Resident Sigma IB Maths Support

I’ve now marked 30 out of 160 papers for IB Maths AAHL Paper 2 this year. I’ll be taking the night off as will attend the senior prom to see the class off this year- but I want to address something about grade boundaries!

Anything I say here is simply an opinion- I don’t have insider knowledge of that process because it will start after the exams are all finished being marked! But here’s what I think…

It very much feels like Paper 2 is quite mixed in the results I’ve seen. And when there is that sort of spread, this leads me to believe that grade boundaries could be the same as previous years. BUT- It depends on how people also do in the other papers, and I don’t have access to that! In fact, I don’t have access to details of other examiners for my own paper, except for my team leader, so I can’t even ask them how they are doing and what they are noticing.

What I can tell you is that the markschemes is generous and I’ve awarded a lot of marks for method and follow through marks so provided you answered things as fully as you could, you stand a solid chance of getting as good a result as possible as we don’t miss anything!

Got any questions about this process? Let me know in the comments!

I’ve been approved for this year’s round of May IB Maths AAHL paper 2 TZ2 exams. Having completed the practice rounds and 2 qualification rounds, I’ve done enough to prove that my marking was accurate enough to be let loose on the live real marking!

I’ll be sharing first hand insights and observations and separately, providing worked solutions to the questions in this! So follow along if you were a candidate this year and eager to know how you might have got on and if you’re a first year IB Maths AAHL student, how you can future proof yourself ahead of next year!

But this all will start in earnest tomorrow. I’m beat, and now going to most likely fall asleep watching a movie 😂

In IB Maths, the IA is worth 20% of your final grade.

Yet every year I see students make the same mistake: they spend months pursuing an idea that was never really going to work in the first place.

Usually it’s not because they’re lazy or incapable. It’s because they start with a topic before they’ve properly thought about the mathematics they want to explore.

They have an interesting idea, but no real mathematical argument.

Or they have a topic, but no clear plan for how they’re actually going to develop it into an investigation.

The result?

Weeks or months of work that eventually gets abandoned, rewritten or completely restarted.

I’ve seen students put themselves under huge amounts of pressure because they realise too late that their original idea doesn’t give them enough mathematics to discuss, or doesn’t really lead anywhere interesting.

The good news is that most of this is avoidable.

A strong IA doesn’t begin with writing. It begins with choosing the right idea and understanding what mathematical story you’re trying to tell.

That’s exactly what I’ll be covering in my FREE IB Maths IA Masterclass for students about to begin their IA journey.

📅 Sunday 7th June
🕘 9am UK time
💻 Live on Zoom

Link in bio if you’d like to join.

Struggling to get started on your IB Maths IA? Here are 3 easy tips to help get started quickly:

1. Stick to daily habits you do
2. Stick to what you know
3. Pick something you actually enjoy

I am running a FREE IB Maths IA Masterclass on Sunday June 7th 9am UK time! Link in bio to sign up for more useful IB insights!

Year 1 IB Maths students- if you’re about to start work on your IA, then here’s one thing you should absolutely not do:

Use University level Maths!

It doesn’t matter if your tutor thinks this would be great or impressive to use because it’s been part of their course - it’s always better to stick to what you know and understand than try to crowbar in material you’ve not fully learned or understood! You are assessed on your understanding of Mathematics and including material that sounds impressive like Partial Differential Equations can actually cost you marks. Don’t squander your 6 use of maths marks for material you don’t fully understand!

I’m going to be doing a FREE IB Maths masterclass covering the IA! If you’re a year 1 IB diploma maths student and wondering how to get started, this is for you! I’ll be covering things like how to pick a topic, common mistakes to avoid and how to understand the criteria. Link in bio! Hope to see you there!

I’m considering running a small IB Maths masterclass before the exams.

This wouldn’t just be “predictions” — it would focus on:
• what to prioritise
• how to approach likely question types
• where students typically lose marks

If this is something you’d genuinely find useful:
👉 Comment YES + your level (AA SL / AA HL / AI SL / AI HL)

I’ll base it on demand