As an IB educator, I felt that a blog on this topic is very significant for all my IB candidates who are appearing for the DP exam in the upcoming May and Nov 2021 exam series. I will help you swim through the overall content of DP ESS Paper 1 and how to handle the paper. The highlights will be on the overview of Paper 1, how to handle an unseen case study with the help of the resource booklet, the type of questions and the ways to handle, the common mistakes you are prone to make, and how to improve your score in aiming for a 7.
Contents
Resource booklet to solve Paper 1 case study. 1
How to use the resource booklet in DP ESS Paper 1?
How to space out the time in answer questions?.
Data interpretation questions in Paper 1 ESS.
The common mistakes you are prone to commit
Recommendations to improve your grades.
Topics of case studies and examples.
Overview
It is a 1-hour paper with a total of 35 marks, which contribute to 25% worth of your grade. It has an unseen case study to solve based on your resource booklet for both HL and SL.
Resource booklet to solve Paper 1 case study
The resource booklet contains significant information on the biologically significant area or country. The data set is displayed in the form of mathematical graphs, geographical maps, fact files, system diagrams, and relevant pictorial depictions.
The resource booklet has concepts based on ecosystem, biomes, ecological pyramid, human population, carrying capacity, resource use, Human Development Index (HDI), demographic transition models and so on.
How to use the resource booklet in DP ESS Paper 1?
1 mark questions can be rightly answered by using the facts and figures in the data booklet.
2 mark questions require a bit of logic to be applied, where a synthesis is needed with the concepts learnt so far from the text book.
4 mark questions based on command term like ‘explain’ require a detailed answer with a referencing from the resource booklet and the knowledge gained throughout the coursework.
5-7 mark questions are based on higher band command terms like ‘analyse’, ‘evaluate’, and ‘examine’. You often get ‘to what extent’ type questions. Such questions are like mini essays. For answering these questions first, introduce the problem, interpret and evaluate the problem with claims and counter claims.
How to space out the time in answer questions?
5 minutes’ initial reading time –either skim through all the pages of the resource booklet or skim through the question paper and then refer to the resource booklet
10-15 minutes’ time to be dedicated in reading your booklet
Data interpretation questions in Paper 1 ESS
Label the axes correctly
Refer to the correct location and answer within the correct time frame in the correct units
For the command terms ‘state’, ‘describe’, quantify your answers with the resource elements
Note that the patterns are over place and trends are measured over time
For every response you write, aim to establish some connections with the concepts defined in the syllabus
Labelling in the correct units is a MUST
Your graph is to be precisely read with the help of a ruler
From the subject report of November 2016, it’s clearly evident that the overall performance in terms of the mean score was lower. Don’t you think it’s intriguing to explore the reasons for this discrepancy?
