IB Maths IA Criteria Explained By An IB Examiner: AA & AI Guide

The IB Maths IA is marked out of 20 using five assessment criteria: Presentation, Mathematical Communication, Personal Engagement, Reflection and Use of Mathematics. It counts 20% of your final grade, which can make a huge difference. The criteria is not something you should ignore.

Understanding these criteria is important because a strong Maths IA is not simply about doing difficult mathematics. You also need to communicate your mathematics clearly, structure your exploration well, show your own thinking and reflect critically on what your results actually mean.

Below, each IB Maths IA criterion is broken down into what an IB examiner is looking for, what that means in student-friendly terms, what you should include and what you should avoid.

Criterion A: Presentation — 4 marks

What does the IB mean?

At the highest level, your exploration should be coherent, well organised and concise.

What does that mean for you?

Your IA should tell a clear mathematical story.

Someone in your Maths class should be able to read it from beginning to end and understand what you are investigating, why you are investigating it, what you did and what you concluded without having to jump backwards and forwards through the document.

Being concise is important too. More pages do not automatically mean a better IA. Every calculation, graph, table and paragraph should have a purpose.

Make sure you:

• Clearly introduce your topic and state the aim of your exploration.

• Explain your rationale and how you plan to investigate the question.

• Organise your work in a logical order with appropriate headings.

• Make sure one section flows naturally into the next.

• Put graphs, diagrams and tables close to where you discuss them.

• Label figures, graphs and tables clearly.

• Include a conclusion that returns to your original aim.

• Cite sources where they are actually used, as well as including your bibliography.

• Summarise repeated calculations rather than filling pages with essentially the same working.

Avoid:

• Adding pages simply to make the IA look more substantial.

• Huge tables of raw data interrupting the main exploration when they could be placed elsewhere.

• Repeating essentially identical calculations over and over.

• Graphs or diagrams appearing several pages away from the paragraph discussing them.

• Sections that feel disconnected from your aim.

• A conclusion that simply repeats your results without returning to the investigation.

A useful test: Give your IA to someone else in your Maths class. Can they follow the investigation from beginning to end without you having to explain where to look next?

Criterion B: Mathematical Communication — 4 marks

What does the IB mean?

For full marks, your mathematical communication should be relevant, appropriate and consistent throughout the exploration.

What does that mean for you?

This criterion is about how well you communicate mathematics, not simply whether your final answers are correct.

Your notation, terminology, equations, graphs, tables and diagrams should make your mathematical thinking easy to follow.

A reader shouldn't have to guess what a variable means, what the axes represent or how you moved from one mathematical step to another.

Make sure you:

• Use correct mathematical notation, symbols and terminology.

• Define variables when you introduce them.

• Define unfamiliar mathematical terms where necessary.

• Use equations, graphs, diagrams, tables and other representations where appropriate.

• Label graph axes and include appropriate scales.

• Give tables clear, descriptive headings.

• Write mathematical expressions using proper equation formatting rather than typing them informally.

• Explain calculations and reasoning so another Maths student could follow them.

• Use an appropriate degree of accuracy and explain your choice where relevant.

• Use technology appropriately when it helps communicate or investigate the mathematics.

Avoid:

• Switching between different notation for the same variable.

• Using symbols or variables without defining them.

• Screenshots from your calculator or software with no explanation.

• Graphs with missing labels, units or scales.

• Giving an equation followed immediately by an answer with no explanation of what happened.

• Using mathematical terminology incorrectly.

• Writing calculations in a way that makes your reasoning difficult to follow.

The key word here is consistent. Good notation on page 2 doesn't compensate for unclear mathematical communication throughout the rest of the IA.

Criterion C: Personal Engagement — 3 marks

What does the IB mean?

The IB looks for evidence of personal engagement with the exploration, ranging from some engagement to significant and ultimately outstanding personal engagement.

What does that mean for you?

Personal engagement is not just writing a paragraph explaining that you like your topic.

Your own thinking should be visible in the mathematics itself.

Why did you choose this method? What decisions did you make? Did something unexpected make you change direction? Did you collect your own data, create your own model, test an idea or investigate something because you genuinely wanted to know the answer?

The engagement should be with the mathematics you explore, not simply with the general topic.

Make sure you:

• Choose a question you genuinely have a reason to investigate.

• Explain why the investigation matters or interests you.

• Make your own mathematical decisions rather than simply following an existing example.

• Explain why you chose particular methods.

