How IB Points Work: The 45-Point Scale Explained
How the IB diploma adds up to 45 points, what the bonus three are for, how boundaries move each session, and where students lose points they could keep.
Writes the curriculum and exam-technique guides. Recently sat these exams herself, which is why the advice is about where marks are actually lost rather than what the syllabus says.
Most IB students can recite that 45 is the maximum and 24 is the pass. Far fewer can explain where their own predicted grade came from, or which single change would move it most. That gap is expensive, because the IB scoring system rewards students who understand how it adds up.
Here's how the numbers actually work, and where points get lost that didn't need to be.
Where the 45 comes from
The diploma total is built from two parts.
| Component | Points available |
|---|---|
| Six subjects, graded 1–7 each | 42 |
| Extended Essay + Theory of Knowledge combined | 3 |
| Total | 45 |
You can add your own grades up in our free IB points calculator — it also checks the diploma conditions below, not just the 24-point total.
Your six subjects are normally three at Higher Level (HL) and three at Standard Level (SL), though some students take four HL. Each subject is graded 1–7 regardless of level — an HL 6 and an SL 6 are both worth six points toward your total.
That's worth sitting with, because it has a strategic implication most students miss.
The HL and SL point trap
Since HL and SL points are worth the same, a 6 in an HL subject costs considerably more work than a 6 at SL. Students often distribute revision evenly across six subjects, which quietly means their HL subjects — the harder ones — get proportionally too little.
The fix isn't to neglect SL. It's to be honest about where a grade boundary is actually within reach:
- A subject sitting 1–2 marks below the next boundary is your highest-return revision target, HL or SL.
- A subject you're comfortably inside a band on is your lowest-return target, however much you enjoy it.
The bonus three points
The Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge are each graded A–E, and the combination produces 0–3 bonus points via the IB's published matrix.
| Extended Essay grade | TOK A | TOK B | TOK C | TOK D | TOK E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 3 points | 3 points | 2 points | 2 points | Failing condition: no diploma awarded |
| B | 3 points | 2 points | 2 points | 1 point | Failing condition: no diploma awarded |
| C | 2 points | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points | Failing condition: no diploma awarded |
| D | 2 points | 1 point | 0 points | 0 points | Failing condition: no diploma awarded |
| E | Failing condition: no diploma awarded | Failing condition: no diploma awarded | Failing condition: no diploma awarded | Failing condition: no diploma awarded | Failing condition: no diploma awarded |
- 3 points — the maximum
- 2 points
- 1 point
- 0 points
- Failing condition
Two things students underestimate:
- Three points is a lot. It's the difference between 38 and 41 — often the difference between an offer and a near miss.
- An E is a failing condition. A grade of E in either the EE or TOK can prevent the award of the diploma regardless of your subject points.
The EE and TOK are also the most controllable parts of your diploma. They're coursework: you have time, feedback, and drafts. Subject exams give you one attempt on one day. Our IB internal assessment guide covers how to plan coursework so it doesn't get compressed into a final panic.
The EE and TOK are the only points on your transcript you can earn calmly, months in advance. Students who treat them as admin lose the easiest three points available.
Diploma requirements beyond the total
Reaching 24 points isn't sufficient on its own. The diploma is awarded only when all of these hold:
- At least 24 points in total, including the EE and TOK bonus
- No grade 1 in any subject — a single 1 fails the diploma outright
- No more than two grade 2s across HL and SL
- At least 12 points from your HL subjects
- At least 9 points from your SL subjects
- No grade E in either TOK or the Extended Essay
- CAS requirements completed
That list is why a student can finish on 26 points and still not receive the diploma. The total is necessary, not sufficient — and the conditions catch students who wrote off one subject entirely.
The HL and SL point minimums work differently if you take four HL subjects rather than three, so confirm the exact requirements for your subject combination and session with your DP coordinator.
How IB grade boundaries actually work
This is where the misunderstanding sits. IB boundaries are not fixed percentages. They are set per subject, per level, per session, after examiners have seen how the cohort performed.
What that means in practice:
- The raw mark needed for a 7 in HL Chemistry in one session may differ from the next.
- Boundaries reflect paper difficulty. A harder paper generally means lower boundaries.
- You cannot know your boundary in advance, and any specific number you find online is historical, not predictive.
So chasing a number ("I need 78% for a 7") is the wrong frame. The right frame is: maximise marks on each paper, because the boundary will land where it lands.
The same logic applies at IGCSE, and we cover it in more depth in how grade boundaries work — the mechanism is closely comparable even though the scales differ.
Where IB students lose points they could keep
From the patterns that show up again and again:
Treating the IA as a formality
Internal assessments carry a meaningful share of the final grade in most subjects. A weak IA caps your subject grade before you sit a single paper. It is also, like the EE, coursework — which means it's the part you can control most.
Ignoring command terms
The IB has its own assessment vocabulary — evaluate, discuss, to what extent, justify, deduce — and mark schemes are built around it. Writing a good answer to a different command term earns very little. Our command words guide covers the same distinctions, which carry across IGCSE, A-Level and IB.
Leaving TOK to the end
TOK feels abstract and gets deprioritised until it's urgent. Then it's an E-grade risk sitting on top of a strong diploma.
Revising evenly instead of strategically
Six subjects, equal time, feels fair and is almost never optimal. Points come from boundaries you're close to.
Not using past papers under timed conditions
IB papers reward speed and structure as much as content. Doing them untimed builds false confidence — the past papers method covers how to sequence topical drills before full timed papers.
A realistic way to add points
If you're mid-diploma and want a plan rather than a lecture:
- Write down your current predicted grade per subject. Six numbers.
- Mark each as secure, borderline, or below. Be harsh about borderline.
- Rank the borderlines by how few marks separate you from the next band. That ranking is your revision priority order.
- Audit your EE and TOK status honestly. If either is drifting, that's three points at risk and it outranks most subject revision.
- Check your IA marks are banked where they've been assessed. There's nothing to gain from revising exam content while an IA is still unfinished.
- Sit one timed past paper per week in your weakest borderline subject.
For a full schedule built around this, see our 12-week IB revision plan.
That's it. It's unglamorous, and it's how points get added.
Support that speaks IB
The IB's demand isn't just content — it's the specific way IB mark schemes want that content expressed.
- Solve works through HL and SL questions step by step, in the assessment language IB examiners credit.
- The AI tutor adapts to IB syllabuses across HL and SL, including IA guidance and paper technique.
- Study sets turn your own class notes and textbook chapters into practice questions and flashcards for active recall.
Work out which two subjects are closest to a boundary, then start a free trial and spend this week's revision there instead of spreading it across six.