Are IB math exams generally getting easier?

[scstdnt]

I have heard from people that IB Math exams are getting easier and easier than before. The syllabus includes less things than before, exam questions are easier, etc.

I have also noticed that more recent exam questions are easier. From textbooks, the questions from past papers of the early 1990s are so difficult!

Is this true or is what I've heard a bunch of crap?

[moneyfaery]

No. May 2009 exams were 'hard'.

[Vvi]

The change the syllabus for subjects every 7 years or so, to stop that from happening. There may also be another reason why people claim the exams are getting easier: maybe they have just done so many practice papers that they find the real exams easier because they are used to the style of questions.

And the difficulty of exams tends to vary from year to year; if lots of students found the exam easy one year, the next year the IB usually makes it harder. This also affects grade boundaries, because if everyone found the exams easy then it's harder to get a 7, and vice-versa.

[littleone]

I've heard that all the exams around the world in general were made easier because of recession, so that more people are encouraged to go to college (university fees, etc. etc.)

But that doesn't make much sense.

[__inthemaking]

I think they vary year to year. I wrote my maths exam in May 2007 and I had done all the 1998-2006 May and November papers to practice for the exam. There really was a varying level of difficulty, but in general I found the 1998-2000 exams harder (because the syllabus was very different then) and also the November exams were harder in general. The May 2006 exam was really really easy though and my May 2007 exam was alright but definitely more difficult than the May 2006 one.

[Mattias]

I don't think so...

they make the exams difficulty depending on the skill level the students demonstrated that year as a whole

i think

[Tilia]

From doing old language B tests, it definitely seems that they are getting easier, so it might be possible for it to happen with maths as well.

[Mahuta ♥]

I found MAY 2008 exams easier than MAY 2009.

May 2009 wasnt possible..to be done easily. So I dont see a trend.

I've heard that all the exams around the world in general were made easier because of recession, so that more people are encouraged to go to college (university fees, etc. etc.)

But that doesn't make much sense.

No offence but thats just a load of bull****. IB Exams are rarely easy, especially math, what the ****?

[foiegrass]

do you think if may exams are easy... november exams will be hard? and vice versa???

[1-2-3]

The general trend for the easiness of math exams is that there is no trend.

There is absolutely no way to tell whether the November 2009 exams will be easy or hard based on the 'hardness' of previous exams.

Just study hard and do all your homework. You'll be fine.

[Tilia]

But as the markschemes depend on the difficulty of the tests, hard tests shouldn't be a disadvantage.

[Mahuta ♥]

do you think if may exams are easy... november exams will be hard? and vice versa???

Haha, I thought so for awhile, because I found November 08 kind of easy compared to MAY 08, although both of them are WAAY easier than MAY09. However Like 1-2-3 said, I wouldnt even think about that, I personally expected MAY09 to be easy based on some trend i figured out but, unexpectedly, it came insanely harder than I thought.

[godofib]

Well, what i noticed when i was doing practice papers was that nov papers tend to be harder as compared to may papers. A possible reason is that people usually retake their exams in nov and hence they make ti harder. Also, generally, the trend from 2003 onwards was that IB SL math papers started to get progressively easier until may 2009 which was harder than than most of them. So, there is no clear trend, lol. Just work hard and i think u ll do well.

[moneyfaery]

do you think if may exams are easy... november exams will be hard? and vice versa???

Haha, I thought so for awhile, because I found November 08 kind of easy compared to MAY 08, although both of them are WAAY easier than MAY09. However Like 1-2-3 said, I wouldnt even think about that, I personally expected MAY09 to be easy based on some trend i figured out but, unexpectedly, it came insanely harder than I thought.

That was only for SL. N08 HL P3s were pretty disgusting. M09 P3s were a gift thoughhhhhh (at least S&DE).

[Sandwich]

I would just like to say that I consider this heresy! 8[

The M09 SL Maths paper was a LOT harder than the M08 one (I did do both under exam conditions). On the plus side, it also meant a severe dropping of the mark boundaries (or so I assume going from my mark and my maximum of 20/90 on paper 1!!!).

[~Lc~]

I think they vary year to year. I wrote my maths exam in May 2007 and I had done all the 1998-2006 May and November papers to practice for the exam. There really was a varying level of difficulty, but in general I found the 1998-2000 exams harder (because the syllabus was very different then) and also the November exams were harder in general. The May 2006 exam was really really easy though and my May 2007 exam was alright but definitely more difficult than the May 2006 one.

I agree, the Exam for May 06 was piss easy! I got it for my mocks and got 88/90 on paper on and like 76/90 on paper 2! and for may 07 which is when I took my exams (such an oldie now!) I got 70s in both papers, still a 7 but it was a tiny bit more difficult. that said math methods is piss.

These are just speculation started by students because they can speculate. we used to do the same with the IGCSE curriculums. There is no general trend with exams getting easier...

[idIB]

May 2009 exams were harder than May 2008 ones, but May 2006 ones were the easiest by far, so I guess its just random. If you are worried, you should just do a lot of practise problems and watch your time, and you'll do fine!

[Tilia]

It seems to vary much...

But are the distribution of different topics about the same? Or can there be 20 statistics questions one year and hardly any the next year?

[Sandwich]

From all the past papers I did, I'd say that a question comes up on more or less every topic. Some are almost guaranteed to be long questions. Like I think it very likely you'll have at least one long question involving differentiating and integrating, at least one with transformations of graphs and at least one with distributions (the normal and that sort of thing). You get asked a very wide variety of questions though, on every topic. So I don't think it's possible to leave much out - or spot a pattern! A few fringe things are less likely to always come up, I suppose, like the whole integrating to find the volume thing, and asymptotes, but generally I'd say distribution of questions is so even within papers that you'll probably not find much.

[Tilia]

From all the past papers I did, I'd say that a question comes up on more or less every topic. Some are almost guaranteed to be long questions. Like I think it very likely you'll have at least one long question involving differentiating and integrating, at least one with transformations of graphs and at least one with distributions (the normal and that sort of thing). You get asked a very wide variety of questions though, on every topic. So I don't think it's possible to leave much out - or spot a pattern! A few fringe things are less likely to always come up, I suppose, like the whole integrating to find the volume thing, and asymptotes, but generally I'd say distribution of questions is so even within papers that you'll probably not find much.

Nice. There is nothing as annoying when you spend ages learning something and it doesn't show up on the exam.

According to what I've seen on the test our teachers put together from old exams, the test-making people are very fond of the laws of logarithms. Or maybe it's just my teachers who like thsoe questions.