Mathematics assessed student work

Assessed student work

Overview
The intention of this section is to demonstrate the overall marking standards that are required, as well
as to illustrate how the achievement levels for each criterion should be awarded. The assessment was
undertaken by experienced moderators.

The comments and marks provided for criteria A–E are those of these moderators. All the explorations
have been marked using both the standard level (SL) and higher level (HL) criteria. The requirements
for criteria A–D are identical for SL and HL; it is only criterion E (use of mathematics) that is different.
It is essential that teachers of both subjects and levels standardize their marking of the exploration
before submitting their marks.

Some of the explorations have separate comments for mathematics: analysis and approaches and for
mathematics: applications and interpretation. This is to illustrate how the marking may be affected
based on whether a student has met the mathematics used during their course or has chosen to use
mathematics not from their course. Generally, this may affect the mark given in criterion C (personal
engagement).

Teachers may simply wish to see how an exploration was marked. Using the links, teachers can
navigate to the comments and to the annotated student work. The annotated work shows, for each
criterion, where in the exploration evidence can be seen for reaching a decision on awarding the mark
for that criterion.

Alternatively, teachers may wish to mark the student work themselves. Using the links, the student
work can also be viewed in its original format. Teachers can then compare their own marking to that of
the moderator and go on to look at the annotated student work.

The comments should be read in conjunction with the explorations and the annotations on the
explorations.

The table below categorizes the explorations by the “best t” for the topic of the exploration and
shows the marks given for SL (rst number) and HL (second number). When a cell is split in two, the

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Mathematics assessed student work

top part shows the marks for mathematics: analysis and approaches (analysis) and the bottom part
shows the marks for mathematics: applications and interpretation (applications).

Samples 30 to 49 were written by students following one of the DP mathematics courses rst taught in
2019. The samples are grouped as follows:

30–34 DP mathematics: applications and interpretation

SL

35–39 DP mathematics: analysis and approaches SL

40–44 DP mathematics: applications and interpretation

HL

45–49 DP mathematics: analysis and approaches HL

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Mathematics assessed student work

Example Title Number Functions Geometry Probability Calculus Other

number and (and and and
algebra modelling) trigonometry
statistics

1 Horse's SL 11
jump marks
HL 9
marks

2 Infant SL 16
mortality marks
HL 14
marks

3 Packaging SL 14
and marks
geometrical HL12
shapes marks

4 Rowing SL 16
speeds marks
HL 15
marks

5 Social SL 9
media marks
HL 7
marks

6 SL 9
marks

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Mathematics assessed student work

Path of HL 8
quickest marks
descent

7 Bayes' SL 10
Theorem marks
and HL 9
baseball marks

8 Modelling SL 13
stools marks
HL 11
marks

9 The SL 12
Cantor set marks
HL 11
marks

10 Human Analysis
population SL16
growth marks
Analysis
HL 15
marks

Applications
SL16
marks
Applications
HL 15
marks

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Mathematics assessed student work

11 Pursuit SL 15
curves marks
HL 14
marks

12 Microwave SL 20
popcorn marks
HL 20
marks

13 Ice cream SL 15
marks
HL 13
marks

14 Zeno's SL 18
arrow marks
paradox HL 17
marks

15 Chinese SL 12
remainder marks
theorem HL 11
marks

16 Solar SL 20
panels marks
HL 20
marks

17 Hyperboloids

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Mathematics assessed student work

SL 19
marks
HL 19
marks

18 Prime SL 10
number marks
theories HL 8
marks

19 Optimisation SL 11
at the marks
cottage HL 9
marks

20 Encrypting Analysis
messages SL17
marks
Analysis
HL 15
marks

Applications
SL16
marks
Applications
HL 14
marks

21 Gabriel SL 19
Dawe's marks
rainbow

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Mathematics assessed student work

coloured HL 18
curves marks

22 Titus SL 19
tunnel marks
bridge HL 18
marks

23 Transport SL 15
fare marks
charges in HL 14
Madrid marks

24 Golf and SL 7
kinematics marks
HL 7
marks

25 MathematicsSL 13
in marks
barcodes HL 12
marks

26 Probability SL 19
in the marks
courtroom HL 18
marks

27 Converting SL 11
piano marks
music to HL 10
marks

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Mathematics assessed student work

guitar
music

28 The Analysis
Chinese SL 14
postman marks
problem:
HL 14
analysis
marks

29 Real- SL 10
world marks
applications HL 9
of the marks
prisoner’s
dilemma

Airline
30 overbooking SL 19
marks
HL 17
marks

Volleyball
31 spike SL 16
marks
HL 14
marks

32 Optimum SL 15
age for marks
100m HL 14
sprint marks

Volume of a
33 chess pawn

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Mathematics assessed student work

