Preliminary mark (formative and summative assessment during s7)
The preliminary mark is the grade your Language 1 teacher awards before any Baccalaureate paper is opened. It is built from the whole of s7 - formative work, summative tasks and your contribution in class - and it is combined with your written and oral marks to produce the final grade.
What goes into it
- Continuous assessment: participation in discussion of the set texts, oral presentations, shorter written work.
- Summative tasks in the examination genres: timed commentaries, essays, practice orals.
- Progress and consistency across the year, not a single strong performance.
- Calibration: the class council compares your teacher's marks with other L1 groups, so the standard applied is the school's, not only your class's.
- In recent sessions the preliminary mark has carried a quarter of the final L1 mark, alongside the written paper (a half) and the oral (a quarter).
Worked example
Anna's year: her essays average 70/100, her timed commentary scores 80, but her oral contributions have been sporadic and her practice oral scored 60. Her teacher's preliminary mark lands near 72. With a written mark of 65 and an oral of 70, her final is 0.25(72) + 0.5(65) + 0.25(70) = 18 + 32.5 + 17.5 = 68. Had sustained class discussion raised the preliminary mark to 80, the final would be 70 - two points gained through a habit, not an examination.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating class essays as low-stakes drafts rather than evidence of your level.
- Ignoring written feedback and repeating the same structural weakness in the next task.
- Neglecting the spoken dimension: L1 preliminary marks reward oral analysis as well as written work.
- Leaving improvement until the final weeks - the mark is fixed before the written session.
- Assuming June will compensate: in a close grade, the preliminary mark is often what separates two candidates.