What Are Common Mistakes in MYP Physics Assessments?

The most common mistakes are: describing instead of explaining in Criterion A, weak hypotheses lacking scientific reasoning in Criterion B, missing uncertainty or units in Criterion C, and generic real-world links in Criterion D. Most of these are fixable with better command-term awareness, not more physics content.

Dropping units mid-calculation and reporting more significant figures than the data supports. A measurement taken to 0.1 cm can't produce an answer to four decimal places — that's a Criterion C penalty every time, even when the physics reasoning is correct.

'Explain', 'evaluate' and 'discuss' are the three most misread. Students often 'describe' when asked to 'explain', losing marks for stopping at what happened instead of why it happened using physics reasoning — the cause-and-effect link examiners are actually looking for.

Most lost marks come from a hypothesis that isn't scientifically justified — students predict an outcome without explaining the physics behind it. A strong hypothesis names the variables, states the expected relationship, and ties it to a real physics principle, not just a guess.

Structure it around the criteria, not a generic lab template. According to IB guidance in the MYP Sciences guide, investigations should show a clear research question, a justified hypothesis, controlled variables, sufficient repeated trials, and a conclusion that ties data back to the original question.

Students process data but forget to evaluate it. Criterion C needs both — a correctly labelled graph or table, and a discussion of trends, anomalies, and how reliable the method actually was. Skipping the evaluation half is the single most common gap I mark.

The mistake is writing a generic paragraph about physics 'helping society' instead of linking the specific concept tested to a real, named application. Criterion D rewards specificity — a real technology, a real environmental or ethical trade-off, tied directly to the physics in your investigation.

Go back to your last two assessed tasks and mark them yourself against the actual criterion strands — most drops happen in one specific strand, repeated. Fixing that one habit (usually reasoning depth or data evaluation) moves a grade faster than covering new content.

Not inherently harder — but it demands more comfort with maths and formulas earlier than Biology, and slightly more abstract reasoning than Chemistry at MYP 4-5 level. Most students who struggle in Physics are actually struggling with algebra manipulation, not physics concepts themselves.

The most useful thing a parent can do is sit with the marked criterion feedback, not just the grade, and ask your child to explain what each strand actually wanted. Grades in MYP are criterion-based, so the feedback tells you precisely what to fix next time.