Basic information

The external assessment is made up of three separate examination papers. These make up 80% of the final mark upon which the student’s IB chemistry grade is based. The remaining 20% comes from the internally assessed (but then moderated) individual scientific investigation. The final examinations are taken in the three week IB examination period during May (or November). The exact date, which varies from year to year, can be ascertained from the IB Examination Timetable. There are actually two separate sets of chemistry examination papers written in English (but not in Spanish or French) in May. Time Zone 2 (TZ2) is essentially taken by students in Asia and Europe and Time Zone 1 (TZ1) is taken by students in the Americas. This is an attempt by the IB to combat problems due to students who have sat the examination being able to communicate the questions to students taking the examination later in a different time zone. TZ1 and TZ2 are completely different papers which means there are a large number of questions from past papers available to you as a teacher when it comes to setting mock examinations and revision (UK) or review (US) questions in future years. This is particularly the case at the moment as the first examinations for the current programme were in 2016 and the programme has been extended so the last exams will be in 2024.

The precise details about each of the three papers are given on the relevant pages but essentially Paper 1 and Paper 2 examine the core (and AHL material at HL) and Paper 3 has a data-based question and other short-answer questions on experimental work in the core (and/or AHL in the HL paper) followed by questions on the Options. Paper 1 consists only of Multiple Choice questions and no calculator or data booklet is allowed.  A calculator is required and the IB Chemistry data booklet is provided for Papers 2 and 3. Paper 2 comprises of  short-answer questions and more extended response questions. All the questions in Paper 2 should be attempted. Once the Option has been selected all the questions in Section A and on that one option must be attempted in Paper 3. All three papers test  50% Objectives  1 and 2 and 50% Objectives 3. Nature of Science questions may be found on all three papers.

Note that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Paper 3 has been removed for both the May  and November 2022 sessions. Currently it is scheduled to return for the May 2023 session with Paper 1 and 2 on Thursday 11 May and Paper 3 on Friday 12 May. The arrangements for the November 2022 session have been announced by the IB and the exams are currently scheduled to go ahead for both Paper 1 and Paper 2 in Chemistry in the morning session on Wednesday 9 November with no Paper 3 examination.