IB DP Geography - Internal Assessment
- This component is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB at the end of the course.
- Fieldwork (20 hours)
- Written report (25 marks)
- Worth a total of 25% for SL students and 20% for HL students
Group work
May be undertaken by students as described below but the written report must be the students’ individual work.
The fieldwork topic, fieldwork question and methods of information collection may be chosen by the teacher, the whole class, small groups or individuals. In the early stages of the investigation, students may collect fieldwork information in groups and collaborate on these findings and suitable methods of presentation.
Once the research is completed and the necessary fieldwork information and possible methods of presentation exchanged, the emphasis must be on individual work. The writing of the report, the justification of methods, the analysis and the conclusion must be entirely the work of the individual student
Written reports
Students should produce one report of their investigation. The report must not exceed 2,500 words.
The following are not included in the word count.
- Title page
- Acknowledgments
- Contents page
- Titles and subtitles
- References
- Footnotes—up to a maximum of 15 words each
- Map legends and/or keys
- Labels—of 10 words or less
- Tables—of statistical or numerical data, or categories, classes or group names
- Calculations
- Appendices—containing only raw data and/or calculations
- All the main text is included in the word count, including the research question, analysis, conclusion and evaluation, as well as all annotations over 10 words and any footnotes over 15 words.
A very limited use of appendices is acceptable and, if appendices are used, these should contain only examples of materials that have been used or are representative of the material used, such as a data sheet or a translation of a questionnaire. It should not include all materials used, for example, every survey or questionnaire completed. Further, it should not include secondary information.
Where work is over the limit, teachers and moderators are advised to stop reading and students are likely to not gain as many marks under criteria such as E and F.
Internal assessment criteria—SL/HL
The purpose of this assessment, which is common to SL and HL, is to assess students’ ability to demonstrate the following in relation to the fieldwork research question.
- Knowledge and understanding (assessment objective 1)—criteria A and D
- Application and analysis (assessment objective 2)—criteria A and D
- Synthesis and evaluation (assessment objective 3)—criteria D, E and F
- Select, use and apply a variety of appropriate skills and techniques (assessment objective 4)—criteria B and C
- There are six internal assessment criteria for the fieldwork written report.
The criteria should be applied systematically against the relevant parts of the written report using a best-fit approach. Verbs in bold in the criteria refer to the command terms. For the full definition, please refer to the “Glossary of command terms” section.
Mark Scheme
Please click the link below to download the current IB DP Geography IA mark scheme. Pay particular attention to those areas highlighted in red.
If in doubt, go and speak to your teacher.