Scoring the highest grade in IB Maths is not a walk in the park. Overall, only 8% of students get a 7 in IB Maths, and whether you’re among them depends on you.
To be fair, passing your IB Maths course with flying colours isn’t about luck. It is about hard work, skills, and a clear idea of what to do in the final IB exams. While it’s on you to find a motivation for keeping your nose to the grindstone, we are happy to give you tips on what you need to do to increase your chance of success.
Without further ado, let us introduce five tips for scoring the maximum on your IB Maths exam.
Get a Study Routine, and Stick To It
Laying out a plan for your preparation for the International Baccalaureate Maths is half a battle. The other half is sticking to it. Start studying hard from the start, so you which topics your Maths exam will cover. Do not complete a topic and move on until you are sure you really get it.
When it comes to exam preparation start your plan by going over each topic in the syllabus. Designate enough time to learn, repeat, and practice every one of them. Naturally, there might be topics you struggle with. It’s important to identify those to give yourself more time to really make sure you understand them.
Once your plan is done, adhere to it! No matter how tempting it is to give yourself an extra day off from learning, or skip topics you think you know well enough, you should stick to your course of action. Slacking can take away points from the sought-after 7.
Find Your Weak Points
Knowing your weaknesses and strengths is important to narrow down the list of things you should focus on. You don’t have much time on your hands and you cannot spread it thinly across every single thing. The best approach here is to be clear on your weaknesses and work toward minimising them.
Analysing your grades from your mock IB Maths exams, or practice papers will give you an idea of the areas where you are weakest. At the same time, you can use additional questions taken from past exam papers to keep testing yourself and figure out gaps in your knowledge. Are there any questions you don’t know at all? Or skills that you are applying too slowly?
One more effective approach to identifying your strong suits and weak points is enlisting professional help. A Maths tutor can quickly point out the issues that keep you from getting a top score in IB Maths. As well as come up with a solid plan for filling those gaps and obtaining the maximum grade.
You can also use the subject guides to make sure you are covering all aspects of the course. Here is the subject brief for Analysis and Approaches. Here it is for Applications and Interpretation.
Understand the Essentials
Understanding Maths is more than learning formulas by heart (although this is also vital). However, if you make sure you learn the essential Mathematical concepts, your learning process will go off without a hitch. In a sense, the concept is the thread that holds individual pieces of information together as well as prevents losing or forgetting them.
Learning formulas will only get you so far, but that’s not enough to guarantee you to get a 7 in IB Maths. The trick is that your exam may (and most certainly will) feature questions you are not entirely familiar with. One of the main reasons why an average score in IB math is only 4.5 is that students struggle to complete tasks when they are different from what they are used to. However, those who managed to wrap their head around essentials are more prepared for unexpected things.
How to ensure that you know your way around all those important Maths topics? Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher to explain the things you don’t quite understand. Plus, it’s worth exploring the internet to try and find materials that present Maths from a different perspective. Finally, taking on a tutor is a nice way to cater to your needs and wants, especially if you want one-to-one help.
Practice with Past Papers
They say that practice makes perfect. When it comes to IB Maths, it is as true as it gets. You need to understand the material, but without putting it to use in a variety of contexts you won’t go far.
The best way to ensure this much-needed practice is to use past papers. A quick search on the Internet should give you a few helpful resources, like this one. As we have already said, IB Maths exams tend to feature questions that you haven’t come across before. Past papers can give you an idea of such questions (their format and content alike). When you know what to expect, nothing can catch you off guard.
On the other hand, practicing with past papers can significantly improve your solving time. Using past papers and marking the time you need to answer questions can help highlight the areas where you’re lagging behind. You can even give yourself a mock exam to see how you’re faring.
Make sure to allocate at least one-third of your study routine to practice past papers.
Organise Your Own Study Group
Working with a group of friends is less tedious and is definitely more fun. On top of that, it is an excellent opportunity for sharing experience and knowledge. A fellow Maths student can provide their own perspective on the things you find hard to comprehend. Of course, you can always ask your teacher about areas where you are all getting stuck, but asking your friend is less intimidating and more accessible.
Doing mock exams in your study group is also more beneficial than doing them on your own. After taking the exam, you can discuss what was wrong and what was right, whose approach was most efficient, etc.
Lastly, a healthy portion of friendly competition can give you the motivation to outperform yourself.
Final Thoughts on How to get a 7 in IB Maths
7 points in IB Maths is not a pie-in-the-sky dream. Yes, it is hard to achieve but not at all impossible. Everything depends on you and how hard you’re willing to work toward your goal.
There are a few ways to meet your challenge head-on. You can be a lone wolf and work for the exam on your own. Or you can join forces with your peers who, just like you, want to work out how to get a 7 in IB Maths. You can also be more persistent with asking questions in the classroom. After all, it is your teacher’s job to make things clear.
The truth is that all of these approaches work when it comes to how to get a 7 in IB Maths, but they come with limitations. The most serious one is lack of time. Luckily, there is one more path worth trying. An experienced tutor can ensure an individual approach that is tailored to your needs.
A tutor is highly experienced with the types of questions you can get on your IB Maths exam, so you won’t have to scout the internet for past papers or buy questionbanks.
Want to try IB Maths tuition out? Then go ahead and contact TutorsPlus at 022 731 8148 or info@tutorsplus.com. You are only one step away from securing the top mark in IB Maths, don’t hesitate to take it!
