How to Answer Paper 2, Question 1Describing the Class Practical

There’s no excuse not to get top marks for this first question in Paper 2 – you know exactly what to expect. In this post, I explain the acronym that might help you write top-level answers for Question 1 in Paper 2. 

Paper 2 assesses your knowledge of research methods. You will write about one of your class practicals:

• Experiment
• Observation
• Questionnaire
• Interview

The first question in Paper 2 will follow this template:

• P2 Q1: Describe how a (insert one of four research methods) was used in your class practical and its aim and procedure. [4]

After an analysis of the IB’s example answers and my own attempts to write top-scoring ones, I came up with this acronym….

RAM-PAC

The most important aspect in your answer is the use of key terms. I suggest aiming for five. These should all be relevant to the specific research method you used in your experiment. Once you know your terminology, you could use the following RAM-PAC template to plan and write an answer.

• R – Research Question: What were you trying to find out in your study?
• A – Aim: You can state the aim as a statement or a research question. I’ve included both because I find it easier to start these answers with the question and I like to include the aim since that’s what the question is asking.
• M – The Method: State the specific method used. For example, what type of interview, observation or questionnaire? Most importantly explain why you used that specific method.
• P – Procedures: How was the data gathered? What materials were used, what steps were taken to gather valid data, etc. Be specific. It doesn’t hurt to explain choices made in this process, either.
• A – Analysis: Describe the steps taken to analyse the data. This gives you the chance to show more knowledge of method-specific terminology.
• C – Conclusion: A simple one sentence conclusion that summarises what you found out. Like the analysis, this isn’t explicitly stated but it won’t hurt your answers, either.

Not too sure about this? The best way to find out is to write one yourself. Use one of these four questions to practice:

• Describe how an experiment was used in your class practical and its aim and procedure.
• Describe how an observation was used in your class practical and its aim and procedure.
• Describe how an interview was used in your class practical and its aim and procedure.
• Describe how a questionnaire/survey was used in your class practical and its aim and procedure.

There’s no excuse not to get top marks for this first question in Paper 2 – you know exactly what to expect.

How do I know this?

For fun I did an analysis of the IB’s marked example answers on MyIB. There are three sample answers. Two of these scored 2/4 and one scored 3/4. Unfortunately, there was none provided that scored 4/4.

As I expected the difference was in the use of key terms – the best answer used 3 key terms relevant to interviews (e.g. interview checklist and themes). I also tried to write my own answer and found it a bit flat. I couldn’t figure out what it was missing, though. So I gave it to ChatGPT to mark. It also gave me a 3/4. It suggested I add some more explanation. So I did and my answer improved.

In my next post, I’ll write four example answers for each research method and we’ll put it to the test.