St Joseph's Institution International and Hwa Chong International School break their IB high score records

SINGAPORE - Both St Joseph's Institution International (SJII) and Hwa Chong International School (HCIS) have broken their International Baccalaureate (IB) high score records.

SJII has six students who achieved a perfect score of 45, making it a new school record as they had previously obtained one each year for the past four years.

Another three students have attained 44 points while seven others obtained 43 points.

HCIS, on the other hand, has four students attaining 44 points out of a perfect score of 45, surpassing last year's top score. The school also saw four other students attain 43 points, outperforming previous years' top students.

The batch of 91 HCIS students delivered a commendable performance with almost 1 in 5 (18 per cent) students achieving at least 40 points, and 1 in 3 (32 per cent) students achieving 38 or higher points.

Every 1 out of 2 students attained a score of 36 points with almost all (98.9 per cent) being awarded the IB Diploma. 16 students (18 per cent) of the cohort were also awarded the Bilingual Diploma.

Top honours go to Darren Chak Siu Jin from Singapore, Zhu Zhennan from China, Ong Zhong Tao and Loh Ben Yang from Malaysia, who have all notably excelled in both academic and non-academic arenas such as football and the arts, throughout their six-year education with HCIS.

Despite a PSLE score of 229 points, this year's local top scorer, Darren Chak, was given an opportunity to prove his academic ability in his pursuit of the coveted IB Diploma at HCIS.

Meanwhile at SJII, Mr Bradley Roberts, principal of SJII commended this students scores: "Overall 26 per cent of our students achieved 40 points or more, a result achieved by only 6.9 per cent of students worldwide (equivalent to five A-grades at A-Level according to the latest UCAS Tariff for 2015). We are also very pleased to report that 98.1 per cent of our students were awarded the Diploma."

3 of the 6 students from SJI International who scored a perfect 45 in the recent IB examinations. (From left): Tuan Doan Nguyen, Hong, Juan Ru, Fung Sze Kiun, (Joshua)

He added that "the Class of 2014 included 87 students (just over 50 per cent of the cohort) who joined the school after completing their PSLE exam, with a range of PSLE scores from 193 to 254 points. This cohort had an average PSLE score of 225 points and went on to score an average IB Diploma score of 35.3 points".

The group also included 17 students who joined the school with a PSLE score of less than 210 points. This group managed an average IB Diploma score of 33.6 points.

TodayOnline reported that Singapore students topped the international average pass rate for 2014 at 36.43 per cent, beating the global average of 29.94 per cent.

TheAge.com describes IB as where students receive a score out of 45 for the two-year course and study a range of subjects, including maths, their first language, a second language, humanities, science, the arts and "theory of knowledge". Other than academic subjects, students must also be involved in creative pursuits, community service and physical activities throughout the programme.

spanaech@sph.com.sg