Free Maths IA self-check: a rough band for each criterion

Answer a few guided questions about your exploration for each of the five criteria, A to E. For each criterion you get a rough band and the one thing most worth fixing next. It takes about ten minutes with your draft (or your plan) open beside you.

This is a self-check, not a mark. The bands come only from your own answers, so they are a rough guide to where you stand. Your teacher marks the IA against the IB’s descriptors and the IB moderates it, so your real mark can be higher or lower. The official descriptors, with a printable checklist, are on the IA criteria page.

Uses the current criteria A to E (exams up to and including 2028, AA and AI, SL and HL). Nothing is uploaded or sent anywhere, and no AI is used: your answers stay in this browser. Students starting the Diploma in August 2027 will use new IA criteria.

Your level: (HL adds one question on Criterion E)

Criterion A · Presentation0–4

Is it organised, coherent and concise?

Is your aim stated precisely near the start, and does your conclusion say whether you met it?
Does it have an introduction, a main body and a conclusion, each doing its own job?
Could a classmate follow it from start to finish, with each section leading to the next?
Is every page relevant: no background history nothing uses, no repeated calculations (one worked example, then a table), large data sets in an appendix?
Are graphs, tables and working placed where you discuss them, and sources cited where you use them?
Rough band: answer the questions above

Criterion B · Mathematical communication0–4

Is the mathematics written the way a mathematician would write it?

Is it free of calculator or computer notation (no ^, *, E-3 or sqrt( )?
Is every variable and key term defined when it first appears?
Do graphs have labelled axes with units, and are figures and tables numbered and referred to in the text?
Is your notation correct and consistent all the way through, with ≈ for rounded values and a sensible degree of accuracy?
Do you use more than one form of representation (formulae, graphs, tables, diagrams) where it helps?
Rough band: answer the questions above

Criterion C · Personal engagement0–3

Is it clearly your exploration, in the mathematics as well as the introduction?

Is the question yours: your own data, your own situation, or your own way into the problem?
Do you make predictions and then test them?
Do you follow up your own questions or surprises as you go?
Do you explain the mathematics in your own way (your own examples and diagrams), rather than as a textbook would?
Does your engagement show throughout the mathematics, not only in the introduction?
Rough band: answer the questions above

Criterion D · Reflection0–3

Do you stop and question what the mathematics is telling you?

After key results, do you say what they mean for your aim, rather than only describing what you did?
Do you discuss limitations and strengths that are specific to your method and results (not ones that fit any IA)?
Do you compare methods or models and say which is better and why?
Do you suggest extensions that follow from what you actually found?
Does reflection appear throughout the exploration, not only in the last paragraph?
Rough band: answer the questions above

Criterion E · Use of mathematics0–6

Is the mathematics relevant, correct, at the level of your course, and understood?

Is the mathematics at the level of your course (syllabus level or similar), not only mathematics from earlier years?
Is all of the mathematics relevant to your aim?
Do you show reasoning and understanding, not only answers or substitution into formulae?
Is the mathematics correct, with no errors that change your conclusions?
Where you use technology, do you explain what it did and justify your model (for example, interpreting r before using a line of best fit)?
Rough band: answer the questions above
Rough total: – / 20 A self-check from your own answers, not a mark.

Next: feedback on the draft itself

A self-check tells you where to look. To know how your actual writing reads against the criteria, get feedback on the draft:

See the IA package About the examiner review

Free help too: criteria descriptors and self-grade sheet · mistakes that cost marks · annotated exemplars · the examiner checklist (PDF).

Frequently asked questions

Is the band from this self-check my IA mark?

No. It is a rough estimate from your own answers to guided questions. Your teacher marks your exploration against the IB's descriptors and the IB moderates a sample, so your real mark can be higher or lower.

Which IA criteria does the self-check use?

The current criteria A to E (presentation, mathematical communication, personal engagement, reflection and use of mathematics), which apply to exams up to and including 2028, for AA and AI at SL and HL. Students who start the Diploma in August 2027 will be assessed on new criteria.

Is my draft uploaded or stored?

No. You do not upload anything, nothing is sent to a server and no AI is used. Your answers are kept only in this browser so you can come back to them, and you can clear them at any time.

How can I get feedback on the draft itself?

The IA package includes AI feedback credits that comment on your draft criterion by criterion, and the optional examiner review is a practising IB Mathematics IA examiner reading your draft and talking it through with you.

How the rough band is worked out: each answer scores Yes 2, Partly 1, No 0; the share of the possible score is scaled to the criterion's maximum. Some questions set a ceiling (for example, without a precise aim, Criterion A is unlikely to go above 2). The questions are our own guidance, based on the checklist a practising examiner uses; they are not IB wording. IB Math Revision is independent of the International Baccalaureate.