IB Mathematics Exam Tips (Applications and Interpretation)

Short-answer questions will often come from just one of the topics above while long-answer questions will often combine different topics.

When thinking about the five topics above, the first consideration you need to keep in mind is your passion and interest for each topic. For example, some AI students are highly visual learners and love working in 2D and 3D space, so will be naturally drawn to the Geometry & Trigonometry topic; others enjoy the numerical connections between different real-life knowledge areas (such as biology, psychology, business, etc.) and so they are more at ease when dealing with the Statistics & Probability topic. Regardless of your personal preference, your connection with a topic will highly influence your performance.

In addition to your personal preference, you should keep track of your in-class performance in each topic in order to identify your strongest topics as well as the topics you struggle more with. Once you have a clearer idea of what you enjoy and are best at, you will be able to plan an effective exam strategy. There are various strategies you may take, but the best time-saving, confidence-building strategy during the high-pressure exam time is to mark the questions you are most confident and comfortable with and tackle those first, while leaving the most difficult and scary questions last.

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