It's been a rather big day for the May 2021 candidates - by now, your students will have received their IB scores and hopefully be ready for the next stage in their lives.

You can read the IB's initial post-results communication here, including some key statistics:

• The worldwide average Diploma score for the May 2021 session is 33.02 points, up from 31.34 in May 2020 and 29.62 (the last time external exams were taken).
• The worldwide average Diploma subject grade is 5.19, up from 4.95 in May 2020.
• The number of candidates for the May 2021 exam session was 170,660 - this is a decline from May 2020 which stood at 174,360 candidates.
• Out of the 170,660 students, 104,275 (61.1%) were in the non-exam route and 65,576 (38.4%) in the exam route (and 809 split between both routes - due to unexpected disruptions during the examination period).
• The number of the Diploma Programme candidates for the May 2021 session was 87,307 - this is up from the May 2020 session which registered 86,657 candidates.
• The number of students achieving 40 - 45 points is 15,513, up 59.9% from 9,701 candidates in May 2020.
• The total number of top scorers with 45 points rose to 1,155 (240% more than the 339 top scorers in May 2020).
• The Diploma pass rate is 88.96%, up from 85.18% in May 2020.
• For SL Business Management, the mean score is 5.65 (the highest score on record).
• For HL Business Management, the mean score is 5.53 (also the highest score on record).

The HL grade boundaries for M21 are as follows:

• 7 = 65+
• 6 = 55 to 64
• 5 = 46 to 54
• 4 = 34 to 45

The SL grade boundaries for M21 are as follows:

• 7 = 67+
• 6 = 54 to 66
• 5 = 40 to 53
• 4 = 27 to 39

Interestingly, the mean scores for exams between May 2012 and May 2019 are as follows (M21 averages are shown in brackets for comparative purposes):

• BM SL = 4.766 (5.65)
• BM HL = 4.728 (5.53)

Enjoy all the celebrations, but do also spare a moment to support those who may not have done as well as hoped.

Best wishes

Paul