Investigative skills — the layer examiners actually reward
Content mastery gets you to a 5. What gets you the 6, 7 or premium university offer is the layer of investigative craft: knowing which GDC command to reach for, how to structure a Paper 3 response, and how to spot the pattern the question wants you to notice.
Core Toolkits
The three "tools of the trade" every IB Maths candidate has to reach for fluently — the ones examiners assume you already know.
- GDC proficiency (TI-Nspire & CG50 keystrokes)
- LaTeX handling & notation habits
- Command term fluency (state, justify, hence…)
Paper 3 Investigation
The 55-mark Paper 3 rewards a very specific skill stack. This is where we build fluency in the moves examiners score highest for.
- Pattern recognition (spot the conjecture)
- Structuring an investigation response
- Modelling & interpretation writeups
Active Skills Practice
Interactive fluency practice — the "gym" side of the hub. Repeatable, timed, and graded so you can see the skill get sharper over time.
- Rapid GDC keystroke reps
- Command-term micro-practice
- Pattern-spotting sprint challenges
Interactive Practice Papers
Full mock exam papers with timed exam mode, per-question feedback, and a paper-agnostic personal-best dashboard. Every course, every paper.
- HL AI Paper 3 · SL AA Paper 1
- SL AI P1 · HL AA P1 · HL AI P1
- Public top-10 leaderboard + your PB
Deep-dive skill guides NEW
Five long-form guides — one per investigative skill examiners score highest for. Each covers what to look for, exact examiner signals, and 3 FAQs.
Pattern Recognition
The single biggest gap between a 5 and a 7. How to turn small cases into a defensible general rule — the exact investigative move Paper 3 opens with.
- General term / n-th term prompts
- "Show that" and induction ritual wording
- Conjecture-then-justify mark splits
Mathematical Modelling
Turn real-world contexts into equations you can actually solve — money, populations, motion. The set-up scores as much as the answer.
- Choosing the right formula family
- Validity & extrapolation critique marks
- Financial questions: units & compounding
Response Structuring
"Hence", "Show that", and multi-part chains reward a structural pattern. Learn to hit every mark — even when you get stuck on part (b).
- "Hence" vs "Hence, or otherwise"
- Independently-markable parts strategy
- Final-answer clarity habits
GDC Investigation
Use your TI-Nspire or Casio as an investigative laboratory, not a calculator. Table view, regression, and numerical solve are Paper 3 superpowers.
- Table exploration & pattern detection
- Regression as investigative logic
- Numerical solve + verify method
LaTeX & IA Formatting
Communication + Presentation are worth 8 / 20 IA marks. Learn the LaTeX you'll actually need in an evening, keep it for university.
- Notation consistency across sections
- Formula booklet quotations
- Diagram / axis / caption conventions