When Do IB Scores Come Out? – 2024

If you’re in an International Baccalaureate (IB) program, you’re most likely taking a range of challenging courses. Perhaps you’re preparing for upcoming IB exams, or maybe you just took them in May and you’re wondering when the scores will be released. After all that effort, you must wait several months before your IB test scores finally come out, which can be stressful for many students. So, when do IB scores come out? How should you make the most of the time beforehand? Below, you can find some useful tips on IB testing timelines and score release dates, in addition to general information related to IB coursework.

How does the IB program work?

The (IB) Diploma Programme, founded in 1968, is a rigorous curriculum taught to high school students ages 16-19. The Diploma Programme, offered by certain public and independent schools internationally, is recognized by leading universities around the world. This means that completing the IB program in high school can also help your odds of college acceptance, with its rigorous curriculum that emphasizes language learning and international awareness. Similar to AP courses, IB courses can also earn students college credit. This can save some time and money later on.

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That said, completing an IB program is far from easy. The courses are known to be challenging, and each one ends with an IB assessment (given the IB focus on college readiness, these assessments can feel high-stakes). The exams, which are scored on a 1-7 scale, include traditional exams, as well as less traditional projects and presentations. In order to graduate with an IB diploma, students are required to take 6 core classes, including 3 upper-level courses (which each involve 2-years of study). In order to earn the IB diploma at the end of the program, students must earn a total of at least 24 points on their exams.

IB subject groups

The IB curriculum focuses on 6 areas of study. In each, students can choose between a range of courses. The 6 areas include:

• Language and Literature: Students take at least one subject from this area. It is designed to develop an appreciation for languages and literature, as well as critical thinking skills. Students must analyze and comprehend texts in order to pass courses in this subject group.
• Language Acquisition: IB students must take at least one language course. This can include either modern languages (such as German or Spanish) or classic languages (such as Greek or Latin). Many students end up taking more than one language, due to the IB program’s international focus.
• Individuals and Societies: Subjects in this area include economics, digital society, history, psychology, philosophy, and world religions, among others. These courses are designed to help students foster an understanding of human behavior, history, and social environments.

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• Sciences: IB science subjects include biology, computer science, chemistry, design technology, physics, and health science. In addition to learning these topics, students complete a project that allows them to understand the social and ethical implications of the sciences.
• Mathematics: The program requires one mathematics course, which helps students to develop knowledge of math concepts and logical thinking skills.
• Arts: Arts subjects include dance, film, music, theater, and visual arts. While arts IB courses are encouraged, students may choose to instead take an additional course in Individuals and Societies, Language Acquisition, or Sciences.

What are IB exams?

In each of these core areas, students must take IB exams to receive credit. These exams are offered in either May or November of each year. This depends on location (most US schools offer the exams in May). In order to earn the IB diploma, students must score an average of 4 on each exam, which will get them to the 24-point minimum (though for college credit, in many cases, students must receive a score of 5).

IB exams are comprised of an external assessment and an internal assessment. Here’s an overview of each:

• The external assessments take the form of traditional exams. Not so different from AP exams, they consist of a combination of essay, structured-problem, short-response, data-response, text-response, case study, and multiple-choice questions. These external assessments are graded by certified independent examiners outside of your school (this works similarly to AP exam scoring).
• The internal assessments, on the other hand, are facilitated and graded by the teacher of your IB course. Depending on the course and your teacher’s style, these internal assessments might take the form of oral presentations, fieldwork studies, lab reports, mathematical investigations, or artistic performances. Some small portion of these internal assessments will also be graded by an IB-appointed moderator. They will set the grading curve of that school.

College credit for IB exams

As with AP exams, IB exams can potentially allow high school students to earn college credit. However, colleges and universities often have different rules and regulations around accepting IB courses for credit. Therefore, it’s important to look up the specificities of each program to be sure. Many colleges will accept higher-level exams with a score of 5 or higher for course credit. For example, Harvard University only accepts high scores on higher-level exams for credit, and students must send official score reports to the university through the IB organization. Other schools are slightly more flexible. Oberlin College, for instance, allows students to receive credits for up to 5 courses using IB qualifications.

Exam timeline and how to check scores

While IB testing dates look a little bit different each year, here’s the gist based on the fall 2023 and spring 2024 timelines.

The May exams take place over four weeks. In 2024, they began on Thursday, April 25, and they continued until Friday, May 17. Each day there is a morning session and an afternoon session, with different exams offered in each session. For the May 2024 exams, scores will be released on the candidate website on July 6 at 12 PM GMT (London’s time zone).

The November exams differ in schedule according to time zone. However, in 2023, all of the November exams began Friday, October 20, and continued until Friday, November 10. Similar to the May exams, morning and afternoon sessions are focused on different subject areas. If you are taking the exam in the United States, the November schedule most likely will not apply to you. That said, more information can be found on the exam schedule page of the IB website. For November exams in 2023, scores were released on December 16 at 9 PM GMT.

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In order to check scores, students must get their candidate PINs from their IB course coordinators. With that PIN number, you can log into the candidate website (it’s probably wise to do this a day after the results are issued, since results are released at staggered intervals, depending on time zone). Access to the candidate website is, for now, available indefinitely. So there’s no need to worry about scores your disappearing once they become available.

Can I get a regrade or appeal my score?

What if you receive your IB exam scores and something seems unfair or generally ‘off?’ The first step is contacting the IB coordinator at your school. After the IB results have been released, your school can request re-grading if they agree that the results seem unfair. This is done through an Enquiry Upon Results (EUR) form.

There is also an IB appeal procedure for addressing specific testing errors. To learn how this works, you can refer to Article 17 of the IB General Regulations.

What should I do while waiting for my IB scores?

First of all, try not to let your worries get the better of you. In many cases, the best thing students can do to calm their nerves is to carry on with their daily lives. Diving into coursework, passion projects, or summer internships can be productive strategies to avoid dwelling on possible outcomes that you can’t control right now.

On a practical note, in this time before IB scores are released, candidates can also request to have their results sent to up to 6 universities free of charge (you can also pay for additional transcripts later on, once you know your scores). If you’re relatively confident that you did well on your exams, sending your scores to colleges early on can be a great way to save some money.

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Lastly, during this waiting period, you might want to consider which other parts of the college prep process could use your attention. This could be a great time to focus your energy on SAT or ACT prep, or on college searches. Some might also find it to be a convenient time for visiting college campuses, especially if you’re in your sophomore or junior year of high school (starting to brainstorm for your college application essays can’t hurt, either).

When do IB scores come out? Further resources

Hopefully, you’ve found some useful information about the IB exam process throughout this article. If you have further questions about the timelines for important exams, be sure to read about SAT score release dates, ACT score release dates, and AP exam score release dates for the most up-to-date information.