Mock Exams

IB Math Mock Exams — Full Paper Practice Under Exam Conditions

Mock exams are the closest thing to exam preparation that actually replicates what exam day feels like. Not topic practice, not reviewing notes — sitting a full paper, timed, with only the formula booklet and a GDC, and then marking it honestly against the IB mark scheme. This is what separates students who have genuinely prepared from students who feel prepared.

Why Mock Exams Matter More Than Topic Practice

Students often feel more comfortable doing topic-by-topic practice because it feels productive — they can see themselves getting questions right. The problem is that IB exams do not come topic by topic. A Paper 2 question can combine functions, calculus, and statistics in a single question, and a student who has practised each topic separately often freezes when they see a question that crosses boundaries.

Full mock exams build three things that topic practice cannot:

  • Exam stamina — sitting a 90 or 120-minute maths paper is physically and mentally demanding. Students who have not practised this regularly run out of concentration in the final third of the paper and start making errors they would not normally make.
  • Time management — knowing when to move on from a difficult question and come back is a skill. Students who get stuck on one question and spend 15 minutes on it regularly run out of time for easier marks later in the paper.
  • Multi-topic fluency — recognising that a question is using integration to find an area between two curves that are modelled with functions from Topic 2 requires holding the whole course in your head at once. Mock exams are the only way to practise this.

Mock Exams by Course

IB Math AI HL Mock Exams

AI HL has three papers: Paper 1 (no calculator, 90 minutes), Paper 2 (GDC, 90 minutes), and Paper 3 (GDC data investigation, 60 minutes). Paper 3 is the paper most AI HL students are least prepared for — the scenario is entirely unfamiliar and you must apply statistics and modelling techniques to a dataset or situation you have never seen. The only preparation that works for Paper 3 is doing Paper 3s. I keep a full library of past AI HL Paper 3 investigations for use in mock sessions.

Use the AI HL question bank alongside mock exams to target specific topic gaps identified from your mock performance.

IB Math AA HL Mock Exams

AA HL also has three papers: Paper 1 (no calculator, 120 minutes), Paper 2 (GDC, 120 minutes), and Paper 3 (GDC, 60 minutes — unfamiliar pure mathematics). Paper 1 is typically where AA HL students lose the most marks — two hours with no calculator requires algebraic fluency and technique at a level that only comes from doing full Paper 1s repeatedly. Paper 3 presents a novel pure mathematics scenario; the strategies for approaching it are teachable but must be practised under exam conditions.

Use the AA HL question bank alongside mock exams for targeted drilling.

IB Math AA SL Mock Exams

AA SL has two papers: Paper 1 (no calculator, 90 minutes) and Paper 2 (GDC, 90 minutes). The mock exam focus for AA SL students is typically integration on Paper 1, mixed functions and calculus questions that combine multiple topics, and probability on Paper 2. Use the AA SL question bank for topic practice between mock sessions.

IB Math AI SL Mock Exams

AI SL has two papers, both with a GDC. The mock exam focus for AI SL students is typically hypothesis testing interpretation, financial mathematics calculations, and trigonometry. Use the AI SL question bank for targeted practice.

How to Run a Useful Mock Exam Session

A mock exam only improves your grade if you do it properly. These are the conditions I insist on when doing mock exams with students:

  1. Timed strictly. No extensions, no pausing. If you stop the clock when a question feels hard, you are not simulating exam conditions — you are simulating “optional practice” which does not build the right habits.
  2. With the official formula booklet only. No notes, no textbook, no extra formula sheets. The IB formula booklet is the only reference document you have in the exam — practise navigating it efficiently.
  3. Mark it honestly against the IB mark scheme. Do not give yourself half a mark because you “had the right idea.” Mark it the way an IB examiner would. Then look at every question you lost marks on and understand why — not just what the right answer was, but which step earned which mark and why your version did not.
  4. Use the examiner report. After marking, check the examiner report for that paper session if one is available. IB examiner reports identify the most common errors students made on each question — reading these is one of the highest-value revision activities available.

Mock Exams With a Tutor — What That Looks Like

When I run mock exam sessions with students, I use past papers and mark them together. After the student completes the paper under timed conditions, we go through every question they lost marks on — not just the ones they got wrong, but also the ones where they got the right answer via a method that would not earn marks in the real exam (for example, using the answer to verify a “show that” question).

This mark-scheme analysis is where most of the exam preparation value comes from. It is not possible to get this from self-study unless you know the IB mark scheme intimately — which is exactly what seven years of tutoring provides.

Mock exam sessions are part of the Exam Booster and Full Prep packages. See the tutoring packages for what is included, or contact me to book a mock exam session →

Practice Resources

Between mock sessions, practise using: