IB mathematics is a two-year commitment, and it asks for something most other courses don’t: an independent piece of mathematical writing that counts towards the final grade. That, more than the exam content, is what makes it its own subject, and it’s where a good deal of the support I offer IB students goes.

Which course, and which level

Often the first useful conversation is simply working out where a student sits. IB splits maths two ways:

Analysis and Approaches (AA) leans on algebra, calculus, and proof (the more traditional, pure-maths route, and the usual choice for students heading towards maths-heavy degrees).
Applications and Interpretation (AI) leans on modelling, statistics, and the use of technology, which is better suited to those whose path runs through the social sciences, design, or the life sciences.

Each comes at Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL), and HL is a genuine step up in pace and depth, not just a few extra topics. If a family isn’t sure they’re on the right combination, or a student took HL and is now underwater, that’s worth sorting out early, because it shapes everything that follows.

The Internal Assessment

Every IB maths student writes an Exploration: an independent piece of mathematics, usually 12 to 20 pages, worth a fifth of the final grade. It’s unlike anything else in the course. There are no set questions, the student picks a topic, develops the mathematics, and writes it up. That can be scary for some students. Luckily, most of the difficulty is hidden at the start:

choosing a topic that’s personal enough to be genuine but substantial enough to have real mathematics in it;
pitching the level so the mathematics suits their course that is neither trivial nor lifted wholesale from a textbook they don’t actually follow;
writing mathematics properly, i.e., notation, and explaining each step so a reader can follow the argument.

This is where I focus. I help a student find and shape a workable topic, get the mathematics correct and appropriately ambitious, and set it out so it reads clearly. What I don’t do is coach the write-up against IB’s marking criteria box by box. The personal-engagement and reflection side of the rubric is the examiner’s territory, not mine. My part is making sure the mathematics underneath is right and clearly expressed, which is the hardest part to fake and the easiest to get wrong.

Exam preparation

Alongside the IA, the usual work: past papers, the divide between the calculator and no-calculator papers, HL’s Paper 3, and getting comfortable with the formula booklet and IB’s command terms so that the wording of a question doesn’t quietly cost marks. Much of this looks like exam support on any upper-secondary course. The IB-specific part is knowing the shape of the papers and preparing for it deliberately.

As with everything I teach, we work from the student’s own material rather than a syllabus of my own. With IB that matters more than usual, because the Exploration is personal by design. The good ones grow out of something the student genuinely cares about, and my job is to help turn that into mathematics that holds up.