Teaching GDC skills in IB Maths
A suggested order for teaching the calculator skills students need for IB Diploma exams, and how to use our free keystroke guides in lessons. Adjust it to your own scheme of work: the point is that every skill is taught in the lesson it is first needed, then revisited before the mocks.
Suggested order
1. First weeks: the calculator basics
Teach these early, whatever the first topic is. They come up in almost every later skill and they build the habit of checking an answer on a graph or a table.
- Tables of values (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Fill in "complete the table" questions in seconds and spot sign changes for roots.
- Graphs: intersections, zeros, max and min (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Draw a graph, then read off roots, turning points and where two curves meet with G-Solve / CALC / Analyze Graph.
- Solving equations (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Polynomial roots, simultaneous linear equations and any equation f(x) = g(x) with the numerical solver.
2. Number and algebra: in the lesson you reach each topic
Show the calculator method straight after the method by hand, so students see it as a check and not a replacement.
- Sequences and sums (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Σ for arithmetic and geometric sums, lists of terms, and the recursion/table mode for the nth term.
- Finance (TVM solver) (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Compound interest, loans, annuities and depreciation with the time-value-of-money solver (IB AI).
- Complex numbers (AA HL · AI HL): Arithmetic with i, the modulus and argument, and converting between Cartesian and polar/exponential form.
- Matrices (AI HL): Enter a matrix, then the determinant, inverse, powers and (on the TI-Nspire) eigenvalues.
- Vectors (AA HL · AI HL): Magnitude, scalar (dot) product, vector (cross) product and the angle between two vectors.
3. Calculus
Numerical derivatives and integrals check answers found by hand and do the questions that cannot be done by hand.
- Numerical derivative and integral (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): The gradient at a point with d/dx and a definite integral with ∫dx, plus areas between curves.
4. Statistics and probability
Set the lists up once and teach the statistics menus as a block: clearing old data and checking the list settings is where most marks are lost.
- 1-variable and 2-variable statistics (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Mean, standard deviation, quartiles and sums from a list or a frequency table.
- Regression (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Least-squares lines and curves: linear, exponential, power, quadratic, cubic, sinusoidal and logistic models.
- Correlation r and Spearman's rank (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient and Spearman's rank coefficient (by ranking, then r).
- Binomial and Poisson distributions (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): P(X = r) and P(X ≤ r) for B(n, p) and Po(λ), and how to turn ≥, > and "between" into what the calculator does.
- Normal distribution (AA SL · AA HL · AI SL · AI HL): P(a < X < b) with normal cdf, and the value for a given probability with inverse normal, including finding σ or μ.
- Confidence intervals (AI HL): t and z confidence intervals for a population mean, from a list of data or from summary statistics.
- t-tests and χ² tests (AI SL · AI HL): Two-sample t-test (pooled), χ² test for independence from a contingency table and χ² goodness of fit.
Using the guides in class
- Show it on the board. Every guide has a "Show on the board" view: big type, just the steps for the calculator you pick, with the tabs to switch model when students use different ones.
- Print a keystroke card. "Print a keystroke card" prints one page: the steps for the selected calculator, the screen to expect and a QR code back to the full guide. Choose "Save as PDF" in the print dialogue to share it.
- Set your class's calculators. On the class page, open the Settings tab and tick the calculators your class uses. Students who have not picked their own calculator then see that one first on every guide.
- Link it with practice. Calculator questions in practice show "How do I do this on my calculator?", which opens the steps for the student's own calculator in place, with a link to the full guide.
Before mocks and exams
Run through the before-every-exam checklist with the class: angle mode, clearing old lists, the answer memory and exam mode. Students who meet exam mode for the first time on the day lose time and confidence.