The best preparation for MYP eAssessment is planning, professional development and good teaching and good learning through the middle years.
In MYP year 5, there are several important deadlines and activities that must be observed in the months leading up to the on-screen examinations.
Incorporate the global context into your units of study
In each examination session, a global context informs all MYP on-screen examinations and ePortfolio tasks.
The six global contexts of the MYP:
- Identities and relationships
- Orientation in space and time
- Personal and cultural expression
- Scientific and technical innovation
- Globalization and sustainability
- Fairness and development
Six months before the examination session this global context is announced to allow teachers to incorporate this global context into their units of study.
Engage with the pre-release material from the Interdisciplinary examination
The examination session’s global context is the focus for the interdisciplinary learning on-screen examination. To facilitate a deep analysis of this global context, and to provide a focus for the interdisciplinary learning on-screen examination, pre-release material will be published on the IB’s password protected Programme Resource Centre six weeks before the examination.
The pre-release material comprises carefully selected multimedia stimuli and/or case studies. Through the pre-release material, students can engage with the global context and prepare for the examination by making connections with what they have studied in the MYP subject groups selected for the interdisciplinary learning on-screen examination and their own individual learning.
Image: Selected subject groups for the MYP interdisciplinary examination.
The selected subject groups for the interdisciplinary learning on-screen examination are published on the Programme Resource Centre at the same time as the pre-release materials.
Promote academic integrity
IB World School should have a policy to promote academic integrity and ensure that students are taught good practice in all aspects of their work.
This policy must be shared with MYP students and their legal guardians. It helps understand how to prevent plagiarism, collusion, and other such forms of misconduct.
Familiarize yourself and students with technical and academic aspects
Familiarization packages
Preparation for using the technology is facilitated with the purpose-built familiarisation activity. This examination-like package allows students to practice using the various tools, and response types that are available in the examination. This activity is designed to help students learn how to use the on-screen software system in an intuitive, natural way but without the extra cognitive burden of academic demand, so students can learn to express themselves without difficulty in the examination.
Specimen examinations for trial examinations
A full range of specimen examinations are also available on the IB’s password protected Programme Resource Centre which allows students to familiarise themselves with both the academic and technical aspects of each of examination.
The IB offers a student response service that enables coordinators and teachers to view student responses to a specimen examination, mark the responses and provide feedback to students.
Send predicted grades to the IB
The predicted grade is the teacher’s prediction of the grade the student is expected to achieve in the subject, based on all the evidence of the student’s work and the teacher’s knowledge of IB standards.
Teachers are asked to send predicted grades to the IB so they can be used in the grade award meetings when considering a subject’s grade distributions and the performance of individual students. The appropriateness of results is checked by comparing awarded grades with predicted grades. If there are significant discrepancies, further reviews may be conducted.
See the journey of MYP exams for more information about standardization, marking and grade boundaries.
Test the examination materials and brief staff ahead of the session
A month prior to the examination, schools receive the administration console and a package to test the process of uploading student response files.
Other resources to prepare for the conduct of the on-screen examinations include an:
- invigilation guide
- IT guide with instructions on how to set up the testing area
- A conduct guide for students
Technical requirements
IT infrastructure
The IB provides documentation to schools with guidance on the IT infrastructure required, including laptop/desktop computer specifications, in order to conduct on-screen examinations. Schools can plan ahead and consider the potential necessity to update or extend their IT capability.
Devices and compatibility checker
Every student will need:
- a reliable laptop or desktop computer, a keyboard and a mouse with a scroll wheel
- headphones.
If a student uses a laptop, it must have a reliable power source that will last for at least two hours.
Students are allowed to use their personal device for an examination (Bring-your-own-device). The IB provides schools with a compatibility checker so they can make sure that the laptops or desktop computers they intend to use in the exams are capable of running the examination software.
Internet
Internet access is required to download the examinations tasks before each examination.
The examinations are installed locally so no internet connection is required during the examination. This means students in the remotest of locations can still reap the benefits of the examinations. Local delivery from a students' machine allows for uninterrupted video, animation and simulation without competing for bandwidth.
For those student devices that are online during the examination, the IB’s secure online repository saves responses at regular interval , mitigating the risk of a device/software crash and potential loss of responses.
Submissions of responses is automatic for machines with an internet connection during the exam, or is completed manually through the School Admin Console.
