Can this Internal Assessment plan survive a pre-draft check?
| Decision | Write this down | Do not draft yet if… |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Which task are you actually doing? | Subject, level, assessment session, exact coursework component, and the current guide or school document that defines it. | You only have a generic IA template, an old exemplar, or requirements copied from another subject. |
| 2. What is the question, aim, or task focus? | The exact sentence that your evidence and analysis must answer. Some components use a formal research question; others use a different task structure. | You can name a topic but cannot say what your evidence will establish, compare, interpret, or test. |
| 3. What evidence will exist when you are finished? | The actual data, sources, texts, observations, artefacts, or other evidence you can realistically obtain and are allowed to use. | The plan depends on equipment, access, participants, documents, or data you do not have. |
| 4. What will you do with that evidence? | The calculation, comparison, interpretation, model, source analysis, or other reasoning step that turns the evidence into an answer. | Your plan ends at collecting or describing evidence and has no clear analysis step. |
| 5. Where will each criterion find its evidence? | For every current criterion, point to the table, calculation, passage, comparison, justification, reflection, or evaluation that will demonstrate it. | A criterion is represented only by a heading you intend to add later, with no underlying evidence planned. |
| 6. What rule can still invalidate the plan? | Word/page/time limit, required supporting material, ethics or safety constraints, citation expectations, file requirements, and any session-specific rule. | You are relying on a remembered limit or a third-party checklist instead of the requirements for your own session. |
What does a criterion-to-evidence map look like in the current sciences?
Biology, Chemistry, and Physics scientific investigations from first assessment 2025 use four 6-mark criteria. Treat the list below as an evidence map, not as mandatory section headings.
Research Design
A question in context plus methodological choices that can collect relevant and sufficient data, with relevant controls and practical constraints made explicit.
Data Analysis
Recorded and processed data presented precisely enough to follow, including treatment of uncertainty that is relevant to the analysis.
Conclusion
An answer that follows from the processed data and its uncertainty, placed against relevant scientific context.
Evaluation
Specific limitations or weaknesses, their relative impact, and realistic improvements that address them.
What else should you know before drafting an Internal Assessment?
What is an Internal Assessment?
Think of “Internal Assessment” as an umbrella term, not the name of one assignment. A Biology scientific investigation and a Mathematics exploration are both internally assessed, but they follow different tasks and criteria. The subject guide for your session controls the format, limits, and weighting.
Is there one Internal Assessment format?
Templates are only useful after you know the task. If a template says every Internal Assessment needs the same introduction, method, analysis, and evaluation sequence, stop and compare it with your current subject guide. Different components ask for different evidence.
Should you copy the structure of an Internal Assessment example?
An example is useful for the choices it exposes: where the question appears, how evidence enters, and how the assessed reasoning becomes visible. Keep those lessons; rebuild the headings and order for your own task.
How much is an Internal Assessment worth?
Open the assessment table for your subject and level. Weighting changes across Diploma Programme subjects, so a percentage from a friend’s Chemistry or History coursework may be wrong for yours.
Where should you go next?
Sources & verification
Primary-source references used to verify key assessment facts on this page. Last source check: September 26, 2026.
This page is a planning tool, not a universal Internal Assessment template. The current subject guide and assessment session control the actual task, criteria, limits, and required supporting material.
- IB - Diploma Programme assessment and examsOfficial overview of criterion-related assessment and the role of internally assessed work across Diploma Programme subjects.
- IB - Biology in the Diploma ProgrammeCurrent Biology curriculum and scientific-investigation context, first assessment 2025.
- IB - Chemistry guide (first assessment 2025)Primary guide for the current Chemistry scientific investigation.
- IB - Physics guide (first assessment 2025)Primary guide for the current Physics scientific investigation.