BaM Grading

For ‘real’ IB-type Ques­tions (often mod­i­fied ques­tions from pre­vi­ous BaM exams) the grad­ing is as writ­ten below. Note that, for some of these ques­tions, the mark­ing will be done using the lev­els directly:

IB Type Questions

For ‘other’, non-IB type assign­ments, quizes, tests, etc we use the nor­mal Human­i­ties Grade Boundaries:

For Humanities-Type Questions

Exams and IAs

On your HL research project

Weight­ing: 25%

The research project enables HL stu­dents to demon­strate the appli­ca­tion of their skills and knowl­edge to real orga­ni­za­tional issues or decision-making. Stu­dents must select a real orga­ni­za­tion, not a fic­tional one, and the issue or deci­sion under inves­ti­ga­tion must also be real. The expec­ta­tion is that a stu­dent should gather pri­mary research from the orga­ni­za­tion. The style and for­mat of the report should be in the form of a use­ful work­ing doc­u­ment for management. It can­not exceed 2,000 words. It’s worth 25% of your final grade.

On the Exams

Papers 1 and 2

The two writ­ten exam­i­na­tion papers, paper 1 and paper 2, which are exter­nally set and exter­nally marked, test the assess­ment objec­tives iden­ti­fied in the introduction.

Case study (paper 1)

1. The case study is pro­vided by the IBO well before the exam­i­na­tion ses­sion. Teach­ers are advised to spend no more than four weeks on the case study.
2. The case study on which paper 1 is based will be the same for HL and SL stu­dents, but dif­fer­ent ques­tions will be set for each level.
3. The pur­pose of the case study is to assess, in depth and across a num­ber of top­ics, the student’s abil­ity to apply busi­ness knowl­edge to a given situation.

Cal­cu­la­tors

1. Stu­dents may be expected to carry out sim­ple arith­metic cal­cu­la­tions, there­fore each stu­dent is required to have access to a cal­cu­la­tor with basic arith­metic oper­a­tions for both exam­i­na­tion papers.
2. Cal­cu­la­tors must not be shared. Reg­u­la­tions con­cern­ing cal­cu­la­tors are given in the rel­e­vant sec­tion of the Vade Mecum.

HL writ­ten papers

Paper 1

Dura­tion: 2 hours 15 minutes

Weight­ing: 40%

This paper is divided into three sec­tions, each based on the IBO-prescribed case study issued to stu­dents well before the exam­i­na­tion. Sec­tions A and B are com­mon to both HL and SL stu­dents. Only HL stu­dents com­plete sec­tion C. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able is given below. The marks avail­able for each ques­tion, and each part of a ques­tion, will be indi­cated on the exam­i­na­tion paper.

1. Sec­tion A. Students should answer ques­tions by refer­ring pri­mar­ily to infor­ma­tion derived from the case study, as well as refer­ring to their own knowl­edge. Stu­dents must answer two of the three struc­tured ques­tions in this sec­tion. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able for this sec­tion is 30.

1. Sec­tion B. Students must answer the one com­pul­sory struc­tured ques­tion in this sec­tion. Part of the ques­tion will test eval­u­a­tive skills. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able for this sec­tion is 20.

1. Sec­tion C Stu­dents must answer the one com­pul­sory struc­tured ques­tion in this sec­tion. The ques­tion will focus on strate­gic decision-making. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able for this sec­tion is 30.

Paper 2

Dura­tion: 2 hours 15 minutes

Weight­ing: 35%

This paper is divided into two sec­tions. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able is given below. The marks avail­able for each ques­tion, and each part of a ques­tion, will be indi­cated on the exam­i­na­tion paper.

1. Sec­tion A Stu­dents must answer one of the two struc­tured ques­tions in this sec­tion. The ques­tions are based on stim­u­lus mate­r­ial and con­tain a quan­ti­ta­tive ele­ment. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able for this sec­tion is 25.
2. Sec­tion B. Students must answer two of the three struc­tured ques­tions in this sec­tion. The ques­tions are based on stim­u­lus mate­r­ial. The max­i­mum num­ber of marks avail­able for this sec­tion is 50.