• Show your own thoughts when interpreting results.

• Collect or create your own data where this genuinely improves the investigation.

• Consider experimenting, modelling, learning new mathematics or using new mathematical software where appropriate.

• Make connections to real situations or your own experiences where relevant.

• Allow the investigation to develop based on what you discover.

• Include your own observations and perspectives throughout the exploration.

Avoid:

• Assuming that choosing a personal topic automatically earns personal-engagement marks.

• Copying the structure of an existing IA and changing the numbers.

• Writing a long story about why you love football, music or fashion without showing personal engagement in the mathematics.

• Following a mathematical method mechanically without explaining your choices.

• Forcing personal anecdotes into sections where they aren't relevant.

A useful question to ask yourself is: Could another student replace my name with theirs and submit essentially the same investigation?

If the answer is yes, you probably need to show more of your own mathematical thinking.

Criterion D: Reflection — 3 marks

What does the IB mean?

The highest level requires substantial evidence of critical reflection rather than simply limited or meaningful reflection.

What does that mean for you?

Reflection means going beyond: “My result was 0.82, which shows a strong positive correlation.”

The next question is: So what?

What does that result mean in the context of your investigation? Does it make sense? What could explain it? How reliable is it? What are the limitations? Could another mathematical approach produce a different or better result?

Most importantly, reflection should happen throughout your IA, not suddenly appear in one paragraph at the end.

Make sure you:

• Stop after important results and explain what they mean.

• Consider whether results make sense in the real-world context.

• Discuss unexpected or interesting results.

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your approach.

• Discuss limitations in your data or methodology.

• Test models where appropriate and comment on how valid they are.

• Connect your findings back to your original aim.

• Consider alternative mathematical approaches.

• Suggest meaningful improvements or extensions.

• Explain what you learned or what your results made you question.

Avoid:

• Saving all reflection for the conclusion.

• Simply describing what you did.

• Writing “this was accurate” without explaining why.

• Listing generic limitations that don't actually affect your investigation.

• Saying “I could collect more data” without explaining why that would improve the mathematics or reliability.

• Treating a mathematical result as automatically meaningful just because you calculated it correctly.

A useful habit throughout your IA is to keep asking: What does this tell me? Why might this have happened? How reliable is this? What does this make me want to investigate next?

Criterion E: Use of Mathematics — 6 marks

What does the IB mean?

This is the largest individual criterion, worth 6 marks. At the highest level, the mathematics should be relevant and appropriate to the level of your course, correct, and demonstrate thorough knowledge and understanding.

What does that mean for you?

You do not need to find the most complicated mathematics possible.

You need mathematics that helps you answer your actual research question and allows you to demonstrate that you understand what you are doing.

Using a sophisticated formula that you cannot explain is much less convincing than using appropriate mathematics correctly and demonstrating clear understanding of why it works and what the results mean.

Make sure you:

• Choose mathematics that directly supports the aim of your exploration.

• Use mathematics appropriate to your course and level.

• Explain the mathematical methods you use rather than simply applying formulas.

• Show enough working to demonstrate understanding.

• Substitute values clearly and explain results in context.

• State relevant assumptions.

• Check your calculations and results.

• Justify why particular mathematical methods or models are appropriate.

• Analyse graphs and data rather than simply inserting them.

• Consider whether your data is valid before applying mathematical techniques.

• Use technology to support your mathematics where appropriate, rather than allowing software to replace your mathematical explanation.

Avoid:

• Choosing difficult mathematics purely because it looks impressive.

• Using mathematics that doesn't help answer your aim.

• Relying entirely on technology to produce answers.

• Copying formulas without demonstrating that you understand them.

• Showing a graph without analysing what it tells you.

• Giving numerical answers without interpreting them in context.

• Making calculations without checking whether your assumptions or data make them reasonable.

• Using only very basic prior-learning mathematics if it doesn't provide sufficient depth for your course.

IB Maths IA Criteria: Quick Summary

Criterion A: Presentation — 4 marks — Is my exploration clear, organised and concise?

Criterion B: Mathematical Communication — 4 marks — Have I communicated my mathematics correctly and consistently?

Criterion C: Personal Engagement — 3 marks — Can the reader see my own mathematical thinking and decisions?

Criterion D: Reflection — 3 marks — Have I critically considered what my results actually mean?

Criterion E: Use of Mathematics — 6 marks — Is my mathematics relevant, correct and well understood?

Total: 20 marks

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