The Latest on the IB Cheating Scandal
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Hi Reader Whilst you're focussing on IB exams that are 44 weeks away... I thought you might be interested in how the IB have dealt with the great 'time-zone cheating scandal of May 2024" Let's break down what happened, the IB's response, and how you can stay focused on what you can control. The IB Cheating Scandal: What Happened? In May 2024, students across various subjects, including Maths, Business, Global Politics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Computer Science, shared exam details across different time zones. This unfair advantage has caused a lot of concern among students who stayed honest. Latest Official IB Response Here's the latest response from the IB, sent to a concerned student on 8th June 2024: We have identified a number of students involved, including the person who set up the main site sharing the content. We are starting formal investigations into these students which could result in them not receiving marks for their examination and or relevant subjects, and potentially the non-award of the IB qualification. Alongside this, we are working closely with our schools, Associations, and Heads to ensure that all students are reminded of the requirements of our academic integrity policy.
We appreciate your concern regarding results. The core philosophy of International Baccalaureate assessment is a focus on acquisition and demonstration of higher-order thinking skills, such as analysis and critical evaluation. Rudimentary knowledge recall plays a negligible part in our assessment components. IB assessments proactively seek application and conclusive demonstration of knowledge and skill sets in relation to complex problems and stimulus materials. Students are tested on argument and explanation and are required to show their working. The competencies that IB assessments seek to test take months, if not years, of consistent application to acquire and cannot be mastered in the few hours prior to examination. If students had proactively sought out partially and inadequately recalled exam content in the short period before sitting their examinations, they would not have enough time to assimilate nor apply conceptual and procedural knowledge. It is important to remember that grade boundaries vary every year, and look at the overall evidence on how difficult individual exam questions were. For more information about how the IB awards grades, please see this page.
We recommend you maintain contact with your school coordinator if you have any additional concerns and we send you our best wishes for the publication of results.
How to Focus on What You Can Control Worrying about things beyond your control isn’t productive, so here’s how you can stay focused and manage your mental health:
Learn More For a detailed breakdown and more insights, check out my latest blog post and video on this topic. It’s important to stay informed and understand the full picture.
Stay focused, stay positive, and keep pushing forward.
P.S. Feel free to reply to this email if you’ve got any questions or need a bit of extra support. |
