May 2022 Assessment Reflections

I feel the IAs have improved generally, although the use of statistics is an area of weakness. HL papers continue to be challenging, especially for EAL learners due to the complexity of the questions. Within paper 2 especially the DBQ graph was poor, although the rest of the paper was fair.

To develop your students I suggest improving the teaching and application of statistics. Perhaps partner with the Maths department to reinforce this area. Have regular MCQ practice sessions, to decode this style of question and a once-a-week graphing question for the DBQ.

Stan Covington

Within the IA task, SL candidates are still not always making it clear which are the main 3-5 supporting documents for the IA. HL candidates often lack the necessary primary research evidence needed to answer the research question and often done in a superfluous way. Dedicate enough time to this process.

For Paper 1, there appeared to be insufficient information in the case study to answer some questions, e.g. P1 HL Q3b about achieving greater sustainability, and Q4b about organizational culture as well as Q4d about the extended marketing mix (e.g. there is no stimulus information about the physical environment or processes at the University). This threw some students. If this is a trend then teach them to make and state assumptions.

For Paper 2 there were no surprises in Section A; all seemed good. Comprehensive coverage of the syllabus in Section B.

Students are still finding quantitative techniques, especially as most of the formulae required are not in the formulae sheet challenging.

Do remember to make sure you begin teaching the new syllabus to DP1s in this transition year! Check you fully understand the changes and attend any webinars or retraining you can on this.

Paul Hoang

The IA was the same as normal. The range of labs and marking is reported to be quite varied! If you are finding your labs marked down then I encourage you to undertake some professional development on this area. Paper 1 and Paper 2 were fair papers. There was a good spread of questions with full syllabus coverage. Look out for the release of the new subject guide next year.

Dave Allen

The Oral choice of five pictures will have allowed many students to do well. I recommend that students link Chinese culture more explicitly to the image. The other papers were of a fair standard; the most challenging aspect for students remains writing in Chinese characters which needs to be developed throughout the course and the instructions followed for each question carefully. Mix and match questions during practice to help students prepare for this.

Li Dong

The challenge in the pandemic of completing the CAS requirements has been met by students in various imaginative ways. This continues for some schools and others can return to more normality. What is clear though is that the world continues to face a great many challenges and CAS provides students with the freedom of choice and opportunity to engage with these real-world scenarios. Encouraging students to get back to meeting people and away from their screens will aid them to gain balance in their lives and a greater perspective on their education.

Tom Brodie

Regarding the IA, there are still many questions about the suitability of certain articles/sources, as well as whether it is possible to go beyond the syllabus. The best advice to students is to stick to mainstream news media sources and stick to the parameters of the syllabus content.

The feeling for Paper 1 is that it is still unclear what the examiner’s expectation for the use of Real World Examples (RWE) is. e.g. interventionist SSP to reduce unemployment (HL P1, Q2b). We hope to see more guidance from the examiners report.

The Paper 2 questions were similar to the sample paper with some very specific requirements, e.g. P2 HL Q1e Demand and supply of money diagram. HL P2 Q2c A poverty cycle diagram – which had no need to be overly complex as shown in some textbooks. SL P2 Q1b(i) highlights the importance of knowing the differences between the old and new syllabus as SL students were asked to calculate the inflation rate.

For Paper 3, there were lots of quantitative techniques plus diagrams requirements, which also replicated the specimen paper, so it is important that students spend time practising their quantitative techniques. Also, for the policy recommendation paper, it is important to remind HL students to focus on only one policy unless the policies referred to are complementary or used to compare and contrast the actual recommended policy.
Students found double-barreled questions difficult so these are worth highlighting in revision.

The recommendation for teaching is that students should have plenty of opportunities for inquiry to develop a bank of real-world examples. This includes their commentaries. Use the assessment criteria regularly. For a first assessment season on the new syllabus, it went quite well.

