The IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations for the tenth graders are held in two sessions every year: October/November and May/June. Each subject is separately graded with each student taking exams in several different subjects.  The IGCSE results for the sophomores of 2016/17 were issued at the end of August.

The Saint Maur students achieved a large number of A* and A grades, accounting for over one third of all the grades (34.7% to be exact).  All the results (100%) were passing grades. Moreover 81.1% of the grades were at least a C or above. (C grades and above are generally recognized as "good" passing grades.)

The formal certificates will be presented later this year. We ask that students look after those certificates carefully, because an increasing number of universities (including those in the USA) are requiring the certificates to be submitted as part of the application process.

Congratulations to all last year's sophomores, who have now embarked on their IB courses in Grade 11 on a solid foundation and with the knowledge of how to succeed in examinations that are administered and marked by an external authority.

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is administered by the College Board to award college credit and advanced standing in college classes to students who have taken demanding, rigorous college-level courses while still in high school. AP exams are given world-wide, mainly to students at the end of Grades 11 or 12.  Universities throughout the U.S., Canada, and other English-speaking countries accept AP results, often giving students the equivalent of a semester or a full year of credit.

Saint Maur students have taken AP courses and exams for many years, and last year 28 students (14 seniors and 14 juniors) took a total of 31 AP exams in seven subjects. This accomplishment was due to ambitious students who were willing to challenge themselves with a demanding exam and to dedicated teachers who offered to help prepare them for these exams.  In most cases, students who are taking IB courses cover much of the curriculum that they must know for the AP exams; but they still have to learn the AP exam format and some material which is not included in the IB curriculum.  All of the students deserve recognition for their hard work and success!

In May 2017, students in Grades 11 and 12 took AP exams in the following eight subjects:  English Language, English Literature, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Micro-Economics, Macro-Economics, and Statistics. AP scores range from 5 to 1. A score of 3 is considering passing at a college level, while scores of 4 or 5 are equivalent to college credit for at least one semester (and often a full year) in the subject.  The 2017 results included 28 scores of 3 or higher on the 31 exams, including ten students who received the highest score of 5.

When scores from exams which they took in Grade 11 are added to those from Grade 12, graduates of the Class of 2017 are eligible to receive college credit for 34 exam results out of 40 attempts. In fact, fourteen of those scores were the highest possible: 5.

The Advanced Placement program has announced its annual AP Scholar Awards, including three Saint Maur students who graduated in June. To be eligible for the award of AP Scholar, a student must receive grades of 3 or higher on at least three AP exams. An even higher award is AP Scholar with Distinction: a student must earn grades of 3 or higher on at least five AP exams, with an average score of at least 3.5.

Two graduates of the Class of 2017 were awarded the title of AP Scholar: Isaac Burkhalter (now attending the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A.) and Ziquan Deng (now attending the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

Yūki Kawamura (currently attending Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.) was honored as an AP Scholar with Distinction. He took seven exams in Grades 11 and 12 and achieved the highest score of 5 on six of them, the only exception being a subject which he had never studied in school, for which he prepared on his own.

Saint Maur is the only IB school in Japan which also provides students the chance to take AP exams. Other non-IB international schools teach the AP curriculum exclusively, and thus their students are prepared specifically for the AP exams, whereas Saint Maur students must study for IB exams at the same time. Nevertheless, Saint Maur students are able to achieve scores comparable to those of other international school students in Japan, and much higher than the world average. The average AP score for Saint Maur students last year was 3.9, compared to 3.7 for all of Japan and 2.9 for the entire world. Our average scores for large-entry subjects such as Micro-Economics and Calculus are also regularly well above the average for Japan and far above the world average.

Congratulations to all of the students who earned AP scores, including credit in university courses and advanced course placement in those subjects!

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Examinations are held every May over a three week period.  This past May, 47 students sat IB exams, 28 of whom were Grade 12 Full Diploma Candidates.  Eleven Grade 11 students completed the Math SL course as an anticipated subject.

In order to receive the IB Diploma, Full Diploma Candidates need to successfully earn at least 24 points on six exams; successfully complete the Creativity-Activity-Service (CAS) requirement over two years; successfully complete the Theory of Knowledge (ToK) course; and successfully complete an Extended Essay (EE) which is an independently written academic research paper of 4000 words or less.  The maximum point total is 45 (a maximum of 42 points from six subject exams and up to three bonus points for work submitted for the ToK course and the EE).  This past year, the 28 Full Diploma Candidates successfully completed all requirements to earn the IB Diploma with an average score of 34 points out of 45.  The average subject grade obtained by candidates who passed the diploma was 5.28.

In particular, congratulations to eleven Diploma Candidates who earned 35 or more points.  Seven students scored between 35 and 39 points and there were three students who scored a 40 points or more with the highest score awarded to Miyu Shu who was one point away from a perfect score for which less than 0.3% of the entire population achieve.

The Bilingual Diploma recognizes those Diploma Candidates who studied a second Group 1 Language course.  Congratulations to 15 Full Diploma Candidates for achieving the Bilingual Diploma this past year.

The eight Grade 12 IB Course Candidates averaged 4.17 points per subject exam.

Of all courses examined, our overall student average grades exceeded the world-wide average in 25 courses.

Eleven Grade 11 students took the Math SL exam as an anticipated course.  Their results were excellent.  The average score was 6.7 points with nine students scoring the maximum score of seven.

Thank you to all for the collaborative efforts which allowed our recently graduated seniors the opportunity to move forward with their post-secondary aspirations. We wish them the best in their future educational endeavors around the world.