Training for the internal assessment · SL and HL

IA Gym

Most students find the IA hard because they meet the criteria for the first time when they write it. In the IA Gym you train each skill on small experiments first, one at a time, in easy steps, with your own data and instant checks. By the time you write your real IA, you have done every part of it before.

10workouts, from zero to a mock IA

≈ 50 minfor each workout

Your dataevery student gets different numbers

CheckedCheck, Hint and Show me at every step

One rule

A workout can never be your IA. The workouts are training: small experiments with a known answer. Your real IA needs your own research question, your own method and your own data. The IB says no two students may hand in the same raw data, and every workout gives each student different numbers so that you learn this habit from the start.

How a workout works

The goalWhich criterion you train today, and the words it uses.
Skill checkThe few ideas you need, in plain words, with a quick check.
Take your own dataFrom a simulation, or type in data you measured in the real lab.
Process it, step by stepEvery box has Check, Hint and Show me. A step opens only when the one before is right.
Write one sectionThe part of an IA report that this workout trains.
Be the examinerMark three sample paragraphs against the real criteria, then mark your own.
ReportA PDF for your teacher. With your personal code, it also appears on your teacher’s progress page.

The workouts

In the order of the syllabus, Themes A to E. Each one trains one skill most. Start with the Skills toolbox if the words “uncertainty” or “error bar” are new to you.

Theme A · Workout 1How does a spring stretch?
Data analysis: uncertainties from repeats, error bars, steepest and least steep lines, a gradient ± ΔmStart

Theme A · Workout 2A ball rolling down a ramp
Data analysis: linearising (s against t²)Coming soon

Theme B · Workout 3A cooling cup of water
Evaluation: real weaknesses and their effect on the resultComing soon

Theme B · Workout 4Resistance of a wire against its length
Research design: a focused question, range, controls, a method someone can repeatComing soon

Theme C · Workout 5Refraction through a block
Data analysis: sin i against sin r, the gradient and its uncertaintyComing soon

Theme C · Workout 6Resonance in a tube
Conclusion: compare with an accepted value using the uncertaintyComing soon

Theme D · Workout 7The magnetic field of a wire
Data analysis: an inverse relation (B against 1/r)Coming soon

Theme D · Workout 8Induced emf and speed
All four criteria in one short investigationComing soon

Theme E · Workout 9“Radioactive” dice
Random data, exponential decay and a log graphComing soon

Final · Mock IAA full investigation, marked like the real one
Research design, Data analysis, Conclusion and EvaluationComing soon

Suggested routes

Every workout teaches the skills it uses, with links to the toolbox, so you can start with any of them. Two good orders:

Syllabus order: Workouts 1 → 9, then the mock IA.
Teaching A → B → D → C → E in DP1 (IA written in the last term): Workouts 1–4 in term 1, Workouts 7, 8, 5, 6 in term 2, then the mock IA before the real one. Workout 9 can wait until Theme E.

For teachers

Each student’s data set has a number, printed on their report, so you can check that the numbers are their own.
The report shows how often a student pressed Show me: a quick sign of who needs help.
“Start again with a new spring” gives a new data set: good for a second try without copying the first.
The rules and words are the same as in the IA guide, so students meet one consistent method.