How To Write Well in IB Subjects
Every year we (your humble IB teachers) read IA’s and EE’s that make the same mistake. We try to warn you about it. We try to explain this mistake, but every year a lot of people still do it.
It undermines your whole effort.
Brilliant students do it. Average students do it too. Some students who spend 40 hours on their Extended Essay research over the summer still do it.
What is it?
Before I tell you, let’s consider what makes a good doctor.
We have all been to good doctors and bad doctors. What makes the difference? What impresses us about doctors?
Explain the hard stuff
All doctors do “doctor things,” --they do specialist medical tests and then they understand the results. But good doctors interact with us differently. They explain those results (analysis), mentioning the complicated medical concepts and key words, but then they also explain those words clearly. They also explain the conclusions which can be drawn from the tests (evaluation) and how sure we could be about tho...
How to Structure an HL Business Management Internal Assessment
This page gives details for the IA for students graduating in November 2023 or earlier. Click here for the new IB Business IA details --which you should follow if you're graduating from May 2024 or later.
Here is a layout you can follow for your HL Business Management IA, for November 2023 or earlier
(If you're looking for the SL Business IA structure, for November 2023 or earlier, that one is right here).
The Proposal and the IA should be included in a single document, using double-spaced Arial, sized 12 font.
Please remember to include all of your sources (preferably using MLA) as you go. This goes for every fact that you include or any opinion that you write, which was informed by something you read. Citing your sources is VERY important. Be careful with it.
Pre-Research Proposal Material
Title page
Include:
- Your Research Question (Here is more help for members refining your question).
- Intended Audience (i.e. To Company X)
- The IB Number (Something in the ...
Meeting The Economics IA Rubric Requirements
On this, the third of three posts to make sure you score full marks on your Economics Internal Assessments, I want to give you a detailed checklist you can use to check your own work. (Here is post one, Getting Started with your Econ IA and post two: the Econ IA Structure).
I have included what the IB says they expect for full marks, and translated that into actionable steps. If you do everything on the checklist your teacher will have to give you full marks.
This is up-to-date with the "new" IB Econ curriculum (first Assessment 2022).
A: Diagrams (3 marks)
IB Explanation: This criterion assesses the extent to which the student is able to construct and explain diagrams.
IB Expectations: Relevant, accurate and correctly labelled diagram(s) are included, with a full explanation.
Checklist (to get full marks):
Drawing the diagram:
-You have fully labelled your x and y-axis (See the Structure for this here).
-You’ve chosen the most appropriate diagram (the one that best explains ...
How to Get Full Marks On Your Business Internal Assessment
I have found that the biggest challenge my students are having, in terms of scoring the top marks in the Business IA, is related to their use of analytical tools.
(For a step-by-step explanation of everything you need to include in your Business IA, use this page.)
You have a Research Question and you’re trying to arrive at your answer. A very common mistake is that students do a lot of analysis, but they don’t connect it properly to the Research Question (RQ) or to their Answer (Ans).
I have wracked my brain to make this more straightforward and I’ve come up with the following diagram, which you can follow to make your IA analysis a more straightforward process. If you follow it, it should raise your performance in several aspects of the IA Business rubric.
By this point, you have chosen an appropriate RQ. if you aren’t sure about that, I recommend reading this article first (and follow the '4 tests' it advises to check your RQ). So now you know that you need to do a few things. ...
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