Scoring explained

How the IB builds your 1–7 grade

Every component in IB English A: Language and Literature is marked on four criteria using a best-fit method. Your raw marks on each component are converted into scaled percentages, multiplied by their official course weightings, and added together to produce a total score out of 100. After each May and November examination session, the IB sets grade boundaries (separately for SL and HL) to turn that total into a final grade from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest).

The raw-to-scaled calculation

Because each component has a different maximum raw mark, a raw point does not carry the same weight everywhere. Under the guide first assessed in 2026:

• At SL, each raw mark on Paper 1 is worth $1.75\%$ of your final grade ($\frac{35\%}{20}$), each raw mark on Paper 2 is worth $1.40\%$ ($\frac{35}{}$), and each raw mark on the individual oral is worth ().

To work out your overall scaled percentage, divide your raw score on each component by its maximum possible score, multiply by the component’s percentage weighting, and sum the results:

Here P1 and P2 are your Paper 1 and Paper 2 marks, IO is your individual oral mark and HLE is your HL essay mark.

Inside the criteria and the 2026 Paper 2 change

Every written component uses 0–5 mark bands per criterion, while the individual oral uses 0–10 mark bands (split into five two-mark levels: 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10). The criteria mirror the course’s three assessment objectives: know, understand and interpret (AO1); analyse and evaluate (AO2); and communicate (AO3). (The guide prints no codes; AO1–AO3 are Courselo’s labels for its objectives 1 to 3.)