SL 17
marks
HL 15
marks

34 Sentence SL 14
length marks
and genre HL 13
of novel marks

Paracetamol
35 tablet SL 20
optimization marks
HL 18
marks

Internal
36 temperature SL 18
of cookies marks
HL 16
marks

Towers
37 of Hanoi SL 16
extension marks
HL 14
marks

Morphine in
38 pharmacokinetics SL 15
marks
HL 13
marks

Voters of
39 tomorrow SL 17
marks

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Mathematics assessed student work

HL 15
marks

Radioactive
40 modelling SL 19
marks
HL 18
marks

Travelling
41 salesman and SL 15
a trip around marks
India
HL 13
marks

Terrarium
42 design for SL 15
garden marks
spiders
HL 13
marks

Perishable
43 and non- SL 17
perishable marks
goods
HL 16
marks

Ethnicity
44 spread and SL 17
crime rate marks
HL 16
marks

Radii of
45 curvature SL 18
marks
HL 17
marks

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Mathematics assessed student work

Robotic arm
46 SL 18
marks
HL 17
marks

Efficiency of
47 sun visors SL 14
marks
HL 13
marks

Path of a
48 violin bow SL 18
frog marks
HL 17
marks

How can
49 we make it SL 16
better? marks
HL 15
marks

Spreadsheet summary of assessed student work

This downloadable spreadsheet provides summary data on each piece of assessed student work. The
spreadsheet can be adapted as required to your own school’s needs.

Each column can be ltered and sorted using the small arrow button at the top of the column. Clicking
this opens the dialog window for ltering and sorting (Figure 1).

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Mathematics assessed student work

Sorting by score (SL/HL)

Clicking the down arrow on the SL or HL column offers two options, “Sort Smallest to Largest” or
“Sort Largest to Smallest”. This could be used, for example, to nd high scoring or low scoring HL
explorations.

Note: Some examples may have different totals for the two DP mathematics subjects.

Sorting by page count

Sometimes it is helpful to discuss lack of conciseness—or its opposite, the need for more detail—with
students. Sorting the examples by page count can be a starting point for this.

Sorting by secondary content

Example IAs can be sorted by their primary and secondary content. This could be used to identify, for
example, student work that used calculus as its primary content and a different area as its secondary
content.

Additional notes can be added to the column: for example, notes on modelling, problem solving,
specic techniques.

Sorting by use of technology

Specic technologies used in the examples were classied using the IB document “Learning, teaching
and leading with technologies” (pages 10–12). The most commonly occurring classications are
dened below:

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Mathematics assessed student work

• Databases (DB)—Repositories of information that can be accessed for research and data collection.
• Survey tools (ST)—Tools used to make surveys.
• Drawing tools (DT)—Tools used for drawing new images, colouring and shape-making. These can
include dynamic geometry software such as GeoGebra and Desmos.
• Screen-capture tools (Scr)—Tools that take images of a screen.
• Simulations (Sim)—Tools that use data to create virtual scenarios or to test hypotheses about how
systems work over time. These can include programming languages such as Python or Javascript.
• Spreadsheets (Spr)—Digital tools that arrange data in rows and columns that can be manipulated
and used in graphs and calculations.

Note: Word processing tools and calculation tools are common to many examples and are not
included in the list.

Sorting by criteria achievement levels

Sorting the examples by achievement level within each criterion identies the high scoring and low
scoring examples for that criterion.

It can be useful to discuss how and why students achieved high scores in some criteria, and how weak-
scoring criteria could have been improved. For example, some of the higher scoring examples may be
reasonably strong in certain criteria, but quite weak in others. Similarly, where two examples achieve
the same level in a certain criterion but are about very different topics, it can be useful to discuss how
the common—or different—approaches to the work lead to this same result.

Comments column
The “Comments” column can be used to add extra information about the examples, e.g. specic
mathematical techniques and methods used in the internal assessment.

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