Middle Years Programme

Grades in the MYP, Part 2: End of Semester reports

Student: I received a ‘4’ overall on my Semester 1 report in science.

Parent: You received 4 out of 8? That’s 50%.

Student: Actually, it’s 4 out of 7… 

Parent: I thought that the maximum grade in MYP was 8? 

On the Semester 1 reports you will see 2 types of grade:

1. 4 marks allocated for the 4 MYP criteria A - D. This is out of 8. 
2. 1 overall MYP grade. This is out of 7. 

Below is an example of how this will look on a printed report. 

• In the blue box are grades out of 8 for the 4 MYP criteria. 
• In the orange box is a grade out of 7 overall.

What do the numbers mean? 

As explained in the previous newsletter article, the numerical values in the MYP can be considered a ‘code’ that corresponds to a descriptor. 

For the single grade out of 7 (the 1 in the orange box above), there are 7 possible descriptors.

In the MYP report explanation, there is a table that outlines which descriptor corresponds with each numerical value for the overall MYP grade out of 7. This table can be seen below: 

Edited, from  MYP: From Principles into Practice, p. 94

For the 4 x MYP criterion grades out of 8 (the ones in the blue box above), there are 4 possible descriptors

It is useful to look at an example of an MYP rubric to understand this. In the example below, there are 4 level descriptors with 2 numerical values that correspond to each descriptor. Based on the descriptors, teachers make a professional judgement to decide which descriptor best describes the student. Once this is determined, they decide if the student demonstrates a stronger or weaker version of that descriptor to decide upon a numerical value that is published on a report. This process is repeated for each of the 4 MYP criteria. 

Results of NA

As the Semester 1 report does not contain final results, not all of the criteria will have been assessed twice yet. In the MYP, it is required that all criteria are assessed twice per year in order to award final grades. Therefore, final grades are published in Semester 2 . 

Where there is a criterion which has not been assessed at all, a grade of ‘NA’ will be published. If one NA is given for a criterion (blue box above), then the overall result will also be NA (orange box above). There will be opportunities in Semester 2 for criteria graded as ‘NA’ to be assessed at a later date. 

Summary

All numerical grades given in the MYP align with descriptors. The descriptors indicate the level of sophistication of a skill, or knowledge, demonstrated by the student at the time. 

For further support in navigating MYP reports or assessment results, feel free to contact Erin Bagot, MYP Coordinator.