Paul Hoang

Keep in mind that the choice of literature for English B needs to be both expansive and accessible. Remember that the Individual oral requires many instances of practice for each student. I feel that a minimum of four practices per student, under actual exam conditions, is more than enough to ensure students get comfortable with the taxing time constraints, with what to look for and prepare, regarding extracts. This, of course, is in addition to plenty of reading and audio comprehension tasks from year 1, which should also help with their Paper 2 prep work.

Regarding Paper 1, preparing for the myriad of possible text types can be quite a daunting task. Therefore, ensuring students extol the virtues, similarities and differences between them, is the first step. Addressing a focal issue from different text types, for example, provides students with the flexibility to approach this component. It is also crucial to remind students of the importance of planning how to tackle each prompt provided, to see which prompt-text combination is the most viable of the options available in Paper 1, they should then have plenty of time to do so.

For the reading component, students must be aware that one hour for three texts and their accompanying questions, can be quite the challenge to overcome. However, ensuring they use proper text skimming skills, appropriate contextual understanding of each text and a methodical approach to each type of question, through constant practice, can yield promising results, reducing stress and anxiety in students. For the listening component, the same rules apply, with the caveat that teachers must ensure their students get exposed to as many accents and as many talking speeds as possible, in order to avoid unexpected surprises, come exam day. Be mindful of practising with free-flowing conversations rather than scripted dialogues, as they miss the true essence of the exercise.

Overall students’ main hurdle was managing their time during the Paper 2 reading component, which is why they must practice their skills under exam conditions as much as reasonably possible. The follow-up section of the Orals can also be very daunting for students, so practising literary elements and tools is a must-have in their arsenal.

My overall recommendation is that students need to develop open-minded, critical thinking skills using language in a practical, dynamic flow. This is why skill-based activities that combine elements of each component of the subject, are a must when introducing students to such an expansive subject. Exam prep crunches can come later on, and if they’ve adapted to the nature of each component in a scaffolded process, they’ll be sure to succeed!

Manuel Acosta Giorda

For the IAs, the research questions can often appear to be very broad and unfocused which leads to an inquiry that does not fully address the assessment criteria. Students still continue to put important data tables or survey snapshots in the Appendix. IA moderators do not consider the appendix and, therefore, it is recommended any significant information that the candidate wants the moderator to read should be in the main body text.

For Paper 1, questions that ask candidates to write definitions tend to be the ones where many candidates lost marks. Simple percentage and formula-based calculations are also some areas where students could improve their performance. Students must use the information in the resource booklet wisely as it provides examples and data necessary to answer questions.

Within Paper 2 candidates struggled with reading data-based questions and simple calculations. Definitions of important concepts continue to be an area of concern as students convey partially correct responses and since marking does not allow partial marks, it is important that the full idea is conveyed.

Areas that student’s found difficult were:

1. Definitions of important ESS terminology
2. Simple mathematical calculations
3. Reading and extracting information from Graphs and info-graphics
4. Writing meaningful answers and interpreting questions that tend to be long.

I recommend the following strategies to help students.

• Students can make flashcards for important ESS terms and practice them properly to make sure they convey the full idea.
• Teaching and learning activities in class should include data-based questions, so students learn to identify, connections and patterns early on in the ESS course.
• Scaffolding and breaking down lengthy content into manageable chunks can help students with learning needs to come up the learning curve.
• Teachers use the practical time to teach laboratory-based, secondary data-based and survey type of labs to help students to gain meaningful and manageable ideas for choosing their IAs.
• Students try to use and look for a variety of environmental examples which are beyond the textbook to expand their knowledge base.
• Encouraging students to research different case studies will help them get a handle on a variety of environmental issues which can not only be the source of inspiration for their IAs but also become authentic examples when writing essay questions in ESS paper 2.

