IB Maths IA Guidance | What Help Is Allowed, and How

What is the IB Maths IA?

In IB Diploma mathematics, the internal assessment is a piece of the student's own mathematical writing that the IB's Mathematics: analysis and approaches guide says "is called the exploration". The same guide says the course expects 30 hours for developing inquiry, modelling and investigation skills, including "up to 15 hours for work on the internal assessment", at both SL and HL. Coursework must be "authentic, based on the student's individual and original ideas", with every source acknowledged. The IB's academic integrity policy asks students to refuse non-permitted help "in the completion or editing of work", naming "private tutors" among others. The IB's own site was closed to us, so for the current criteria and marks, use the subject guide your teacher holds. Modern Age Coders teaches the mathematics explorations tend to draw on, live online, and never works on the exploration itself.

Where to begin

Three courses that teach the maths, not the IA

Each card opens a full syllabus. None includes work on an assessed exploration.

IIG / 01

IB Maths AA and AI

The whole course at SL and HL: functions, calculus, statistics and, for HL, proof, taught for understanding.

Open the syllabus →

Statistics & Probability course thumbnail

IIG / 02

Statistics and probability

Regression, correlation and distributions in depth, for students whose interests run to data.

Open the syllabus →

Maths Olympiad & Competition Course course thumbnail

IIG / 03

Competition mathematics

Proof and problem solving for students who enjoy the reasoning side of mathematics.

Open the syllabus →

The exploration

What is the IB Maths exploration?

It is the internal assessment in each IB Diploma mathematics course: a piece of mathematics the student chooses, investigates and writes up. Here is what we could read in the IB's own documents, and what we could not.

The exploration, from the IB's Mathematics: analysis and approaches guide (published February 2019)
Point	What the guide says
Its name	The internal assessment "is called the exploration"
Class time	30 hours for inquiry, modelling and investigation skills, including up to 15 hours for the internal assessment
Courses and levels	Two subjects, analysis and approaches and applications and interpretation, each offered at SL and HL
Teaching hours	240 hours at HL and 150 at SL, of which 210 and 120 are for the syllabus
Authenticity	Coursework must be "authentic, based on the student's individual and original ideas with the ideas and work of others fully acknowledged"
Sources	"candidates must acknowledge all sources used in work submitted for assessment"

What we could not read

The IB's website returns an error (HTTP 403) to our automated reader on every IB address we tried, and the public copy of the guide we found stops before the assessment chapters. So this page does not state the exploration's criteria, their marks, its share of the grade or any length guidance.

Your teacher has the current subject guide and the criteria for your session. Use those words, not a tutor's summary, including ours.

Why that matters less than it seems

The single question families ask us most about the IA is not "what are the criteria?" but "what help is allowed?". That answer is in a document we could read in full: the IB's own academic integrity policy.

The rest of this page is built on it.

Source: IB, Mathematics: analysis and approaches guide, published February 2019, read through a partial public copy because ibo.org returned HTTP 403. Modern Age Coders is not connected with the International Baccalaureate.

The IB's rules

Can a tutor help with the IB Maths IA?

Not with the work itself. The IB's academic integrity policy names private tutors among those whose help in completing or editing assessed work a student should refuse.

The IB on help with assessed coursework, from Academic integrity (October 2019)
Who	What the policy says
Students	Should "abstain from receiving non-permitted assistance in the completion or editing of work, such as from friends, relatives, other students, private tutors, essay writing or copy-editing services, pre-written essay banks or file sharing websites"
Teachers	"students are expected to produce work autonomously and should not receive additional help, such as multiple edits of a piece of work"
Teachers	Must ensure "students are not provided with multiple rounds of editing, which would be contrary to instructions described in the relevant subject guides"
Parents	Who support the school "will be less inclined to give unfair assistance to their children, for example, by writing or over-editing their work"
Schools	Infringements include "over-editing or templating or manipulating finished pieces of work for improvement" and allowing work "produced by third parties such as teachers, tutors, parents, and peers"

The reasoning is set out plainly. When a student receives help "beyond what is recommended in the subject guidelines", the policy says, "the work is not entirely produced by the student in question", and the assessment "can only be fair if it truly and effectively reflects the genuine and authentic effort of the student". It even lists "the easy access to support services, such as writing or tutoring services" among the reasons students fall into misconduct. A tutoring business should read that sentence and draw a line, which is what the next section does.

