Maths IA criteria · 4 marks
Criterion A: Presentation
Criterion A asks one question: can a reader follow your exploration from start to finish without getting lost? It is worth 4 of the 20 marks, and it is the easiest criterion to secure — if you plan the structure before you write.
Next step: check your plan or draft free with the IA self-check — guided questions give a rough band for each criterion, no upload. For feedback on your own draft, the IA package (€39 once) gives you 5 AI feedback credits and every annotated exemplar in full.
What Criterion A assesses
The organisation, coherence and conciseness of the exploration as a whole: whether it has a clear aim, develops logically, and reaches a conclusion that answers the aim — without padding.
This is our summary, not the IB's wording. The descriptors themselves, with a checklist and a self-grade sheet, are on the IA criteria page. For a rough band for your own draft, answer the guided questions in the free IA self-check.
What the mark bands look like in practice
| Band | What the examiner typically sees |
|---|---|
| Low (1) | Some parts make sense, but the reader has to work hard: there is no clear aim, or the sections do not connect, or the conclusion is missing. |
| Middle (2) | The exploration is either reasonably coherent or reasonably well organised, but not both — for example a clear story with tables and graphs in the wrong places. |
| Good (3) | Coherent and well organised: a clear aim, a logical order, graphs and tables where they are discussed, and a conclusion that refers back to the aim. |
| Top (4) | All of that, and concise: nothing repeated, nothing irrelevant, every calculation and graph earns its place. |
Our summary in plain English, not IB wording — see the official IB guide via your teacher.
Checklist for Criterion A
- A title and a clear, precise aim in the introduction (one of the most important sentences you will write).
- An introduction, a body and a conclusion — and each part links to the next.
- Written for a classmate (a peer), not for your teacher: someone who knows the course but not your topic can follow it.
- Graphs, tables and calculations appear in the order you discuss them, next to the text that uses them.
- Large data sets go in an appendix, with a summary or sample in the body.
- No repeated calculations: show one worked example, then use a table.
- Citations for every source, as footnotes on the page where you use them, plus a bibliography.
- Tables that run over a page break repeat their column headings.
- Page numbers; figures numbered and referred to in the text.
- The conclusion answers the aim you stated at the start.
Examiner tips
Write the aim first, then test every paragraph against it.
If a paragraph does not help answer the aim, it is costing you conciseness. Cut it or move it to an appendix.
Think of the IA as a formal diary.
It should read as an account of what you did and why, in the order you did it — including the decisions you changed. That naturally produces coherence.
Do not announce all the mathematics in the introduction.
Write the introduction as if you are about to start: your question, why it interests you, and how you plan to begin. Techniques should appear when they become necessary.
Length is a guide, not a target.
The IB recommends roughly 12–20 pages (double-spaced). Examiners are not counting pages, but work far longer than that is rarely concise, and work much shorter rarely has room for depth.
Weak vs strong: an example
Loses marks
“In this IA I will look at cooling. First I will use Newton's law of cooling, then differential equations, then logarithms.”
Earns marks
“My tea is always too hot at 8:05 and too cold by 8:25. The aim of this exploration is to find how long a cup of tea takes to cool from 85 °C to 60 °C in three different mugs, and whether Newton's law of cooling predicts those times accurately.”
Common Criterion A mistakes
- A vague aim such as “to investigate the Fibonacci sequence” instead of a question with an answer.
- A long history section with no mathematics.
- Graphs placed in an appendix and discussed in the body (the reader has to flip back and forth).
- The same calculation repeated ten times for ten data points.
- A conclusion that introduces new mathematics or does not mention the aim.
What the IB subject reports say about Criterion A
- One clear, focused aim is enough. A separate research question, rationale or personal hypothesis is not needed, and an over-ambitious aim is a common cause of incoherent work.
- Concision is where most explorations miss the top level: long introductions, repeated calculations and textbook explanations of syllabus methods. Put big data tables in an appendix, but keep the results you discuss (for example the observed and expected tables of a χ² test) in the body.
- A plan or “what I will do” section at the start is not needed, and it hurts coherence when the work does not follow it.
- Write for a classmate on your course: explain anything from outside the syllabus (another subject's terms, the rules of a game), not the syllabus methods themselves.
Our own summary of the moderators' comments in the IB's Mathematics subject reports (AA and AI, SL and HL, May 2024 to November 2025), which the IB releases to schools. Not the IB's wording, and not an IB publication.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a Maths IA be?
The IB recommends about 12 to 20 pages, double-spaced, not counting the title page, contents, appendices and bibliography. There is no word count. Aim for the shortest exploration that fully answers your aim.
Do I need a contents page?
It is not required. A short exploration with clear headings is usually easy enough to follow without one. If you include one, keep it simple.
Should raw data go in the appendix?
Yes, if it is long. Put a summary or a sample in the body, the full data in an appendix, and refer to it. Graphs and tables you actually discuss belong in the body.
Presentation in a modelling IA
Put the data, the graph, the fitted model, the residual check and the comparison in the order you discuss them, each graph captioned and next to its text. The modelling workflow is a ready-made structure, and how modelling earns marks shows what goes where.
Related: all five criteria with a self-grade sheet · annotated exemplars marked on every criterion · have Pete review your draft one-to-one · IA structure and format · how long an IA should be
Types of IA where presenting many results clearly matters most: simulation & monte carlo methods · numerical methods & error analysis · survey-based investigations.
Free: the Criterion A checks, and the other four, in one PDF
The checklist Pete uses with his own students: every check for Criteria A–E (including the Criterion A list above) in a 4-page PDF, the mistakes that cost the most marks, and a self-assessment grid. We'll email it to you, and for three weeks your weekly email carries one IA tip, timed to your deadline if you give it. Free — no account, no payment.
While you wait for the email: see Criterion A at the top band in a free annotated excerpt →