Science IAs - page limit, spacing

[Vsu]

Hi!

I was just wondering whether the 12 page limit included the bibliography? My chemistry teacher said it didn't but then my biology teacher said it did.

Also, are there restrictions on the spacing? Can it be 1.0 spacing? Because I heard from a friend that it should be 1.5-2.0 spacing.

Also, any other restrictions such as font size and margin spacing? 

Thank you!

[IB`NOT`ez]

12 hours ago, Vsu said:

Hi!

I was just wondering whether the 12 page limit included the bibliography? My chemistry teacher said it didn't but then my biology teacher said it did.

Also, are there restrictions on the spacing? Can it be 1.0 spacing? Because I heard from a friend that it should be 1.5-2.0 spacing.

Also, any other restrictions such as font size and margin spacing? 

Thank you!

I had 1.0 spacing on both my biology & chemistry IAs with size 11 font and even size 10 font in the bibliography. Amounted to 12 pages on one IA and 13 pages on the other – I had 22/24 and 23/24 respectively; both having 3/4 for the Communication criteria. 

[Vsu]

On 2/16/2018 at 4:12 AM, IB`NOT`ez said:

I had 1.0 spacing on both my biology & chemistry IAs with size 11 font and even size 10 font in the bibliography. Amounted to 12 pages on one IA and 13 pages on the other – I had 22/24 and 23/24 respectively; both having 3/4 for the Communication criteria. 

Thank you so much for the response! Sorry for this late one, for some reason I didn't get a notification so I had no idea someone replied until I searched the exact same thing and my own thread came up!

For getting 3/4 for Communication, do you think the lost mark was due to having so many pages (even though you were within the limit for one of them) and the other condensing factors of 1.0 spacing and small font, or were there any other reasons such as tables or other communication criteria? 

Right now, my biology IA is exactly at 12 pages with 1.0 spacing, 11 size font (including reference list would be 14), but after the first draft my teacher wants me to add in things and make the graphs bigger so they're clearer, but this will bump me up another 1-2 pages. She says the 12 pages limit isn't strict so I won't be affected, but I'm not sure I trust her judgement on that

[IB`NOT`ez]

1 hour ago, Vsu said:

Thank you so much for the response! Sorry for this late one, for some reason I didn't get a notification so I had no idea someone replied until I searched the exact same thing and my own thread came up!

For getting 3/4 for Communication, do you think the lost mark was due to having so many pages (even though you were within the limit for one of them) and the other condensing factors of 1.0 spacing and small font, or were there any other reasons such as tables or other communication criteria? 

Right now, my biology IA is exactly at 12 pages with 1.0 spacing, 11 size font (including reference list would be 14), but after the first draft my teacher wants me to add in things and make the graphs bigger so they're clearer, but this will bump me up another 1-2 pages. She says the 12 pages limit isn't strict so I won't be affected, but I'm not sure I trust her judgement on that

Criteria marks are holistic, so exceeding 12 pages MAY have played a factor in not getting a 4/4, but I doubt it was the sole reason. I had very neat and concise labels and titles for all my tables and figures as well as organized subheadings, but just reading the text I do think some parts could be made more concise. Also keep in mind that marks are moderated by the IB according to your teacher's grading accuracy for the whole cohort -- it's entirely possible the IA moderator thought I should have gotten a 4/4 for communication, but if he felt other people's IAs Communication marks were on point, he couldn't just increase the mark for my IA without increasing others'.  Likewise, for my Chemistry IA, my teacher giving a 24/24 would also easily catch the attention of an IA moderator and if the latter's having a bad day, that's just asking for a down-grade of the entire cohort and so my teacher may just have wanted to play it safer. 

I really wouldn't worry about Communication at all. It comes down to a lot of things that are out of your control ie your teacher's grading, how other students in your class did for their IAs, consideration of your peers' marks if you're at the top of the class, and the moderator's judgment. Just follow all the criteria, make things organized and labelled and you should be set for a minimum of 3/4. In fact, if you feel confident your IA is at 17+ points out of 24, I would not put much more thought into it as mastery of the subject material is far more important to getting the IB score you desire -- I could have had 7 points less in each of my science IAs and still had a comfortable 7. 

 

[Vsu]

13 minutes ago, IB`NOT`ez said:

it's entirely possible the IA moderator thought I should have gotten a 4/4 for communication, but if he felt other people's IAs Communication marks were on point, he couldn't just increase the mark for my IA without increasing others'.  Likewise, for my Chemistry IA, my teacher giving a 24/24 would also easily catch the attention of an IA moderator and if the latter's having a bad day, that's just asking for a down-grade of the entire cohort and so my teacher may just have wanted to play it safer. 

