IA criteria, do examiners follow them?

[iwonder]

So, thing is, the complexity of an experiment and the ingenuity required to devise it come under the criteria section of "personal engagement" since other section evaluate you based on how well you performed within the context of the investigation.

For this reason i decided that my IA topic would simply be an exploration of the boiling points of straight chain alcohols related to their molar mass. "Personal engagement" only accounts for 2 of the 24 available points, but I'm worried that the simplistic premise will result in dropped points in other areas. Any insights?

[Guest]

Personal engagement isn't just about the difficulty or simplicity of the IA, but also whether you truly make it your own. Add relevance to why you're researching this topic and why it's relevant to you, alter the method slightly and explain why you did it in that way. It's basically saying that you actually cared about this topic instead of just doing it because you needed to do something for the IA, even though the latter may be true; but in that case, there are many ideas you could have done so why did you pick this one in particular?

 

I hope this helps a little!

[Sandy]

It doesn't matter whether your IA is simple or tough, as long as you fulfil all criteria (which don't talk about the difficulty of topic at all), then you'll score well. If you need any other help with IB, you can get it here.