Sumit Nair

Oral: Las cuestiones globales no siempre se formulan correctamente. La selección de fragmentos a veces ofrece dos textos literarios. No se dedica tiempo y análisis a la obra y al corpus. Las preguntas del profesor a veces no son relevantes ni ayudan a que el estudiante mejore su desempeño. Paper 1: La pregunta guía no presentaba dificultad, era simple y permitía varias formas de análisis. El texto A era un artículo acompañado de una imagen y el texto B una publicidad, donde la imagen predominaba. El examen pedía conectar imágenes y textos. Los estudiantes encontraron esto más desafiante: El análisis multimodal, y conectar de forma eficiente un texto con una imagen. IA: Practicar cómo formular buenas CG. Hacer hincapié en que también se debe hacer un tratamiento de la obra y del corpus, no solo de los fragmentos. Recordar que una canción o un texto de autor reconocido (aunque sea no literario) se considera fragmento literario. Prueba 1: Dar más tiempo y espacio a lo largo del curso para practicar el análisis no textual, ya que es una de las habilidades que se necesitan para el oral individual y la prueba 1.

Noelia Zago

The over-reliance on web-based sources caused some students to have difficulty finding sufficient scholarly sources for some subjects. This is often an area that schools do not do enough to support. I recommend the librarian is involved in supporting this area of research. A number of students attempted to complete EEs related to the pandemic but found insufficient evidence to draw substantiated conclusions. In future, carefully consider any pandemic-related EE topics/research questions before approval – are they answerable?

Ruth West

For the IA, the reduced scope has aided the students, although most students still struggle with providing clear filmmaker intent and presenting written/visual evidence in a detailed and balanced way. The Textual Analysis rewarded, as ever, organised and balanced students. Criterion C is typically the weakest area.

The Comparative Study saw success for students who had a clear focus.

I continue to recommend using the assessment criteria from the beginning of the course and continuously referring to them to allow students to break down what is required of them and be familiar with those requirements.

Jason Schiessl

The Internal Assessment was as expected. The feeling was that Paper 1 was a reasonable paper. Personally, I thought that the ‘Examine why geographers use a systems approach in the study of drainage basins’ question was unusually worded – but I like where this sort of question style is going.

The general feeling in the community was that Paper 2 was a solid, straightforward paper. Section B was (again) interesting. It is worth pulling out all the past infographic questions you can get your hands on, look at the questions, read the subject reports and reflect on the skills the students need. It is always more than colours, fonts and style when looking at infographics.

Paper 3 was suitable. Some of those questions are ‘massive’ and the students need help and guidance to structure their responses.

This was the final ‘Covid’ session with reduced content so it is time to ensure that you are on track to cover all the necessary content and that you are looking at the Extended Answer Questions (the essays) in Paper 2.

Richard Allaway

I would like to stress the importance of these two things for the Oral assessment. a. the inclusion of a reference to target language culture in SL (and also the focus on the extract rather than the work in HL) and b. the development of ideas in HL. What teachers can and must do: practice as many timed presentations as possible in class and encourage students to have views on certain topics they are interested in. Paper 1 and Paper 2 seemed to hold little surprise and were well received.

Susanne Willmott

The IA was challenging in Covid times and we hope to be back to practical experiences such as Model United Nations conferences now or soon. The papers this year seemed quite straightforward, with Paper 1 not required. For next year and beyond make sure that focus is made on the key concepts and their use in the essays. Paper 1 returning next year will be helpful for students in this regard, but will also present more teaching challenges!

Kevin Nielsen

Within the History IA, the loss of ATL skills due to virtual teaching has harmed the quality of IAs. Please reintegrate research skill development into your course as soon as you are able. The papers seemed to be fairly straightforward. Papers 2 and 3 remain the most challenging and students need to be able to recall and utilise examples from the correct time period. My top tip is to spend class time understanding and practising the demands of the different papers so students are familiar with them and know what is expected on each assessment type.

