Keith Spencer

Maths IA guides

Every question students ask about the IB Mathematics Internal Assessment, answered properly by a serving IB Diploma Coordinator. New guides are added regularly.

Will your topic score?

Four topics that cap your grade, and what a topic with room in it looks like.

The five criteria, explained

All twenty marks, the way a moderator reads them.

Maths IA topics in biology, medicine and health data

Four health ideas that cap your mark, five directions that give the mathematics a real job, and the ethics to settle first.

Maths IA topics about games, probability and strategy

Four game ideas that cap your mark, five directions that give the mathematics a real job, and a five-minute test for your own idea.

Maths IA topics using geometry and design

Four design ideas that cap your mark, five directions that give the mathematics a real job, and a five-minute test for your own idea.

Maths IA topics about money, prices and personal finance

Four finance ideas that cap your mark, five directions that give the mathematics a real job, and a five-minute test for your own idea.

Maths IA sports topics that actually work

Three sports ideas that cap your mark, five directions that give the mathematics a real job, and a five-minute test for your own idea.

Maths IA timeline: plan backwards from your deadline

Count back from your school deadline, protect the feedback and final check weeks, and put the slack where it actually helps.

How to use teacher feedback on your Maths IA draft

How to sort the comments, turn each into a question you can answer, decide what to fix first, and ask a better follow-up.

Maths IA and AI tools: what is allowed, and where misconduct starts

Uses that keep the work yours, uses that cross the line, the grey areas, and three questions to ask before you open a tool.

Your Maths IA results show nothing: what to do next

Four different kinds of nothing, a one-evening checking routine, and how a flat result can still earn marks.

Criterion B mistakes that lose communication marks

Nine common slips in notation, definitions, graphs and structure, each with a fix, plus a read-aloud test you can run tonight.

Calculus in the Maths IA: topics that use it properly

Five directions where calculus does real work, three traps that cap the mark, and a quick test for your topic at SL and HL.

Statistics in the Maths IA: t-test or chi-squared, or padding?

How to tell whether a statistical test is answering a real question, or has just been bolted on near the end.

Modelling in the Maths IA: fitting a function, not curve fitting

Why a high R² does not prove a model, and how to choose, test and defend a function you can actually justify.

Maths IA structure: a section by section outline that scores

What each section is actually for, the mistake I see in each one, and an order that lets the mathematics show.

How long should a Maths IA be, and what happens if it runs over?

Why length is a symptom, what going over costs you in communication, and nine ways to cut a draft without losing marks.

Reflection in the Maths IA: write it throughout, not just at the end

Six places to reflect as you work, why generic limitations earn little, and a quick highlighter check before you submit.

Personal engagement in the Maths IA: twelve ways to show it

Why claiming passion earns nothing, and twelve places where your own decisions can show on the page.

Using your own data in the Maths IA

How to choose what to measure, sample sensibly, deal with messy values and name limitations so your data holds up.

What "commensurate with the course" means for AA HL

Why reach without understanding backfires, and a four-question check for whether your mathematics is at the right level.

Choosing a Maths AI SL IA topic when you do not like statistics

Five directions built on functions, calculus, geometry and probability, and a five-minute way to choose.

Want a verdict on your own draft?

These pages are free and stay free, but they are general and your IA is not. Send me your research question, or whatever exists so far, and I will tell you in writing whether the topic has a ceiling on it, where the marks are going, and what to change first. That costs nothing and it comes back within 24 hours.

Written by a serving IB Diploma and Career-related Programme Coordinator and Head of Mathematics, who reads internal assessments across every subject group every year. If you then want the whole draft reviewed properly against all five criteria, that is the paid one, and it is refunded if it does not name at least three specific things to fix.

Get a free verdict Full written review, $99

I never write any part of it. Not a sentence, not a calculation, not your data. Under 18: a parent buys this and the thread is with them. I do not work with students at my own school.