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IB Subjects With the Highest Grade 7 Rates

Latest data: May 2026Provisional

In May 2026, Physics had the highest grade 7 rate of the 23 subjects with at least 100 students at HL (20.5%), and Turkey in the 20th Century the highest of the 30 at SL (14.6%).

Grade distributions reflect the students taking each subject, how it is assessed and many other factors. A higher grade 7 rate should not be read as proof that a subject is easier.

Earlier May sessions are compared the same way. November sessions aren't: they are much smaller, and taken mostly in the southern hemisphere.

Grade 7 rates at HL, May 2026

Grade 7 rates at HL in May 2026 ranged from 20.5% in Physics to 2.3% in Digital Society. The table adds each subject's change from May 2025 in percentage points.

Grade 7 rate at HL by subject, May 2026, for the 23 subjects with at least 100 students.
IB grade 7 rates at HL by subject, May 2026, highest first
SubjectStudentsGrade 7 rateChange from May 2025
1Physics19,03520.5%+1.3
2Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches26,59116.8%+0.4
3Chemistry20,74815.1%+0.1
4Economics20,47214.7%+0.7
5Theatre2,38112.8%−1.1
6Geography5,22912.7%−0.3
7Computer Science4,53610.9%+2.4
8Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation8,50010.0%+0.4
9Philosophy2,1738.6%−1.3
10Music1,5037.9%+1.5
11Social and Cultural Anthropology9497.7%−2.7
12Biology33,5857.4%+0.2
13Sports, Exercise and Health Science1,9426.9%−3.7
14Business Management26,5206.6%−0.9
15Dance3946.1%0.0
15Global Politics6,8946.1%+0.5
17Psychology15,4556.0%+0.4
18Environmental Systems and Societies3,8575.4%—
19Design Technology2,1593.4%−1.0
20Film2,9903.1%−0.6
21Visual Arts9,7092.9%+0.3
22History38,1952.6%0.0
23Digital Society1,1602.3%+0.6

Subjects with the same grade 7 rate share a rank.

Change: the difference from May 2025 in percentage points. —: the subject had no HL results in May 2025.

May 2026 figures are provisional.

Grade 7 rates at SL, May 2026

Grade 7 rates at SL in May 2026 ranged from 14.6% in Turkey in the 20th Century to 0.3% in Design Technology. The table adds each subject's change from May 2025 in percentage points.

Grade 7 rate at SL by subject, May 2026, for the 30 subjects with at least 100 students.
IB grade 7 rates at SL by subject, May 2026, highest first
SubjectStudentsGrade 7 rateChange from May 2025
1Turkey in the 20th Century75314.6%+0.6
2Economics11,30514.3%−0.6
3Physics14,46111.1%+0.8
4Chemistry18,47510.5%+1.0
5Business Management14,16710.0%−1.2
6Brazilian Social Studies5038.7%+2.4
7Philosophy2,9348.6%−0.4
8Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches42,9958.5%−0.7
9Computer Science4,1408.4%−0.1
10Geography4,7247.5%−1.5
11Language and Culture2587.4%+2.5
12Art History1157.0%−1.4
13Theatre1,2896.7%+0.1
14Biology22,0645.5%−0.4
14Literature and Performance6165.5%+0.7
16Dance4635.2%+0.9
17Environmental Systems and Societies20,9645.0%0.0
18Music1,4554.2%+0.4
19Global Politics4,6024.1%−2.3
20Psychology13,8954.0%−0.3
21Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation44,1963.7%−0.3
22Marine Science5233.6%−1.1
23History9,4603.3%−0.3
24Digital Society1,2843.1%+2.0
25Social and Cultural Anthropology1,7352.6%−0.3
26World Religions1,9172.3%−3.3
27Film1,8432.0%−0.4
28Sports, Exercise and Health Science6,3131.9%−1.3
29Visual Arts6,0761.2%+0.5
30Design Technology1,9660.3%−0.6

Subjects with the same grade 7 rate share a rank.

Change: the difference from May 2025 in percentage points.

May 2026 figures are provisional.

How subjects are ranked

  • Each ranking is of one May session, and every figure in it is from that session's bulletin.
  • HL and SL are ranked separately. They are different courses, taken by different students, and their figures are never averaged together.
  • Only subjects with at least 100 students at the level are ranked, so a class of a dozen can't stand out on a handful of grades. The results explorer has every subject, whatever its size.
  • The language courses (Language A: Language and Literature, Language A: Literature, Language ab initio, Language B) aren't ranked, because the bulletins report their results by language.
  • Subjects with the same figure share a rank, and the next rank is skipped.

More subject comparisons

Source and methodology

These statistics are from the International Baccalaureate's statistical bulletins. The latest data shown is from the May 2026 assessment session.

About this data

  • May and November are separate assessment sessions. November is much smaller and mostly taken by schools in the southern hemisphere, so its figures aren't directly comparable with May's.
  • The May 2026 figures are from the IB's provisional bulletin and may change when the final bulletin is published.
  • Older bulletins call the people sitting the exams “candidates” and newer ones “students”. This site says “students” throughout.
  • “<10” means the IB didn't publish the exact number because fewer than 10 students took the subject. These figures are never estimated or counted as zero.
  • The grade 7 rate is the share of students the bulletin reports at grade 7. The grade 6 or 7 rate is calculated by IBonomics by adding the published shares for grades 6 and 7. Every other figure is as published.
  • From May 2024 the bulletins include students who received no grade (N) in each subject's percentages, so grades 1 to 7 add up to slightly less than 100%. Earlier bulletins give percentages of graded students only.
  • Bulletins up to May 2023 print figures to two decimal places and later ones to one. Each figure is shown as printed, and changes are compared at the lower precision.

IBonomics is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate.