IB Math Studies External Assessment Information
The external assessment will consist of 2 papers that will be worth 40% each.
You must have your GDC with you for both of the papers.
Paper 1 will consist of 15 compulsory short-response questions and full marks will be awarded for each correct answer irrespective of the presence or absence of working. Knowledge of all the topics is required for paper 1 but, not all topics are necessarily assessed in every examination session. This paper's intention is to test the students' knowledge across the breadth of the syllabus. All students should expect a small number of steps to solve each question and questions may be presented in the form of words, symbols, diagrams or tables, or combinations of these. This paper will be worth 90 marks, 6 marks for each question, and will be worth 40% of the final mark in the course. You will have 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete this paper.
Paper 2 will consist of 5 compulsory extended-response questions and answers must be supported with either working or explanations. Full marks are not necessarily awarded for a correct answer with no working so be sure to show all working of the problem. Where an answer is incorrect, some marks may be given for correct method, provided this is shown by written working. Knowledge of all the topics is required for paper 2 but, not all topics are necessarily assessed in every examination session. Individual questions may require knowledge of more than one topic. The intention of this paper is to test students' knowledge of the syllabus in depth. The range of syllabus topics tested in this paper may be narrower than than tested in paper 1. You should expect to see an incline of difficulty with each question, from relatively easy tasks at the start of the question to relatively difficult tasks at the end of the question. The emphasis of paper 2 is problem solving. This paper will be worth 90 marks, all questions may be worth a different number of marks, and will be worth 40% of the final mark in this course.
NOTATION - The IBO has chosen to adopt a system of notation based on the recommendations of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and this notation is used in the examination papers for this course without explanation. Here is a link to a list of the correct notation you must know for the papers.