Busi­ness and Man­age­ment Gen­eral Level Descriptors

To help you under­stand how you can achieve, I’ve devel­oped the fol­low­ing level descrip­tors for IB Busi­ness and Man­age­ment. These descrip­tors will cor­re­spond to the marks granted for some of your exam ques­tions. Later we’ll dis­cuss the exact require­ments for each exam ques­tion type, but these descrip­tors can give you some insight into things you can include in your writ­ing to raise your level.

Excel­lent Level

–The analy­sis is appro­pri­ate, clear and focused. There is clear iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and expla­na­tion of the the­o­ret­i­cal frame­work and method­ol­ogy and there is coher­ent inte­gra­tion of ideas.

–There is evi­dence of eval­u­a­tion, and judg­ments are sub­stan­ti­ated. Crit­i­cal and reflec­tive think­ing occurs.

–There is an under­stand­ing of rel­e­vant the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts and evi­dence of them being applied effec­tively. The sources and data are rel­e­vant and suf­fi­cient. There is some evi­dence of the sources and data being used effec­tively and related to the the­o­ret­i­cal framework

–The analy­sis and eval­u­a­tion of the find­ings are appro­pri­ate. There is sound inte­gra­tion of ideas and issues in a coher­ent order, and con­sis­tent evi­dence of crit­i­cal, reflec­tive thinking

–In a report, the analy­sis and eval­u­a­tion of the find­ings are appro­pri­ate. There is sound inte­gra­tion of ideas and issues in a coher­ent order, and con­sis­tent evi­dence of crit­i­cal, reflec­tive think­ing. Also, the report is of prac­ti­cal value to man­age­ment. The report is well pre­sented, forward-looking.

–There is a broad and appro­pri­ate selec­tion of busi­ness tools, tech­niques and the­ory, and these are skill­fully applied.

–The writ­ing is well orga­nized and struc­tured, with con­sis­tent and pre­cise use of appro­pri­ate busi­ness terminology.

–They pro­vide pre­cise def­i­n­i­tions and expla­na­tions of Busi­ness terms and apply course con­cepts accu­rately and com­pre­hen­sively inte­grate course terms, con­cepts, rela­tion­ships and the­ory com­pre­hen­sively and coher­ently pro­vide a log­i­cally con­sis­tent and com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis of a wide range of busi­ness issues (includ­ing issues from the exter­nal envi­ron­ment) and their impact

–apply course tools accu­rately and com­pre­hen­sively in busi­ness analysis

–use pre­cise busi­ness vocab­u­lary and illus­tra­tive exam­ples exten­sively in a well-structured man­ner in the expo­si­tion of busi­ness issues and solu­tions in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with people

High Level (3)

–The analy­sis is appro­pri­ate, clear and focused. There is some iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the the­o­ret­i­cal frame­work and method­ol­ogy.
–The con­clu­sions are con­sis­tent with the evi­dence pre­sented and answer the ques­tion.
–There is an under­stand­ing of rel­e­vant the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts and evi­dence of some of them being applied effec­tively. The sources and data are rel­e­vant and suf­fi­cient
–The analy­sis and eval­u­a­tion of the find­ings are appro­pri­ate. There is sound inte­gra­tion of ideas and a devel­op­ment of issues and some evi­dence of crit­i­cal think­ing
–In a report, there are con­clu­sions and rec­om­men­da­tions. These are con­sis­tent with the evi­dence pre­sented in the main body of the report and with the research ques­tion, and are well devel­oped. The report is of prac­ti­cal value.
–There is appro­pri­ate selec­tion of busi­ness tools, tech­niques and the­ory, and these are com­pe­tently applied.
–The writ­ing is well orga­nized and struc­tured, with con­sis­tent use of appro­pri­ate busi­ness terminology

–pro­vide cor­rect def­i­n­i­tions and expla­na­tions of busi­ness terms and inte­grate dif­fer­ent terms, con­cepts, rela­tion­ships and the­ory in a vari­ety of ways
–dis­play a log­i­cal analy­sis of busi­ness issues, ana­lyt­i­cal tech­niques and their impacts in a vari­ety of cases
–demon­strate informed judg­ment and eval­u­a­tion of argu­ments, pro­pos­als and poli­cies from sev­eral per­spec­tives
–apply ana­lyt­i­cal tech­niques and graph­i­cal tools cor­rectly in busi­ness analy­sis
–use cor­rect busi­ness vocab­u­lary and illus­tra­tive exam­ples in a struc­tured man­ner in the expo­si­tion of busi­ness issues and policies

Medium Level (2)

The analy­sis is gen­er­ally appro­pri­ate, but is not clear and focused. But there is some inte­gra­tion of ideas.

