MYP Grades Explained: What a 5 in Science Actually Means

A parent in an IB school opens the report and finds a 5 in sciences, a 6 in language and literature, and no percentage anywhere. Is a 5 good? Did the child improve? This guide explains how MYP assessment actually works, from the IB's own published documents: who marks the work, the four criteria behind every subject, how achievement levels become a grade from 1 to 7, what happens in the final year, and what the MYP certificate requires. Find the official sources at the end.

Why there is no percentage

The MYP does not mark out of 100. Assessment is school-based: tasks are created and marked by your child's own teachers, who judge the work against objectives the IB prescribes for each subject group, using the assessment criteria published for that subject. The model is criterion-related: work is compared against described levels of achievement, not ranked against classmates and not converted into marks.

That is why the report looks unfamiliar if you grew up with CBSE or ICSE mark sheets. A percentage tells you how many marks were collected. A criterion-related grade tells you what the work showed the child can do.

The four criteria behind every subject grade

Each of the eight MYP subject groups defines its objectives through four assessment criteria, labelled A to D. In individuals and societies, for example, the IB's official subject brief lists Criterion A: Knowing and understanding, Criterion B: Investigating, Criterion C: Communicating, and Criterion D: Thinking critically. Other subjects follow the same four-criterion structure with their own objectives.

Teachers assess each criterion using achievement-level descriptors. When it is time for a grade, the achievement levels are totalled and converted into a final grade from 1 to 7. The IB's own assessment Q&A puts it plainly: "We have always converted a number (achievement level total) into a 1-7 grade."

So is a 5 good?

Resist converting it into a percentage. The useful question is not what percent a 5 equals, but which criteria are strong and which need work. Two children with the same grade can have very different profiles underneath it.

One anchor the IB does publish: to earn the MYP certificate in year 5, a student needs at least a grade 3 in every component and a total of 28 points out of 56. A 5 sits well above that bar. And because teachers assess against the same published criteria all year, steady criterion-level work matters more than any single report.

Year 5: the personal project and eAssessment

In the final year, every MYP student completes a personal project independently, and the IB externally validates it. The project is a long-term piece of work the student designs: deciding what to learn, what they already know, what they still need, and how the finished work will be judged. Our guide to how parents can help with the MYP personal project covers the home side of that.

Schools can also register students for optional external assessment, called eAssessment. It comes in two forms: on-screen examinations lasting between 1 hour 45 minutes and 2 hours, and ePortfolios of coursework. On-screen exams are marked externally by trained IB examiners, and teacher-marked coursework is moderated by the IB so standards stay aligned across schools.

The MYP certificate, in numbers

• Every component is graded from 1 to 7, and the maximum total score is 56.
• The certificate requires at least 28 points overall, with a grade of 3 or higher in every component.
• Components include on-screen exams in language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics and interdisciplinary learning, plus ePortfolio coursework and the personal project.
• The student must also meet the school's requirements for service as action (community service).
• Results are issued on 1 August for May examinations and 1 February for November examinations.

A student who completes only the personal project can receive a school certificate, and schools can issue a record of participation for students who studied the MYP for at least two years without registering for external assessment. That record is a school document, not verified by the IB.

How to read the next report

1. 1Ask to see the criterion levels, not just the final grade. A 5 built on strong investigating and weaker communicating points to a different next step than the reverse.
2. 2Compare criterion by criterion across terms. Growth in one criterion is real progress even when the overall grade holds still.
3. 3Ask the teacher what one level up looks like. Because every criterion has published descriptors, the answer should be specific: what the work must show, not how many marks it must collect.
4. 4Ask whether the school enters year 5 students for eAssessment, and when. Registration sits with the school, and the certificate path runs through it.
5. 5Keep the personal project on the family calendar in year 5. It is compulsory, externally validated, and carries a grade of its own in the final results.

If you are still weighing schools, our IB verification guide shows how to confirm a school's authorisation on the IB's own register before you take the tour.

Sources and what they establish