01 Apr IB ESS IA Workflow: Plan Your SL or HL Investigation
Updated for IB ESS SL and HL, first assessment 2026. A useful ESS IA workflow turns a large investigation into tasks you can check and complete. Start with the current requirements, then plan around your school’s deadlines and the evidence your question needs.
Know the current assessment requirements
The individual investigation is assessed out of 30 marks, with a report of no more than 3,000 words. It contributes 25% at SL and 20% at HL. The written exams contribute the remaining 75% at SL and 80% at HL. Ordinary fieldwork and laboratory reports help develop skills; they are not a separate third component of the final IB assessment.
| IA criterion | Maximum marks |
|---|---|
| A: Research question and inquiry | 4 |
| B: Strategy | 4 |
| C: Method | 4 |
| D: Treatment of data | 6 |
| E: Analysis and conclusion | 6 |
| F: Evaluation | 6 |
Use these six criteria for both SL and HL. The strategy discussion concerns an environmental issue central to your investigation: explain tensions between perspectives and how they affect environmental or societal outcomes. It is not simply a plan for collecting data.
Plan backwards from your school deadline
Record the dates for approving the question, checking the method, gathering evidence, discussing a draft with your teacher and submitting the final report. Leave time for practical problems and revisions. The gaps between milestones should fit your investigation; there is no universal three-week spacing rule.
Keep a task list with three columns: the next action, what you need to complete it, and the deadline. “Prepare a labelled graph from the raw data” is more useful than “work on IA”. Save dated versions of your report and retain the original data.
A practical ESS IA workflow
- Choose a focused question. Check its environmental relevance and whether you can obtain suitable evidence within the available time.
- Read the background. Keep source details as you go. Separate established information from what your investigation will test.
- Check the method. Explain sampling or data selection, measurements and any relevant controls. Discuss safety, ethics and environmental impacts with your teacher before starting.
- Gather and record evidence. Preserve raw records, units and relevant uncertainty information. Choose the amount of data and replication to suit the question; five trials is not an IB requirement for every investigation.
- Process and interpret. Use graphs, calculations or statistical tests that fit the evidence. A statistical test is useful only when its assumptions and purpose are appropriate.
- Connect the conclusion to the question. Explain what the results support and what they cannot establish. Distinguish an association from evidence of causation.
- Evaluate and revise. Explain how specific limitations affect the findings and suggest improvements that address those limitations.
Review before submission
Read your report alongside the current rubric. Check that figure labels, units and citations are consistent, that calculations can be followed and that the final file opens correctly. Use the current ESS IA word-limit guidance and your school’s instructions when checking the count.
Your work must remain your own. Follow your teacher’s instructions about draft feedback and permitted collaboration. A similarity score alone does not establish originality: acknowledge sources and do not copy another investigation’s text or results.
Get support with the skills you need
Read the ESS IA structure guide for help organizing the report. In Marija’s individual online ESS SL and HL lessons, you can practise concepts, data interpretation and clear explanations while keeping responsibility for your own IA. Request a free 20-minute trial lesson to discuss where support would help.
Official references: IB ESS guide and IB course updates. Updated 7 October 2026.
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