Plagiarism is the common case

The policy says "Plagiarism is the most common form of student academic misconduct." In maths that includes formulas, derivations, graphs and code taken from elsewhere without acknowledgement, not only sentences.

The guide's rule is simple: acknowledge every source, in a consistent referencing style.

A newer version exists

The copy we read is the October 2019 edition. The IB updated the policy in March 2023, and that edition sits on ibo.org, which was closed to us. Schools use the current version, so ask your coordinator for it, particularly on the use of AI tools.

Nothing in a newer edition is likely to make tutor editing more acceptable, but read it rather than trust us.

Source: International Baccalaureate Organization, Academic integrity, published October 2019, an unaltered copy of the IB's PDF hosted by an IB school, read 31 October 2026. The 2023 update on ibo.org returned HTTP 403 and has not been read.

Our line

What do we do, and what do we never do?

We teach mathematics and the general craft of investigating. We keep away from the exploration itself, entirely.

Modern Age Coders and the IB maths exploration
We do	We never do
Teach the syllabus mathematics a student may later choose to use, such as modelling, regression, calculus or proof	Suggest, choose or approve a student's exploration topic
Teach how mathematicians investigate in general, using our own practice problems unrelated to any student's exploration	Read, mark, comment on or "check" a draft, plan or outline
Explain what acknowledging a source means and how referencing works	Write, rewrite, edit, proofread or format any part of an exploration
Answer questions about mathematics the student brings, as mathematics	Work through the student's own data, model or derivation for them
Point students to their teacher, who is the right person to guide the exploration	Supply example explorations, templates or structures to follow

If a student asks during a lesson for help with their exploration, the teacher will say no and explain why, and will suggest they take the question to their IB teacher. That is not unhelpfulness; it protects the student, whose diploma depends on the work being theirs. It also protects their school, because the policy treats allowing third-party work as a school infringement.

Why teaching the maths still helps

A student who genuinely understands, say, least-squares regression or integration by parts can choose a richer question and pursue it on their own. Understanding is theirs to use; a tutor's paragraph is not.

The guide's time budget, up to 15 class hours for the exploration, is small. Mathematics learned well beforehand is time not spent learning it during those hours.

Where other help belongs

Guidance on the exploration itself comes from the IB teacher, within the limits the subject guide sets. That is the one adult whose help with the work the IB system expects.

For the papers, our IB maths tuition page covers the courses more widely.

Finding a topic yourself

How do I find my own IB maths IA topic?

Not from a list of "IA ideas". The guide asks for the student's "individual and original ideas", so the method below helps you find one; it gives you none. The method is ours.

Write down five things you already spend time on: a sport, a game, music, a subject, a job, a place. Interest sustains work.
For each, write one question that has a number in its answer: how fast, how many, how likely, how much, when.
Cross out any question you could answer with one search or one calculation. You want a question that needs mathematics to unfold.
For the questions left, list the mathematics from your course that might touch them. If you cannot list any, drop the question.
Pick one, and take it to your IB teacher. They know the criteria and the scope, and they are the right person to say whether it will work.

A classroom example (ours)

Not an exploration, just practice in the habit. Question: if every person in a room shakes hands once with everyone else, how many handshakes are there? Count small cases: 2 people give 1, 3 give 3, 4 give 6, 5 give 10.

Make a conjecture

The differences grow by one each time, which suggests n(n minus 1) over 2. For 5 people that is 5 times 4 over 2, which is 10, matching the count. A pattern in four cases is a guess, not a proof.

Then prove it

Each of n people shakes n minus 1 hands, but that counts every handshake twice, so divide by 2. An HL student could also prove it by induction: adding one person adds n new handshakes. Explaining why is the point.

That loop, small cases, a conjecture, a check, a reason, is the general shape of mathematical investigation, and practising it on problems that are nobody's coursework is where we spend lesson time. The guide describes analysis and approaches as being for students who want to "construct, communicate and justify correct mathematical arguments"; the habit above is that, in miniature.

The two courses

Does the IA differ between AA and AI?

Both courses have an exploration. The guide describes the two subjects differently, and that difference often shapes the kind of mathematics a student reaches for.

