External Assessment — Paper 2 #
Paper 2 covers four options, but the student answers the questions related only to one of them. The option is chosen by the teacher.
- Option A: Databases
- Option B: Modelling and simulation
- Option C: Web science
- Option D: Object-oriented programming (OOP)
When it comes to options, most of the questions overlap between the SL and HL variants of Paper 2.
The maximum number of marks you can get for Paper 2 depends on the chosen level (45 or 65). Your Paper 2 score translates into 20-25% of your final grade, see grade boundaries.
Grade boundaries #
Computer science course has a variety of assessment components. Paper 2 is marked using markschemes and assigned a numerical mark by the external examiner. Grade boundaries are then applied to determine the overall grade on the 1-7 scale for this component.
These boundaries have no impact on your final grade. However, they may be used to estimate the difficulty of the component.
Standard Level #
| Grade | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2014 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 19 | 22 | 26 | 29 |
| May 2015 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 21 | 25 | 29 | 33 |
| May 2016 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 31 |
| May 2017 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 20 | 24 | 28 | 32 |
| May 2018 | 0 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 25 | 29 | 33 |
| May 2019 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 26 |
| May 2020 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| May 2021 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
Paper 2 was removed from the May 2021 session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Higher Level #
| Grade | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2014 | 0 | 11 | 22 | 27 | 32 | 38 | 43 |
| May 2015 | 0 | 12 | 23 | 29 | 34 | 39 | 44 |
| May 2016 | 0 | 11 | 21 | 27 | 33 | 38 | 44 |
| May 2017 | 0 | 11 | 21 | 27 | 32 | 38 | 43 |
| May 2018 | 0 | 12 | 24 | 30 | 36 | 42 | 48 |
| May 2019 | 0 | 10 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 36 | 41 |
| May 2020 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| May 2021 | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
Paper 2 was removed from the May 2021 session due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
