IB MYP

Overview

The Middle Years Programme (MYP) is a five-year curriculum framework from the International Baccalaureate (IB) for students aged 11 to 16. It is taught only by schools the IB has authorised as "IB World Schools," and it sits between the IB's Primary Years Programme and the two-year IB Diploma Programme (DP) covered separately on this site. The MYP is organised around eight subject groups and a strong emphasis on making connections between subjects and the real world, rather than around a single final exam. In the last year of the programme, students who take it can sit optional on-screen exams, called eAssessment, to earn an externally validated IB MYP certificate.

Who can apply

There is no direct, individual application to the IB for the MYP. A student joins the programme by enrolling at a school that has been authorised by the IB to teach it; the school itself must first go through an IB authorisation process (an application, a candidacy period with IB consultation support, and a final authorisation visit) before it can call itself an "IB World School" offering the MYP. Any school with students in the 11-to-16 age range can apply for authorisation. Once a student is enrolled at an MYP school, that school's own admissions process and academic calendar decide which year of the programme the student joins and when.

Structure

Eight subject groups

Every MYP year, students study across eight subject groups, with a minimum of 50 hours of teaching time per subject group per year:

• Language and literature

• Language acquisition

• Individuals and societies

• Sciences

• Mathematics

• Arts

• Physical and health education

• Design

In the final two years of the programme (MYP years 4 and 5), schools may let students choose courses from six of the eight subject groups instead of all eight, giving more flexibility as students approach the Diploma Programme or other post-16 options.

Interdisciplinary units and the MYP projects

Alongside single-subject teaching, MYP schools run interdisciplinary units that connect two or more subject groups around one topic. Every MYP student also completes an MYP project:

• Community project — typically done in MYP year 3 or 4, where students explore service in their community, individually or in small groups.

• Personal project — done in the final year (MYP year 5) by every student at a school that includes that year. It is an independently chosen, independently produced piece of work, supervised by a mentor, that serves as each student's own summative demonstration of the skills built up across the programme.

Where the personal project sits

The personal project is specific to schools that run the full five-year MYP through to year 5. Schools that end the programme earlier (for example, moving students into the Diploma Programme after MYP year 3 or 4) have their students complete the community project instead, since there is no year 5 for a personal project.

Assessment approach

Day-to-day MYP assessment is school-based and criterion-referenced, not a single external exam. For each subject, teachers assess student work against published IB criteria — normally four criteria per subject (A, B, C, D), each scored from 0 to 8 against level descriptors the IB publishes in its subject guides. The criterion scores for a subject are added up (out of a maximum of 32) and converted, using IB-set boundaries, into a final subject grade on a 1-to-7 scale — the same top-level scale used in the DP. These school-awarded grades are for internal reporting and are not independently validated by the IB unless the school also takes part in eAssessment.

Optional eAssessment and the IB MYP certificate

Any IB World School teaching the MYP can register individual students for eAssessment — on-screen exams set and marked externally by the IB — through the IB's information system. Registration is flexible: a school can register students for a single subject, a selection of subjects, or the full set needed for the IB MYP certificate. For the certificate, a candidate takes eight eAssessment components (reflecting the eight subject groups plus the personal project), each graded 1 to 7, for a maximum total of 56 points. To be awarded the certificate, a candidate needs a total of at least 28 points with a grade of 3 or higher in every required component. The IB sets and publishes the grade boundaries used to convert eAssessment scores into these 1-to-7 grades, and the boundaries can change from one exam session to the next.

Important dates

MYP eAssessment is held once a year, in a May examination session; the IB publishes the detailed subject-by-subject timetable for that session on its own website ahead of time, and this changes from year to year. Beyond eAssessment, the MYP has no IB-wide application or registration deadlines for individual students — all programme-level dates (start of the school year, personal project deadlines, internal assessment windows) are set by each student's own school as part of its academic calendar.

After the programme

Most MYP schools use the programme to lead into the two-year IB Diploma Programme (DP) or the IB Career-related Programme for ages 16 to 19, though a student can also move on to other national or international post-16 qualifications outside the IB. An IB MYP certificate is a recognised record of a student's performance at the end of MYP, but it is not a requirement for progressing into the DP at the same school or elsewhere — each school sets its own entry requirements for its Diploma Programme intake. See this site's separate page on the IB Diploma Programme for what follows the MYP.

Preparation tips

• Treat the personal project (or community project, if your school ends MYP earlier) as a long-term piece of independent work, not something to start close to the deadline — pick a topic and a mentor early and plan checkpoints across the year.

• If your school offers eAssessment, ask early which subjects and how many components you will be registered for, since this is decided per student and affects how much on-screen exam practice you need.

• Keep work organised by criterion (A, B, C, D) for each subject rather than only by topic, since that is how teachers and, for eAssessment, external IB examiners will be marking it.

• If you are likely to move into the IB Diploma Programme afterwards, look at its subject groups and HL/SL structure while still in MYP years 4-5, so your subject choices build toward it.

FAQs