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Most parents comparing international schools in Singapore begin with a league table of IBDP results, sorted by average score, and it is a reasonable way to start. A school averaging 39 points looks stronger than one averaging 33, and most parents read that six-point gap as the difference between a school where their child will do well and one where they might be held back.
The average is worth a look, but on its own it misleads more often than parents realise, because it only describes how a school's Diploma students scored. It says nothing about how many students were entered for the Diploma in the first place, or what happened to those who were not. That second figure shapes the first far more than most league tables let on.
Understanding where that shaping happens, once at the school's front door and again at the door of the Diploma itself, is the most useful thing a parent can carry into a school search.
How an IB average actually works
The mechanics behind the number explain why it can mislead. Across the world the average IB Diploma score sits at around 30 points, and roughly four in five candidates earn the Diploma each year. That global average is calculated generously: the IB's own statistical bulletins include every candidate who sat the Diploma, whether they were awarded it or not, and exclude only students who withdrew before the exams.
A school's published average is a different statistic entirely, because selectivity can operate at two separate levels. The first is the school gate: who is admitted at all. The second, less visible one is the programme gate: who is allowed to sit the full Diploma once they are enrolled, and even which subjects they may take at Higher Level. A school can be genuinely open at the first gate and quietly selective at the second, and the label "non-selective" only ever describes the first.
The programme gate usually takes the form of entry criteria. A school might require a minimum grade average across the Middle Years Programme, or set grade floors in Mathematics, English, or the sciences, before a student is permitted to attempt the Diploma or a Higher Level subject. Students who fall short are guided toward other qualifications. Whatever the merits of that approach for an individual child, its statistical effect is mechanical: enter only the students predicted to score well, and the average climbs without any change in the teaching behind it, because an average measures the pool it was drawn from.
There is also less consistency behind published figures than the neat league tables suggest. The IB does not publish school rankings, does not provide results to third-party ranking sites, and warns that such rankings can rest on small cohorts or self-reported data, producing misleading comparisons. Nothing obliges schools to calculate their averages on the same basis either: one school's figure may count only students awarded the Diploma, another's may count everyone who began it, and published numbers rarely say which. In a small graduating class, a handful of scores can move the average by a point or more on their own.
A better question for parents to ask
There is a more useful question than what a school's average is. Ask instead how many of its students were given the chance to sit the full Diploma. Then ask how well the school supported them once they were in it.
A school that admits a wide range of students and still posts a strong average has done something considerably harder, and considerably more telling, than a school that quietly reserves the Diploma for its safest bets. Education guides have a name for this difference: value-added, the distance between a school that selects high performers and a school that develops them.
The way to uncover it is to ask directly on a school visit. How many of your graduating students sat the full IB Diploma, and how many took an alternative qualification? Are there entry requirements for the Diploma, or for Higher Level subjects, and what are they? Does your published average include students who started the Diploma but did not complete it? And can you show how students progress, from predicted grades to achieved grades, from where they started to where they finished? A school doing honest work behind its numbers will have clear answers to all four.
What "non-selective" really means
A great many schools describe themselves as non-selective, and the word repays a closer look, because it only ever describes one of the two gates.
A sporting comparison makes the point cleanly. Imagine two football clubs. One welcomes every child to training but fields only its strongest players in league matches. The other gives every member real game time. The first club will post better match statistics season after season, and the difference says nothing about the quality of the coaching at either. Its numbers that describe the team sheet, and the selection that produced it. Schools that restrict the Diploma to their safest performers are running the first club's model, whatever their admissions page says.
XWA is non-selective at both gates. At admissions, most applicants sit an assessment, but its purpose is placement and support: identifying the right year group and any help a child needs, such as English language support, never screening children out to protect results. XWA works with students across the academic spectrum, including those not predicted to score 35 points or more, on the view that a child who is not the strongest performer today deserves room to grow into their ability. At the Diploma gate, entry is not decided by a predicted-grade cut-off; the pathway decision is made with each family around what serves the student.
One requirement does apply, and it is worth stating openly. Students need sufficient English to access an English-medium curriculum. Up to Grade 9, structured pathways carry children who arrive without it, through the mandatory English as an Additional Language programme and the Foundational English Programme, and in the senior grades, where those intensive pathways end, a higher level of English is needed at entry. That is the honest edge of any inclusive model, and XWA states it plainly.
How XWA approaches this
XWA takes this approach, and its own results page presents each year's outcomes as the product of an inclusive education at a non-selective school.
The Class of 2026 shows what that looks like in practice. Students averaged 34 points, 3.2 above the global average, and the highest score in the cohort reached 44. 11% reached 40 or above, more than double the global rate, and 18% earned a bilingual diploma. The cohort also recorded a perfect average score of 7 in both Theatre and Mandarin Ab Initio, an impressive achievement for any IB cohort.
From a cohort of 52 students, graduates received more than 635 university offers and USD 25 million in university scholarship offers, with recent graduates taking up places at universities including LSE, Oxford, UC Berkeley, and the University of Toronto. They are strong results, and they come from a school that does not thin out its Diploma cohort to produce them.