I really wouldn't worry about Communication at all. It comes down to a lot of things that are out of your control ie your teacher's grading, how other students in your class did for their IAs, consideration of your peers' marks if you're at the top of the class, and the moderator's judgment. Just follow all the criteria, make things organized and labelled and you should be set for a minimum of 3/4. In fact, if you feel confident your IA is at 17+ points out of 24, I would not put much more thought into it as mastery of the subject material is far more important to getting the IB score you desire -- I could have had 7 points less in each of my science IAs and still had a comfortable 7. 

 

Ohh I see, it's a shame marks can sometimes be compromised for those kinds of reasons, rather than just a straight-forward mark. Good job btw! That's such a good score.

In terms of the 17+ points out of 24, isn't the grade boundary for a 7 in science IAs at approx. 20? 

Also, thank you so much for all the advice! It's been a huge reassurance and help. 

[IB`NOT`ez]

21 minutes ago, IB`NOT`ez said:

Criteria marks are holistic, so exceeding 12 pages MAY have played a factor in not getting a 4/4, but I doubt it was the sole reason. I had very neat and concise labels and titles for all my tables and figures as well as organized subheadings, but just reading the text I do think some parts could be made more concise. Also keep in mind that marks are moderated by the IB according to your teacher's grading accuracy for the whole cohort -- it's entirely possible the IA moderator thought I should have gotten a 4/4 for communication, but if he felt other people's IAs Communication marks were on point, he couldn't just increase the mark for my IA without increasing others'.  Likewise, for my Chemistry IA, my teacher giving a 24/24 would also easily catch the attention of an IA moderator and if the latter's having a bad day, that's just asking for a down-grade of the entire cohort and so my teacher may just have wanted to play it safer. 

I really wouldn't worry about Communication at all. It comes down to a lot of things that are out of your control ie your teacher's grading, how other students in your class did for their IAs, consideration of your peers' marks if you're at the top of the class, and the moderator's judgment. Just follow all the criteria, make things organized and labelled and you should be set for a minimum of 3/4. 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Vsu said:

Ohh I see, it's a shame marks can sometimes be compromised for those kinds of reasons, rather than just a straight-forward mark. Good job btw! That's such a good score.

In terms of the 17+ points out of 24, isn't the grade boundary for a 7 in science IAs at approx. 20? 

Also, thank you so much for all the advice! It's been a huge reassurance and help. 

Forget grade boundaries -- you can literally get a 5/24 for your IA and still get a 7 for the course if you do exceedingly well on your papers. Your score out of 24 is converted into a percentage e.g. 17/24 = 70% and so that gives you 70% of the total allocated points for Internal Assessments, which is 20% of your overall grade. So you get 70% times 20% your overall grade, in essence attaining 14% of your overall grade already just from a 17/24. Refer to the syllabus on how grades are awarded, but each component accounts for a fraction of your overall grade e.g. Paper 1 = 20%, Paper 2 = 35%, Paper 3 = 25%, IA = 20% for a HL science. 

And no problem -- always happy to help! Feel free to ask more questions if you have any! 

[Vsu]

9 minutes ago, IB`NOT`ez said:

 

Forget grade boundaries -- you can literally get a 5/24 for your IA and still get a 7 for the course if you do exceedingly well on your papers. Your score out of 24 is converted into a percentage e.g. 17/24 = 70% and so that gives you 70% of the total allocated points for Internal Assessments, which is 20% of your overall grade. So you get 70% times 20% your overall grade, in essence attaining 14% of your overall grade already just from a 17/24. Refer to the syllabus on how grades are awarded, but each component accounts for a fraction of your overall grade e.g. Paper 1 = 20%, Paper 2 = 35%, Paper 3 = 25%, IA = 20% for a HL science. 

And no problem -- always happy to help! Feel free to ask more questions if you have any! 

Oh ok, yeah I get that. I guess it just feels nice as sort of like a safety net, although in the face of the 80% weighting of the exams, I guess that's not much haha.

Also, this is just pure curiosity, so sorry if it's a bother, but what did you do your IAs on, if you remember? I did my chemistry IA on how temperature affects the buffer capacity of the McIlvaine Buffer, and I'm doing my biology IA on how the ratio of glycerine to petrolatum in a 'moisturiser' mixture retains the water content of agar.