Analysis and approaches

For students who "enjoy developing their mathematics to become fluent in the construction of mathematical arguments", and who "enjoy the thrill of mathematical problem solving and generalization."

At HL the guide expects "strong algebraic skills and the ability to understand simple proof", and includes proof by induction.

Applications and interpretation

For students "interested in developing their mathematics for describing our world and solving practical problems", harnessing technology alongside mathematical models.

The guide says AI students "enjoy mathematics best when seen in a practical context."

These descriptions are the IB's, from the analysis and approaches guide, which describes both subjects in its introduction. They say nothing about which subject produces better explorations, and neither do we. What they suggest is that a student should pick a question whose mathematics fits the course they actually take, which their teacher will confirm.

Source: IB, Mathematics: analysis and approaches guide, Nature of mathematics section, published February 2019.

Across the diploma

When to learn which maths

Mathematics learned before the exploration window is mathematics a student can choose to use. These stages are ours.

A maths-first route through the diploma
When	Focus	Secure when
Start of year one	Functions, algebra and notation	Can move between graph, table and formula
Through year one	Statistics and calculus foundations	Can model data and differentiate with understanding
Before the exploration window	Investigation habit, on our own problems	Can run the cases, conjecture, check, reason loop alone
Year two	The rest of the syllabus and the papers	Exploration work stays between the student and their IB teacher

If the exploration is due soon

We can still teach the mathematics a student is studying. We will not look at the exploration, however close the deadline.

The IB teacher is the person to talk to about timing.

After the diploma

Students heading to maths-heavy degrees often continue with university-level maths.

The A level maths page covers the other UK route for comparison.

All related courses

Mathematics courses for IB Diploma students

The syllabus, its deeper strands, and what follows. No course includes work on assessed coursework.

I

The diploma

SL and HL

UK / IIG / 01

IB Maths AA and AI

Both subjects at both levels, taught for understanding.

Open the syllabus

UK / IIG / 02

Statistics and probability

Models, distributions and inference in depth.

Open the syllabus

UK / IIG / 03

IB Computer Science

For students taking both subjects.

Open the syllabus

II

Reasoning

Proof and problems

UK / IIG / 04

Competition maths

Proof-based problem solving.

Open the syllabus

UK / IIG / 05

Further maths

Matrices, complex numbers and more, for HL students who want extra.

Open the syllabus

III

Beyond school

University preparation

UK / IIG / 06

University-level maths

Calculus, linear algebra and analysis.

Open the syllabus

UK / IIG / 07

Maths for data science

Statistics and linear algebra for data careers.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Maths lessons with a clear boundary

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays. Teachers are in India, which has no clock change: India time is four and a half hours ahead of UK time in summer and five and a half in winter. Lessons are set in UK time.

After school

For diploma students in term time.

Weekend morning

Longer sessions on harder topics.

Holidays

Consolidation between years one and two.

Syllabus maths

Taught for understanding, at SL or HL.

Our own problems

Investigation practice on questions that are nobody's coursework.

No document contact

We do not open, read or comment on any exploration.

Group or 1-on-1

A batch of 15 to 20 at one level, or a teacher for one student.

Sources taught

What acknowledgement means, in general.

Teacher first

IA questions are sent back to the IB teacher, every time.

Student work

Built by our students

Projects made in our classes, none of them assessed coursework. More on student labs.

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A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

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Fees

Fees for IB maths lessons

A monthly fee in the currency we use for UK families, for maths teaching only. The first lesson is free, and nothing in any plan includes IA work.

Free first class

USD 0

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A frank view of what is secure
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Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

15 to 20 students at one level
The same teacher across the year
Investigation practice on our problems
No coursework contact

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One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

One student, one teacher
Paced to the student's course
The same boundary on coursework

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IB Maths IA questions

What IB students and parents ask about the IA

What is the IB Maths IA?

It is the internal assessment in IB Diploma mathematics, which the IB's analysis and approaches guide says is called the exploration. It is the student's own piece of mathematical work, with all sources acknowledged.

Can a tutor help with my IB Maths IA?

Not with the work. The IB's academic integrity policy asks students to refuse non-permitted help in completing or editing assessed work, and names private tutors in that list. A tutor can teach the mathematics; guidance on the exploration comes from your IB teacher.