Kevin Nielsen

For the explorations, it is vital that students are taught how to structure the report and teachers must annotate the work before it is sent to the IB. For the written exams, students are utilising their GDCs but not writing their steps, losing valuable marks. The question that students found the most difficult was the permutation and combination question. My top tip is to take advantage of the 30-hour toolkit and utilise spaced revision throughout the course, using exam-style questions so that skills can be reinforced and developed. Also, structure and support the explorations. There is professional development available in these areas.

Peter McCombe

Regarding the IA, I am seeing more confidence with this assessment. It is a natural progression from quality teaching both of the course and the skills of “doing” philosophy well. Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 had reasonable questions which allowed students to develop strong responses. For Paper 3 the unseen text was almost too accessible – resulting in well-written responses but a lack of development. The challenge to students remains writing analysis and evaluation, with the weaker students spending too much time in description. To improve your students’ grades, focus on the development of arguments throughout the course so that students can write more in-depth answers which allow them to access the higher marks. The development of “argument maps” is a good review resource to develop these skills.

Chris White

The online study methodology saw many more students pursuing IAs that involved electronic resources, but not all successfully. The two written papers seemed fair and matched the standard of previous years, which is normal at this stage of the assessment cycle (the new subject guide is being published soon). Although some pupils found the “hoverboat” a distraction. The ability of students to interpret, analyse and apply principles in an unfamiliar context was certainly tested.

My top teacher tip is to continue to integrate conceptual learning to allow these application skills to be developed. Rote learning and repetition are not being assessed.

David Clapp

Students seem to be continuing to choose a good range of IA topics. The subject reports that have been shared in previous sessions have helped teachers and students to develop a clearer understanding of the requirements. Teachers are usually worried about the lack of examples that show exactly what the examiners are looking for in the IA in terms of details of explanation, statistical tools, and level of evaluation needed. There are now more on MyIB. Papers 1 and 2 were fair with clear command terms that the students needed to be familiar with. The challenge of the subject remains students’ ability to use research studies. This was somewhat reduced this year by the general nature of the questions asked.

Next year will be the first time where students will sit for Paper 3 after 2 years of interruption; therefore, it is important that the research methodology is practised well. This would also help students in writing well-rounded and developed evaluation points in their essays. Teachers need to make sure to clarify the difference between topics that may sound similar, such as hormones and neurotransmitters, and Social Identity Theory and Social Cognitive Theory, as students are usually confused by these topics.

Anjel Lublubjian

The feeling is that the standard of work is improving every year. There continue to be the following challenges for students and teachers. PE is probably one of the hardest criteria to get right. We should be mindful that paragraphs of some personal relationship with the experiment are usually not sufficient for full marks. PE include the depth of the background research in the BI, the conclusion, and the quality and original use of experimental design methods.

Within EX, it is my experience that often key and obvious control variables are not controlled. Full marks for safety must include all ethical considerations and apparent safety and environmental challenges. AN is often the strongest area for students. For the higher band marks, justification of the use of statistical testing, both descriptive and inferential, is helpful. I would recommend that reports include raw data in the main body, even just a sample of the raw data is often helpful for the traceability of the student’s work.

Ev is often the most challenging area for students. Conclusions must use data as evidence to justify the findings. The scientific context should be more than one paragraph comparing the student’s findings to that of one research paper found on google. Students should compare a number of relevant research also to any biological, physical or psychological models that are relevant. The evaluation section also presents a unique challenge. Stronger reports should use their data to suggest the possibility of weakness in their findings. For example, “the practice effect shown in graph 1.2, where performance increases per trial, should be avoided”. The suggestions should be very clear and include an outline of a new method.

The exam papers have had a change in the nature of the questions. There are clearly more questions applied to a sporting setting. This is great for us to include many different examples within our teaching! I would also think it gives the students an opportunity to apply their knowledge and understanding to practical/real-world situations. A great way we could do this in class is within our Starters and plenary sessions.

Tom Hetherington