There is a myriad of material on the internet dedicated to just how difficult the International Baccalaureate (IB) can be: Buzzfeed articles, internet memes, entire twitter accounts, and even a spoof video on YouTube titled “Hitler Finds Out His Parents Signed Him Up for the IB Programme” (which features a yelling, crying, and screaming Hitler). The most recent addition to this ever-growing list: a petition with 17,407 signatures asking the IB to lower the curve on the May 2016 HL Physics Paper 2 exam.

It is no secret that the IB is challenging, but this exam was on a new level of difficult. Mr. Michael Jollimore, who taught WIS’s HL Physics class of 2016, claims that this may be due to the length. “I don’t think that the questions were overly difficult, but the volume of questions was just not accomplishable for many in the time that was given.” He believes that the developers of the exam probably had done this by accident: “Unfortunately, physics instructors/test developers don’t always realize that a problem that is going to take them ten minutes will take a lot more time from a student.”

The creator of the petition Cheeter Charlie (most likely a pseudonym), states that he “can’t help but think that the IBO is doing a huge disservice to its students.” He asked for the curve of the test to be especially generous this year. Usually, answering 77% of the test correctly will award a student a seven. The reason there is a curve at all has to do with distinguishing the amazing students from the good ones. Mr Jollimore claims that they should make exams hard enough so that there can be more of a range in the upper grade boundaries.

This year, answering 52% of the test correctly was a 7. “Tests shouldn’t be that hard. That’s just frustrating for students. Students go in, and if they prepared themselves well, they expect to answer – well, more than half” says Mr. Jollimore.

Indeed, taking a test so difficult that a huge petition explodes can be emotional torment. Kyle MacMillan, alumnus of WIS’s class of 2016 HL class, says that he “felt horrible taking it.”

Everyone has taken a difficult test in their lives, but taking an exam that could determine where you go to college adds an innumerable amount of pressure. About half of WIS’s students apply to the UK every year, and the conditional offers are often centered around your Higher Level Courses. Walking out of one of your HL Physics exams thinking you have failed it, probably not meeting your conditional offers, would be stressful to anyone. “You could leave a third of the test blank and, even if you get a 7 in the end, you will still walk out of that test feeling a bit like a failure” says Mr. Jollimore.

The petition worked. The General Director of the IBO responded to this petition with a tweet: “Read the petition, updates & all comments. We will follow well established due processes to address issues raised.” The IBO also emailed all schools, acknowledging the petition, and stating that they will address the issue of Paper 2. Mr. Jollimore claims that “it’s a really good thing that they acknowledged the petition. I don’t know how much it helped in the end, but this is a good sign.”

However, this petition and this curve raise the question as to the ethics (area of knowledge) of IB examination. In the end, all the grades are normally distributed along the Bell curve. But what about those two months between your exams and the time you receive those scores? What about the fact that you feel as though you have wasted two years of your life for an exam that you failed? An examination of this degree of difficulty tests the students’ emotional psyches as well as their knowledge of physics.

IB exams will probably continue being extremely difficult, and as more schools join the fray, the curves will probably get tougher. But for now, “Do not fear, Cheeter Charlie is here.”

By Erika Undeland