Guide to the new IA

For the new IB Diploma Computer Science syllabus to start teaching in August 2025, and for first examinations in May 2027.

The guide to the IA that I wrote for the previous syllabus was a very popular download. I want to thank all the teachers and students who sent me messages over the years for the encouragement. It’s clear that there was a need for such a thorough guide and many people found it very helpful.

With the support of my co-authors, I have developed a new, updated guide for the new Internal Assessment, which has been added as a chapter to the Hachette book, “Computer Science for the IB Diploma”.

The new IA guide contains a 40 page chapter for the Internal Assessment. For each of the 5 criteria, it includes:

• IB assessment criteria statements
• Top tips
• Common mistakes
• Exemplar samples from real student IA’s, re-worked for the new syllabus (separate to the IB authored samples)
• Detailed checklists

Those who found my guide to the IA for the previous syllabus useful, should find the chapter in the Hachette textbook very helpful for navigating the new IA.