Will you check my IA draft?

No. We do not read, comment on, mark, edit or proofread any part of an exploration, at any stage. The policy says students should not receive multiple edits of a piece of work, and we will not be a source of them.

Can you give me IB Maths IA ideas?

No. The guide asks for the student's individual and original ideas. We share a general method for finding your own question and practise investigation on problems that are no one's coursework.

How much class time is there for the IA?

The analysis and approaches guide expects 30 hours for inquiry, modelling and investigation skills, including up to 15 hours for work on the internal assessment, at both SL and HL.

What are the IB Maths IA criteria?

Your teacher has them in the current subject guide. The IB website was closed to our reader, so we do not print criteria or marks we could not check. Use the IB's own wording.

Is the IA different for AA and AI?

Both courses have an exploration. The guide describes analysis and approaches as built around constructing mathematical arguments and applications and interpretation around describing the world and practical problems, which often shapes the mathematics students use.

What happens if work is not the student's own?

The IB treats it as academic misconduct, and its policy says plagiarism is the most common form. It also lists allowing work produced by tutors or parents as a school infringement. Ask your IB coordinator about the current policy.

What do your IB maths lessons cover, then?

The syllabus mathematics at SL or HL, and practice in investigating on our own problems. If a question about the exploration comes up, we send it to the student's IB teacher.

When are lessons?

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays. All times are in UK time.

Related pages

More for IB and sixth-form students

The wider course, computing, and the A level comparison.

IB maths tuition

The two courses and both levels.

IB computer science tuition

For students taking both subjects.

A level maths tuition

The other main UK route at 16.

A level computer science coursework

Another assessed project with a clear help boundary.

Maths olympiad training

Proof and problems beyond the syllabus.

Coding classes in the UK

Our hub for every UK page.

Related pages in this guide

Part of the guide: UK maths exam boards and specification codes

International Baccalaureate

GCSE maths

International GCSE and Cambridge International

A level maths and further maths

Scotland

More guides: UK maths year by year, Reception to Year 11 · UK selective school maths tests: 7+, 11+, 13+ and 16+ · UK university admissions: maths tests and computing applications · UK maths enrichment, competitions and able pupils

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Book a free IB maths lesson

Tell us your subject, level and what you are studying now. The free lesson is on the syllabus mathematics, never on the exploration.

Reading first? The IB maths course page lists every topic, and how we teach explains our method.

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Three courses that teach the maths, not the IA

IB Maths AA and AI

Statistics and probability

Competition mathematics

What is the IB Maths exploration?

What we could not read

Why that matters less than it seems

Can a tutor help with the IB Maths IA?

Plagiarism is the common case

A newer version exists

What do we do, and what do we never do?

Why teaching the maths still helps

Where other help belongs

How do I find my own IB maths IA topic?

A classroom example (ours)

Make a conjecture

Then prove it

Does the IA differ between AA and AI?

Analysis and approaches

Applications and interpretation

When to learn which maths

If the exploration is due soon

After the diploma

Mathematics courses for IB Diploma students

The diploma

IB Maths AA and AI

Statistics and probability

IB Computer Science

Reasoning

Competition maths

Further maths

Beyond school

University-level maths

Maths for data science

Maths lessons with a clear boundary

Syllabus maths

Our own problems

No document contact

Group or 1-on-1

Sources taught

Teacher first

Built by our students

NutriLife

Misti

GuardianX

SkyCast

Fees for IB maths lessons

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

What IB students and parents ask about the IA

What is the IB Maths IA?

Can a tutor help with my IB Maths IA?

Will you check my IA draft?

Can you give me IB Maths IA ideas?

How much class time is there for the IA?

What are the IB Maths IA criteria?

Is the IA different for AA and AI?

What happens if work is not the student's own?

What do your IB maths lessons cover, then?

When are lessons?

More for IB and sixth-form students

IB maths tuition

IB computer science tuition

A level maths tuition

A level computer science coursework

Maths olympiad training

Coding classes in the UK

Related pages in this guide

International Baccalaureate

GCSE maths

International GCSE and Cambridge International

A level maths and further maths

Scotland

Book a free IB maths lesson

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

More maths tuition

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