{"id":15653,"date":"2026-02-05T12:35:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T03:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/?p=15653"},"modified":"2026-02-06T01:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:34:25","slug":"an-unforeseen-curveball-in-the-new-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2026\/02\/05\/an-unforeseen-curveball-in-the-new-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"An unforeseen curveball in the new curriculum?<\/br>IB Psychology<\/font>"},"content":{"rendered":"

In writing exam overviews and essay guides, I’ve stumbled across an unforeseen curveball we’re all going to face in this new curriculum.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the old curriculum, students had\u00a0two\u00a0<\/strong>styles of questions in Paper 1 and 2:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. SAQs<\/li>\n
  2. Essays.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It was simple. It wasn’t easy, but it was simple. That meant two rubrics, two types of questions, two styles of answer they needed to practice. With enough repetition and some simple scaffolds, over two years most students could understand the assessments. They could display their full range of talents as psychologists and put their best foot forward in the exams.<\/p>\n

    Now let’s compare the new syllabus. Those same two exams now have eight\u00a0<\/strong>different types of questions:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. SAQs (P1A)<\/li>\n
    2. ASAQs (P1B)<\/li>\n
    3. Essay (P1C)<\/li>\n
    4. Practical 1: Methods (P2A1)<\/li>\n
    5. Practical 2: Concept (P2A2)<\/li>\n
    6. Practical 3: Compare and contrast (P2A3)<\/li>\n
    7. Practical 4: Alternative study (P2A4)<\/li>\n
    8. Unseen study w\/ concepts (P2B)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The intent behind the new questions was clear – let’s get beyond memorisation and into deeper application and conceptual understanding. Noble aim. This does cause new challenges, though. Now we have more content plus<\/em> a lot\u00a0<\/em>more question types. Unfortunately, I fear this will have the opposite of the desired effect – students will be so consumed with content that they don’t have the time or cognitive capacity left to reach those deeper levels of understanding.<\/p>\n

      We need to remember – abstract thinking is based on concrete knowledge. You cannot advance to the former without the latter. Good teachers don’t focus on content at the expense\u00a0<\/em>of critical thinking – we do it to develop<\/em>\u00a0critical thinking.\u00a0Ironically, the new assessments will be so challenging for many students that I’ve adopted the mindset of “teaching past the exams.”<\/strong> That means preparing students for the exams but also inspiring a love of psychology. Whether they study it at university or not, I want them to observe, question and hypothesise. I want them to think like psychologists.\u00a0 To be interested in fascinating topics that have real world applications like personal relationships, persuasion, aggression, depression and parenting. This is more important than ever because of the real risk these complex assessments will put our students off psychology.<\/p>\n

      You cannot think critically or conceptually about something you know nothing about. The best IB Psychology course (and curriculum), therefore, will be one that strikes the right balance between depth of content and challenging critical thought.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      There’s a common mentality among IB administrators and teachers – wouldn’t it be nice if we could just focus on teaching psychology and less on the exams? I couldn’t agree more. But like it or not the exams are the product the IB is selling. Moreover, good teaching is\u00a0<\/em>teaching to the test (read why here<\/a>). Curriculum writing 101 means our intended learning outcomes and are assessment outcomes are aligned. The big curveball here is now we’ve added this new layer of\u00a0 learning outcomes – how to write 8 different answers.<\/p>\n

      The point of this post isn’t to have another moan and grizzle for no purpose. I also like a few aspects of the new course and wouldn’t expect anyone to have seen this issue ahead of time (kudos if you did – Valentin I’m sure you did!) I’m writing it raise it as an issue to be considered in the next\u00a0<\/em>curriculum. I probably don’t drink enough IB Kool-Aid to be offered a seat at the next curriculum table, so I’m writing this in the hopes that someone who is (and does) will have this idea in their back of their minds.<\/p>\n

      Some solutions…kind of<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      There’s another saying I love – “Complaining about a problem without posing a solution\u00a0is called whining<\/em>.” So what is the solution to this problem: Here are a few ideas:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Start with the SAQs: Explaining psychological topics and finding support examples (the core of SAQs) is a fundamental skill for a psychologist, but one our students haven’t practiced before. I wouldn’t rush into doing A-SAQs or essays or Paper 2 until they’ve had plenty of practice at these<\/li>\n
      2. Take-home answers:\u00a0<\/strong>Experts need critiques whereas novices need praise – removing the pressure of the IB timeframes and allowing students time at home or in class to work on essays can help build their confidence. It will also give us plenty of opportunities to praise their good work. Worried about ChatGPT? Have students recreate their essay plans using exam.net or have open-book tests in class.<\/li>\n
      3. Teach all the practicals in one unit.<\/strong> In writing my course, I first tried to do them after each context. I soon found it was confusing, convoluted and repetitive. Lumping them together will streamline Paper 2 Section A exam practice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \"\"<\/a>

        If you like the sound of teaching\u00a0past\u00a0<\/em>the exams and a course that tries to balance content with conceptual thinking, you might want to download the first two chapters of my textbook.\u00a0<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        In writing exam overviews and essay guides, I’ve stumbled across an unforeseen curveball we’re all going to face in this new curriculum.\u00a0 In the old curriculum, students had\u00a0two\u00a0styles of questions in Paper 1 and 2: SAQs Essays. It was simple. It wasn’t easy, but it was simple. That meant two rubrics, two types of questions, two styles of answer they … <\/p>\n

        Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assessment-ib","category-curriculum"],"yoast_head":"\nAn unforeseen curveball in the new curriculum? | The IB Psychology Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2026\/02\/05\/an-unforeseen-curveball-in-the-new-curriculum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An unforeseen curveball in the new curriculum? | The IB Psychology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In writing exam overviews and essay guides, I’ve stumbled across an unforeseen curveball we’re all going to face in this new curriculum.\u00a0 In the old curriculum, students had\u00a0two\u00a0styles of questions in Paper 1 and 2: SAQs Essays. 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examiner","url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/author\/tdixon\/"}]}},"yoast":{"focuskw":"","title":"","metadesc":"","linkdex":"","metakeywords":"","meta-robots-noindex":"","meta-robots-nofollow":"","meta-robots-adv":"","canonical":"","redirect":"","opengraph-title":"","opengraph-description":"","opengraph-image":"","twitter-title":"","twitter-description":"","twitter-image":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/301b076e-5081-435d-a916-4c2e856b834a.png?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3813,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/07\/28\/travis-ib-psychology-course-outline-new-syllabus\/","url_meta":{"origin":15653,"position":0},"title":"Travis’ IB Psychology Course Outline – Old Syllabus","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"07\/28\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"You can see more outlines on these two posts: IB Psychology HL in <180 Hours IB Psychology SL in <125 Hours Download my course outline here. You can also find other teachers' outlines that have been posted on our facebook group for teachers. Feel free \u00a0to post any questions about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curriculum"","block_context":{"text":"Curriculum","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/curriculum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/07\/bigstock-hour-glass-on-calendar-concept-149892269.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/07\/bigstock-hour-glass-on-calendar-concept-149892269.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/07\/bigstock-hour-glass-on-calendar-concept-149892269.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/07\/bigstock-hour-glass-on-calendar-concept-149892269.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1315,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2016\/10\/24\/past-exam-papers\/","url_meta":{"origin":15653,"position":1},"title":"IB Psychology Past Exam Papers","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"10\/24\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Updated, July 2020 Past Psych specimen papers are available on the IB OCC website. If you're a student, your teacher will be able to access these. You can also purchase these from the IB Online Store.\u00a0 See examples of Past Paper One questions in this video See examples of Past\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessment (IB)"","block_context":{"text":"Assessment (IB)","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/assessment-ib\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/09\/bigstock-125246900.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/09\/bigstock-125246900.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/09\/bigstock-125246900.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/09\/bigstock-125246900.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15478,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2026\/01\/16\/strugglingtokeepupnewcurriculum\/","url_meta":{"origin":15653,"position":2},"title":"Teaching Tip: Why you’re struggling to keep up with the new curriculum","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"01\/16\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you feel like you're just skimming over the surface of the content in the new IB Psych curriculum without enough time for each topic? In this post I'll explain why it feels this way and provide some (hopefully) helpful tips.\u00a0 If you're new to IB Psych, this feeling of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/25dd8167-a743-4d09-8488-916b63b393be.png?fit=628%2C942&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/25dd8167-a743-4d09-8488-916b63b393be.png?fit=628%2C942&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/01\/25dd8167-a743-4d09-8488-916b63b393be.png?fit=628%2C942&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15095,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2025\/03\/23\/traviss-ib-psychology-course-outline-for-first-exams-may-2027\/","url_meta":{"origin":15653,"position":3},"title":"Sample IB Psychology Course Outline (for first exams May 2027)","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"03\/23\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a sample course outline that shows how you can cover everything in a logical order. The units are from this textbook.\u00a0 Sample IB Psychology Course Outline - HL Only This is a Two Year HL course mapped onto a Northern hemisphere timetable (from St Maur, Japan's schedule).\u00a0 YEAR\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curriculum"","block_context":{"text":"Curriculum","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/curriculum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/bigstock-School-Planner-On-Board-Doodl-389277781.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/bigstock-School-Planner-On-Board-Doodl-389277781.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/bigstock-School-Planner-On-Board-Doodl-389277781.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/bigstock-School-Planner-On-Board-Doodl-389277781.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2042,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/02\/18\/short-answer-responese-writing-guide\/","url_meta":{"origin":15653,"position":4},"title":"SAQ Writing Guide","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"02\/18\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Updated Jan 25th, 2021 I've spent over ten years trying to devise good advice for students about how to write exam answers. You'll see below an original post I wrote a few years ago (in 2017) with an attached \"SAQ Writing Guide\" as a word.doc that I thought would revolutionize\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessment (IB)"","block_context":{"text":"Assessment (IB)","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/assessment-ib\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/bigstock-Yellow-Legal-Notepad-Paper-Wit-354945641.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/bigstock-Yellow-Legal-Notepad-Paper-Wit-354945641.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/bigstock-Yellow-Legal-Notepad-Paper-Wit-354945641.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/bigstock-Yellow-Legal-Notepad-Paper-Wit-354945641.jpg?fit=900%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15065,"url":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2025\/02\/27\/seriously\/","url_meta":{"origin":15653,"position":5},"title":"Seriously?","author":"Travis Dixon","date":"02\/27\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In the new IB Psych curriculum we've been given 45 hours to teach \"data analysis and interpretation.\" No thanks. I'll have a hard enough time staying awake in that let alone my students. Here's a workaround that will give you 20 extra hours in your course.\u00a0 IB Psychology curriculums are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curriculum"","block_context":{"text":"Curriculum","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/category\/curriculum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/bigstock-Education-activities-in-classr-22210562.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/bigstock-Education-activities-in-classr-22210562.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/bigstock-Education-activities-in-classr-22210562.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/bigstock-Education-activities-in-classr-22210562.jpg?fit=900%2C599&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15653"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15677,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653\/revisions\/15677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}