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One detail behind those numbers matters more than it first appears. XWA's published average includes every student who enrolled in the Diploma Programme, including those who did not complete it. That is a broader basis than even the IB's own global statistics use, which exclude students who withdraw before the exams. It is the least flattering way a school can calculate its average, and XWA posts 34 on it anyway.
There are occasions when XWA guides a student toward a different pathway, such as the WASC-accredited High School Diploma, which can be combined with IB and AP courses. That conversation starts from fit: how the child learns, the environment in which they do their best work, and where they hope to study next, since destinations such as the United States or Japan often weigh other qualifications as heavily as the Diploma. What the conversation never starts from is the effect a student might have on an average. The question is always what serves the child, and the statistics are left to take care of themselves.
Progress tells you more than the endpoint
League tables rank schools by their final averages, but the more useful measure is one they rarely show: how much did the students improve? What did the cohort look like when it started the programme, and what did it achieve two years later? How do achieved grades compare with the grades students were predicted when they began? A school that takes students with modest predictions to a 34 has done harder and better teaching than a school that reaches 39 with students who were always going to score it. The average shows the ability a school started with. Progress shows what its teaching added. Schools track this data, so parents can simply ask for it, and a school confident in its teaching will be happy to share it.
The right school is the one that fits
None of this means one type of school is better than the other. Some children do their best work in a competitive, selective, high-pressure environment. Others do their best work in a smaller, inclusive, non-selective one. An average score says nothing about which of the two would suit your child. The IB itself makes this point: it states that results alone do not reliably indicate whether a school is right for a particular learner, since each student does best in the environment that suits them, and it recommends that parents look at a school's full learning environment before deciding. League tables cannot make that judgement. Only a parent who knows their child, and has seen the school, can.
Reading results in context
None of this turns a high average into a warning sign. A strong average earned across a broad cohort is a considerable achievement, and results deserve a place in any school comparison. The point is what to read first. Completion tells you whether students were carried through or quietly rerouted. University offers and destinations tell you what the education opened. Scholarships tell you what universities thought of the graduates they met. The average, read last and in context, tells you how a chosen group performed on a two-year programme, and the more students a school allowed into that group, the more the number means.
By that reading, XWA's record holds together from every angle: 635 offers and USD 25 million in scholarships for 52 students, an average of 34 calculated on every enrolled student, and a strong 2026 following an equally strong 2025, when the cohort averaged 33.2 points with 21 per cent earning bilingual diplomas. Two consecutive years, from a school that admits across the ability range and counts everyone.
The most important question in a school search is not how many perfect scores a school can put in a brochure. It is how many students were given a fair chance to succeed, and how well the school carried them toward it. The clearest way to see what sits behind the numbers is to visit the school.
Want to see what these principles look like in practice? Explore the XWA Class of 2026's IB results, university offers and scholarships, and discover the inspiring journeys of students like Wenqi (Mark), who earned a full UCL scholarship, and Shivani Nair, who made history as the first recipient of a full scholarship to ESSEC Business School's Global BBA programme.
Book a personalised tour and discover how XWA's non selective, inclusive approach empowers every learner to thrive.
FAQ: Reading IB Results
What is a good IB Diploma score?
The global average sits at around 30 points out of 45. A score of 38 or above is usually competitive for selective universities, while 40 or above places a student in roughly the top 10 per cent worldwide. For context, the XWA Class of 2026 averaged 34 points, with 11% of students scoring 40 or above.
Why do some schools have much higher IB averages than others?
There are several reasons, and not all of them come down to teaching. A school's intake, the size of its cohort, and the number of students it enters for the full Diploma all shape the final average. A school that enters only its strongest predicted performers will usually post a higher average than one that supports a broader range of students through the programme.
Does "non-selective" mean there is no entry assessment?
No. Most international schools, XWA included, assess the children who apply. At XWA, those assessments are there to identify the right placement and any support a child may need, not to screen children out. The term non-selective refers to working with students across the academic spectrum, not to the absence of any assessment.
Do all students at a school take the full IB Diploma?
Not always, which is exactly why it is worth asking each school directly. XWA offers the full IB Diploma and supports a wide range of students through it, while also providing alternative pathways for those whose goals or learning style suit a different route. XWA's published averages include every student who enrolled in the Diploma Programme, not only those who completed it.
Are all non-selective schools the same?
No. Selectivity operates at two levels: admission to the school, and entry to the IB Diploma itself. Some schools are open at admissions but apply criteria to the Diploma, such as a minimum grade average or subject prerequisites for Higher Level courses. When comparing schools, it is worth asking about both levels, since the label usually describes only the first.
Do all schools calculate their IB average the same way?
No. The IB does not standardise, audit, or endorse school-published averages, and schools choose their own basis. Some count only students awarded the Diploma, while others count everyone who began it. The IB's own global statistics include every candidate who sat the exams, whether they earned the Diploma or not. XWA's average is calculated on every student enrolled in the programme, including those who did not complete it.
