IB Theory of Knowledge 2.10 Moderation: What the IB Does with Your Marks Notes

2.10 Moderation: what the IB does with your marks

Your teacher marks the exhibition; the IB moderates it

1. The exhibition is the internally assessed task in TOK. Your teacher marks it, and the IB checks school marking through external moderation.
2. Your teacher and the moderator use the same assessment instrument. Moderation checks the application of those shared standards.
3. The exhibition receives one whole-number mark out of 10. Partial marks are not recorded.
4. That number comes from a holistic judgement of the whole exhibition. There are no separate criterion scores or per-object marks to add up.
5. A precise discussion of one object does not remove the need to explain the other two. The overall judgement considers how the three objects and their commentaries work together.
6. Read the exhibition assessment instrument alongside your draft. Ask your teacher for a copy if you have not seen it.

What reaches the moderator

1. Your teacher marks the exhibition file. If it is selected in the school's sample, the same file goes to the IB for moderation.
2. The file contains a title identifying your selected IA prompt, images of your three objects, a typed commentary on each object within a combined maximum of 950 words, and appropriate citations and references.
3. The exhibition must be individual work. You choose and justify your own objects and write your own commentary; a jointly drafted exhibition does not meet the task's requirements.
4. Your school must give you an opportunity to show the completed exhibition to an audience. That event is outside the formal assessment task.
5. Anything you said at the event cannot fill a gap in the submitted commentary. If you explained your third object's context to the class, a reader of the file still needs that context written down.
6. The Excellent band, 9–10, describes specific real-world contexts that are identified. The Basic band, 3–4, describes contexts that may be implied rather than explicitly stated. Check what the file tells a reader who has never seen your objects.

Assessment against shared standards

1. Assessment is criterion-related: your exhibition is judged against the described levels of performance. In TOK those levels are holistic, rather than separate criteria with points attached.
2. Norm-referenced assessment would compare your performance with that of other students. Your TOK exhibition is assessed against the instrument instead.
3. Being the strongest exhibition in the room does not establish which descriptor fits it. If every file has thin justifications, comparison within the class can hide a weakness they share.
4. A strong file from the person beside you does not reduce the quality of yours. Use the descriptors to understand your work rather than treating your classmates as a ranking to beat.
5. Several students in the same class may choose the same IA prompt. They may not use any of the same objects.

The assessment question and descriptors

1. One question underpins the instrument: “Does the exhibition successfully show how TOK manifests in the world around us?” The descriptors describe different levels of performance in answering it.
2. The five described bands are Excellent, 9–10; Good, 7–8; Satisfactory, 5–6; Basic, 3–4; and Rudimentary, 1–2. The 0 category covers work below those descriptions or work that does not use an official IA prompt.
3. The Excellent band, 9–10, does not require faultless performance. The judgement is about the whole exhibition; no isolated strength or weakness settles it by itself.
4. Across the descriptors, look at how you identify the objects and their contexts, explain their links to the prompt, justify their contributions, and support your points. These are connected qualities of the exhibition, not four separately scored criteria.
5. Precision matters in those explanations. The Excellent band, 9–10, describes well-explained links and strong justification of each object's particular contribution. The Satisfactory band, 5–6, describes some explanation and justification. Naming a link leaves the reader with less to evaluate than explaining why it holds.
6. When you use the descriptors to review your draft, return to the driving question. A list of features can miss whether the file shows how the selected knowledge question arises through these objects.

Authenticity is checked on every exhibition, not only the sampled ones

1. Only some files are submitted as the moderation sample, but every student's work must be confirmed as authentic.
2. Your teacher authenticates work submitted to the IB. You confirm that the work is your own and is the final version.
3. Once the final version has been officially submitted, it cannot be retracted. Check the file before confirming it.
4. Your teacher may read and advise on one draft, orally or in writing, and may not edit it. The next version you hand in must be the final version for submission.
5. Your teacher may discuss the content with you and check your initial proposal, first draft, references, writing style or a plagiarism-detection report when authenticating the work.
6. Reference every image. If the object is your own work, such as a painting from your visual arts course, identify and acknowledge it as yours.
7. Keep your drafts and source records. They help you explain how the file developed and where your examples and ideas came from.