory external piece regardless: the personal project, an independent piece of work the IB externally validates. Everything else external is the school's choice, and that choice is called eAssessment.

The two parts of eAssessment

Once a school registers, eAssessment comes in two forms. The first is ePortfolios of coursework - including the compulsory personal project - which are subject to external moderation of the teacher's marking. The second is on-screen examinations, each lasting between one hour 45 minutes and two hours, which are externally marked by trained IB examiners. They run once a year in each of two sessions, May or November.

Exams are offered in several languages depending on the subject - for language acquisition that includes Hindi, and Urdu at the capable and proficient levels, alongside English, French, Spanish and others - so it is worth confirming the exact paper and language your child is entered for.

Why these exams feel different

The IB says 75% of the assessment in MYP on-screen exams is explicitly on inquiry, communication and critical thinking - applying knowledge in unfamiliar contexts matters more than recall. The format is built to match: students drag and drop, play and replay video and animations, interact with simulations, plot graphs and use an on-screen graphing calculator. Words that might trip up second-language learners carry hover-text definitions. The interdisciplinary learning exam has a special claim: the IB describes it as the only examination for 15 and 16-year-olds that assesses interdisciplinary understanding - the ability to connect different areas of knowledge, which MYP students practise in at least one interdisciplinary unit every year.

Grades and the MYP certificate

Every eAssessment component is graded 1 to 7. Students receive IB MYP course results for each subject completed, along with the personal project and the interdisciplinary exam. The full IB MYP certificate - there is also a bilingual version - requires candidates to complete eight eAssessments: on-screen exams in language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics and interdisciplinary learning, plus ePortfolios in language acquisition, in physical and health education, arts or design, and the personal project. Candidates must also meet the school's requirements for service as action.

The maximum total score is 56 - a grade from 1 to 7 on each of the eight required components. To earn the certificate, a student needs at least 28 points and a grade of 3 or higher in every component. Where a student completes more than one eAssessment within a subject group, the highest available grade counts toward the certificate total.

When results arrive

The IB issues results on 1 August for the May session and on 1 February for the November session, published on IBIS, the IB's school portal. So students who sat the November 2026 session receive results on 1 February 2027, and the next exam opportunity is May 2027. Results come through the school, not directly to parents.

What to ask your school now

1. 1Is the school registered for MYP eAssessment this year, and in which session - May or November? Registration is the school's choice, so never assume it.
2. 2Which components will your child be entered for: the full eight needed for the certificate, or selected on-screen exams and ePortfolios for course results only?
3. 3For the certificate track, is your child on track with the service-as-action requirement? It is a condition of the award, not an extra.
4. 4How will the school use the results? The IB's own case for parents is that eAssessment gives a richer picture of strengths and gaps than a traditional end-of-semester test, and a lower-stakes preview of Diploma Programme expectations that can guide DP subject choices.
5. 5If your child sat the November session, ask how and when the school will share the 1 February results from IBIS - and who explains what a 4 or a 6 actually means for next steps.