–There is evi­dence of eval­u­a­tion, but not all judg­ments are sub­stan­ti­ated.
–There is a lim­ited under­stand­ing of rel­e­vant the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts, but these have not been applied effec­tively. The sources and data are gen­er­ally rel­e­vant, but insuf­fi­cient
–Find­ings are lim­ited and the dis­cus­sion tends to be super­fi­cial. There is an attempt to sequence ideas and ref­er­ences
–In a report, there are con­clu­sions and rec­om­men­da­tions. These are con­sis­tent with the evi­dence pre­sented in the main body of the report and with the research ques­tion, but are not fully devel­oped. Also the report has some prac­ti­cal value.
–There is appro­pri­ate selec­tion of busi­ness tools, tech­niques and the­ory, but these are super­fi­cially applied.
–The writ­ing is orga­nized and struc­tured, with con­sid­er­able use of appro­pri­ate busi­ness ter­mi­nol­ogy.
–pro­vide clear def­i­n­i­tions of rel­e­vant busi­ness terms and rel­e­vant dis­cus­sion using course con­cepts
–par­tially inte­grate busi­ness terms, con­cepts, rela­tion­ships and the­ory
–with guid­ance dis­play an analy­sis of busi­ness issues, poli­cies and their impacts
–with guid­ance present informed judg­ment and eval­u­a­tion of argu­ments, pro­pos­als and policies

–use appro­pri­ate busi­ness vocab­u­lary and exam­ples in the expo­si­tion of busi­ness issues and policies

Low Level (1)

1. There is a very lim­ited under­stand­ing of rel­e­vant the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts, and these con­cepts have been mis­used. The sources and data are irrel­e­vant or insufficient.
2. Find­ings are very lim­ited and the dis­cus­sion is super­fi­cial. The report lacks order and coherence.
3. In a report, there are con­clu­sions or rec­om­men­da­tions. Some are con­sis­tent with the research ques­tion, but may not be sup­ported by evi­dence pre­sented in the main body of the report. Also the report is of lim­ited prac­ti­cal value to management.
4. There is a lim­ited selec­tion of busi­ness tools, tech­niques and the­ory, and these are super­fi­cially applied.
5. The writ­ing is struc­tured, with use of busi­ness terminology. \
6. pro­vide basic def­i­n­i­tions of busi­ness terms and basic descrip­tions of busi­ness concepts
7. demon­strate a basic under­stand­ing of the links between busi­ness data, con­cepts, rela­tion­ships and theory
8. demon­strate some expla­na­tion of busi­ness issues, poli­cies and their impacts in the con­text of real busi­ness situations
9. present lim­ited judg­ment of argu­ments, pro­pos­als and policies
10. demon­strate basic com­pu­ta­tional and graph­i­cal skills in descrip­tion or dis­cus­sion involv­ing busi­ness contexts
11. pro­vide basic descrip­tions of busi­ness issues and gov­ern­ment poli­cies and how they effect people

Very Low Level (0)

–There is vir­tu­ally no use of the­o­ret­i­cal con­cepts, sources or data.
–In a report, there are con­clu­sions or rec­om­men­da­tions, but they are incon­sis­tent with the evi­dence pre­sented or there are no rec­om­men­da­tions at all. Also the report is of no prac­ti­cal value to man­age­ment.
–There is a lim­ited selec­tion (or no selec­tion) of busi­ness tools, tech­niques and theory

–The writ­ing is poorly struc­tured, with inap­pro­pri­ate or very lim­ited use of busi­ness ter­mi­nol­ogy.
–They oth­er­wise fail to meet the require­ments of a “low level” student.