All four DP Maths courses — overview
Every IB DP Maths course is supported: two flavours (Applications & Interpretation, Analysis & Approaches) at two levels (SL and HL). Pick the one your school has enrolled you on — or read the Parent Playbook if you're still choosing.
Standard Level — Applications & Interpretation
The applied stream: real-world modelling, statistics, financial maths, and calculator-heavy Paper 2s. Best for future social scientists, biologists, economists and business students.
- 150 teaching hours across 5 units
- Calculator assumed throughout (CG50 / TI-Nspire / fx-991)
- Accepted at most non-STEM university degrees worldwide
Standard Level — Analysis & Approaches
The abstract stream: algebra, calculus, proof, and a non-calculator Paper 1. Best for future engineers, physicists, computer scientists and quantitative economists.
- 150 teaching hours across 5 units
- Non-calculator Paper 1 + calculator Paper 2
- Accepted at competitive STEM programmes (though HL AA is often preferred)
Higher Level — Applications & Interpretation
Everything in SL AI plus complex numbers, matrices, vectors, graph theory, Markov chains, and differential equations. Modelling-heavy Paper 3.
- 240 teaching hours across 5 units
- Compulsory Paper 3 investigation (modelling context)
- Increasingly valued for data-science, quantitative-finance and applied-mathematics degrees
Higher Level — Analysis & Approaches
Everything in SL AA plus proof by induction, complex numbers, Maclaurin series, further calculus. Technique-heavy Paper 3. The single subject most STEM-facing universities weight most heavily.
- 240 teaching hours across 5 units
- Compulsory Paper 3 investigation (pure-maths context)
- The default requirement for Cambridge / Imperial / TU Delft / ETH engineering
Still choosing? Read the Parent Playbook or the PreIB course review.