MYP assessment criteria A–D: all 8 subject groups

TL;DR

Every MYP subject group is marked against four criteria. They are called A, B, C and D. Each one is scored from 0 to 8. The names of the criteria change from subject to subject. The structure does not.

MYP assessment sounds complicated from the outside. It is not. Four criteria per subject. Each one marked from 0 to 8. Add them up, and you have a total out of 32.

The part that can confuse people is the naming. Criterion B in Sciences is not Criterion B in Arts. Teachers moving between subjects, coordinators checking a rubric, and parents reading a report card all hit the same wall.

What criterion-related assessment means

MYP assessment is criterion-related. It is not norm-referenced. That one difference explains most of how the programme works.

Norm-referenced means a student's mark depends on the class. If everyone else does badly, an average piece of work looks strong. The standard moves with the group.

Criterion-related means the standard stays still. You read the descriptor. You look at the work. You decide which descriptor the work matches. If every student in your class meets the top descriptor, every student gets the top level. Nobody is competing with anybody.

This is why students should see the criteria before they start a task. If a student can say what a level 6 looks like in their own words, their work changes. The strongest MYP classrooms share the rubric openly and use descriptor language when they give feedback.

Four ideas sit under all of it, in every subject:

• Understanding and skills matter more than remembered facts

• Deep understanding should transfer to new situations

• Learning is applied to real contexts

• You assess what you actually taught and practised

Marking and grading are not the same thing

These two words get used as if they mean one thing. They do not, and mixing them up causes real problems at reporting time.

Marking happens on a single task. You read the work, you match it to a descriptor, and you award a level from 0 to 8 for one criterion. Marking is the snapshot.

Grading happens at reporting time. You look across everything a student has done for that subject, and you decide what best describes where they are now. Grading is the album.

The IB is clear that teachers assess the subject-group objectives using the assessment criteria for that subject group, in every year of the programme. How those criterion levels turn into a final grade is a separate question, and our MYP grading guide covers it in full.

MYP assessment criteria A–D for all eight subject groups

Every MYP subject group is assessed against four criteria, labelled A to D. Each criterion is scored 0 to 8, so a subject total is out of 32.

The criterion titles are fixed by the IB. They do not change as a student moves up the programme. What changes is the level descriptors, which ask for more thinking each year.

There are exceptions to the four-criteria rule. Interdisciplinary units use three criteria: A Evaluating, B Synthesizing, C Reflecting, for a total out of 24. The Personal Project also uses three: A Planning, B Applying skills, C Reflecting, again out of 24. (Note: For schools where the MYP ends in Year 3 or 4, the Community Project serves as the mandatory culminating task instead of the Personal Project. While it shifts the focus toward community service and typically culminates in an oral presentation, it likewise stands apart from the standard subject group structure.) If your reporting template totals either of them out of 32, the converted grade will be wrong.

Do the criteria change from MYP 1 to MYP 5?

The titles do not. Criterion B in Sciences is Inquiring and designing in MYP year 1, and it is Inquiring and designing in MYP year 5.

What changes is the level descriptors. A year 1 student might be asked to identify and comment. A year 5 student is asked to analyse and justify. Same criterion, harder thinking.

This is why a student can score a 6 in year 1 and a 6 in year 5 and have made a lot of progress in between. The number is the same. The standard behind it is not.

Approaches to Learning skills sit across all of this. Thinking, communication, self-management, research and social skills are planned for and reflected on inside subject units rather than graded on their own. The IB sets them out in the Middle Years Programme curriculum.

How MYP marking stays consistent across schools

Two mechanisms keep the standard steady, and they work on different things.

Standard-setting covers externally marked components. Principal Examiners run standardisation meetings and monitor examiners, so a student's result does not depend on who happened to mark the paper.

Moderation covers internally marked components. The IB checks a sample of a school's marking against a global standard. A school's marks may be lowered, raised, or left where they are.

Both matter more than any conversion table. If your department marks to the descriptor consistently, moderation confirms you. If it does not, no table will fix the grades.

The practical version of this inside a school is standardisation. Sit down with your subject team before final grades go out. Bring real student work. Compare the levels you would each award. Talk through the ones you disagree on. When you award a level 5, your colleagues should be awarding a 5 for comparable work.

Where the 1 to 7 grade comes from

Add the four criterion levels for a total out of 32. That total becomes the final 1 to 7 grade.

