IA My math IA has "complicated mathematics" and nobody will peer-review it

[matt134]

Hello,

I am not sure if peer-reviewing math ia's are exclusive to my school but upon giving my math ia to another student to "pre-mark" they return it very shortly thereafter saying it was too difficult. I asked three more people to look at it and they said the same thing. Asking two more people shows that my conclusion is true--people don't understand the mathematics that I am using in my math ia. This is a problem because if the teacher (who is currently absent) does not understand it either I do not have much time to fix it (since the final copy is due quite shortly after the draft is passed back). I have already given the teacher a pre-pre draft to look at but they didn't say anything (which may be good or bad).

However, the mathematics are quite light--sets and summations have already been covered in grade 11 (I'm in math sl but some hl math was taught to us). Probability (the largest portion of my math ia) has been covered in grade 10, 11 and 12. Derivatives have been covered last and this year (and are in my math ia). Since my math ia exceeds 15 pages, I can see why someone would not want to look at it (because of the length) but because the mathematics are relatively light (and the criteria says to use a few concepts that weren't covered in class to show personal involvement) I'm worried.

I'm worried because (a) I may be completely off-track and not explaining myself properly, causing the markers not to understand what I'm writing and just say that the math is too difficult because they don't want to tell me or even (b) I should be using mathematics that I am completely completely comfortable with. This means that I simplify the project greatly (but could risk loosing points on use of mathematics).

For example, I "pre-marked" another student's ia, and it was very different than mine--they found an equation to relate two variables using a line of best fit by using Excel. I feel that I'm missing the point of how to do this project--I must be doing something wrong because it can't be that simple.

Edited March 23, 2014 by matt134

[maroctam]

Hi there! May I ask, what level of math are you in?

If you're in SL or HL (which, from the sound of things, it seems like you are) you should keep 2 things in mind. Firstly, your math IA is supposed to be accessible to all students in your class (I read this somewhere in the criteria), so I suggest you ask a close friend of yours to point out what exactly they don't understand so that you can explain it more clearly (on the paper itself) so that it makes more sense. This already should help you a lot and shouldn't take too much time. Secondly, the recommended length of an IA is 6-12 pages. You're 3 pages above the recommended maximum, which is alright, but what I suggest you do, just as a safety measure, is that you read over your IA slowly again and make sure you don't ramble about something for too long. Try to be as concise as possible as the lack of concision might be another reason why people don't understand your IA.

Anyway, I hope that helped. If you want, you can send your IA over my way (PM) and I can tell you if there are any changes you should make that would increase its clarity and if I don't understand it. (Although I'm not sure we're allowed to send IAs to each other... I've already given mine in, so there's no risk of plagiarism... but I have no proof if you don't believe me. Anyway, just PM me if you're interested in having your IA read by someone else, and we'll discuss the whole plagiarism risk on there).

Also your friend's IA, if you're in SL or HL, does sound a bit too simple - like a studies one.

[matt134]

Thank you for the recommendations; they are definitely appreciated. I'm in math sl, so I'm thinking about getting a math hl friend to correct it however it doesn't help me much if they understand it because it won't be accessible to the math sl class.

I do agree with you in terms of conciseness; as one classmate pointed out to me that a "tired marker" wouldn't want to go through my 15 pages of mathematics which I completely understand.

[OrdinaryPeople]

On 3/23/2014 at 11:29 AM, maroctam said:

Hi there! May I ask, what level of math are you in?

If you're in SL or HL (which, from the sound of things, it seems like you are) you should keep 2 things in mind. Firstly, your math IA is supposed to be accessible to all students in your class (I read this somewhere in the criteria), so I suggest you ask a close friend of yours to point out what exactly they don't understand so that you can explain it more clearly (on the paper itself) so that it makes more sense. This already should help you a lot and shouldn't take too much time. Secondly, the recommended length of an IA is 6-12 pages. You're 3 pages above the recommended maximum, which is alright, but what I suggest you do, just as a safety measure, is that you read over your IA slowly again and make sure you don't ramble about something for too long. Try to be as concise as possible as the lack of concision might be another reason why people don't understand your IA.

Anyway, I hope that helped. If you want, you can send your IA over my way (PM) and I can tell you if there are any changes you should make that would increase its clarity and if I don't understand it. (Although I'm not sure we're allowed to send IAs to each other... I've already given mine in, so there's no risk of plagiarism... but I have no proof if you don't believe me. Anyway, just PM me if you're interested in having your IA read by someone else, and we'll discuss the whole plagiarism risk on there).

Also your friend's IA, if you're in SL or HL, does sound a bit too simple - like a studies one.

Hi, I am an IB student from Canada. I am in Math SL and our teacher asked us to do a peer editing. Should our friends comment on our IA draft or outline? May I have the pleasure of seeing your IA?