IB History HL grade boundaries: what you need for a 7

In May the IB sets different papers for different parts of the world, and each gets its own boundaries. In May 2025 the 7 started at 74% in TZ3 and at 74% in TZ1.

A gap between timezones is not an advantage for one of them: the boundary follows the paper. The useful reading is the range across all timezones and sessions, which is what the first table shows.

On record the 7 in History HL has averaged 72.7% in May and 73.1% in November. The two sessions are set to the same standard; the difference is the papers, not the season.

In History HL the 6 sits on average 12.6 marks below the 7 on the 100-mark scale. That is roughly one question answered fully instead of half-answered, or the marks lost to misread instructions across a whole paper.

Use the range, not the last session. A student scoring 74% or more on full mocks under exam conditions has a 7 in every session on record. A student at 69% has a 7 only on the hardest paper, and should plan for the 6 to 7 gap rather than assume it.

All 16 sessions were read from the grade boundaries document the IB issues to Diploma Programme coordinators after each session (one document per session; 2021 and 2022 have an examination-route and a non-examination-route document). The full dataset for every IB subject is on the grade boundaries overview, as CSV and JSON.

Independent work, not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate. Last checked 4 November 2026. Corrections: pietro@pietromeloni.com.