Schools using the MYP 1 to 7 scale use the IB's grade boundary guidelines table to make that conversion. It is the IB's table, not a school invention. A total of 28 to 32 converts to a grade 7, and the rest of the scale follows the same published bands. Schools that report on an equivalent local or national scale may use that instead, but a school reporting in MYP 1 to 7 should be applying the IB's boundaries.

Official eAssessment works differently again. There, the IB's grade award team sets subject-specific boundaries for each session, comparing student performance against the grade descriptors and adjusting for how demanding that session's assessment turned out to be. Those boundaries can move from session to session, so never assume last session's numbers.

The full table, the percentage question, and how boundaries shift between sessions are all in our MYP grading guide.

External validation: the Personal Project and optional eAssessment

The Personal Project: three criteria, marked out of 24

The Personal Project is assessed against three criteria, not the four used in subject groups: A Planning, B Applying skills, C Reflecting. Each is scored 0 to 8, so the project is marked out of 24.

Every MYP year 5 student completes it. Unlike internal subject assessment, it is externally moderated by the IB. Schools submit a sample and the IB checks the school's marking against a global standard.

It is a sustained, independent piece of work leading to a personal and creative outcome. Done well, it becomes the thing students remember from their secondary years. Final achievement is recorded in the MYP Course Results document.

To be eligible for the MYP Certificate, students must have participated in the final year of the programme.

eAssessment: the optional external route

Schools may register for eAssessment, which leads to the IB-recognised MYP Certificate. It runs as on-screen examinations and as ePortfolios of coursework.

That is the whole of it on this page. Formats, durations, session dates, results dates and preparation are covered in our IB MYP eAssessment guide.

Five things MYP coordinators can do this term

1. Put the criteria in front of students early. If students can explain the strands in their own words, the work changes before you mark it.
   
   

2. Map coverage by criterion and strand. Plan several chances at each strand across a term. Do not hang a criterion on one big task.
   
   

3. Vary the task type. Written, oral, practical, creative, digital. Different modes give you a more reliable picture than five versions of the same thing.
   
   

4. Keep annotated exemplars. Save marked samples at each level. New teachers calibrate faster, and everyone else has something to check against at 10pm.
   
   

5. Tell students why. Assessment framed as growth gets better reflection than assessment framed as a gate.

Three things are worth holding on to as a leader. Authentic tasks make moderation conversations easier. Clarity beats complexity, so share the criteria and echo the descriptor language. And systems should remove friction, not add reporting work.

Run your MYP assessment on AssessPrep

AssessPrep tags every task to the four MYP criteria, supports marking against the descriptors, and keeps a per-student evidence trail that makes a professional judgement easy to defend.

Over 800 IB and Cambridge schools use it across 85+ countries. That includes a 13,500+ question MYP bank, AI-assisted marking that speeds up the teacher's own judgement rather than replacing it, and analytics that track Criterion A to D progression over time. For schools preparing for on-screen examinations, the practice environment matches the exam environment.

Start a 30-day free trial and run one real MYP task through it this term.

Conclusion

Most MYP criteria confusion is a naming problem, not a conceptual one.

The structure is the same everywhere. Four criteria. Each marked 0 to 8. A total out of 32, except for the Personal Project and interdisciplinary units, which use three criteria and 24.

What is worth doing this term is checking that the criterion wording on your school's rubrics matches the wording in the current subject guide. Rubrics get copied, adapted and passed between teachers, and the wording drifts. It costs an afternoon to check, and it is the difference between a moderation conversation that goes well and one that does not.

Key takeaways

• Every MYP subject group uses four criteria, A to D, each marked 0 to 8, for a subject total out of 32.

• The criterion titles differ by subject group. Criterion B is Investigating in Individuals and Societies, Inquiring and designing in Sciences, and Planning for performance in PHE.

• The Personal Project and interdisciplinary units use three criteria, marked out of 24. Total them out of 32 and the converted grade will be wrong.

• MYP is criterion-related, not norm-referenced. Work is compared to a published descriptor, not to other students.

• Marking is the snapshot, grading is the album. Marking is one task. Grading is a judgement across many, at reporting time.

• The standard is held steady by standard-setting for external components and moderation for internal ones.

• Criterion titles stay the same from MYP 1 to MYP 5. What rises is the level descriptors. Check that your school's rubric wording still matches the current subject guide.