IB Question Bank With Mark Schemes: How to Actually Use One

IB Question Bank With Mark Schemes: How to Actually Use One

Last updated: September 2026 · Reviewed by the RevisionPrep IB teaching team

An IB question bank with mark schemes is only worth what you do with the scheme. Most students check the final answer, see it matches, and move on — which skips the marks. The scheme isn't an answer key. It's a list of the specific things an examiner is paid to look for in your working.

What an IB mark scheme is really telling you

A mark scheme awards marks for named acts, not for being right overall. M marks go to method, A marks to accuracy, R marks to reasoning. That's why a student can reach the correct final number and still drop two of three marks — and why another student with a wrong answer can keep most of them.

Here's a three-mark DP Physics question and its scheme, so you can see the machinery:

A car of mass 1200 kg accelerates from rest to 25 m s⁻¹ in 8.0 s. Determine the average resultant force acting on the car. [3]

Mark What earns it

M1 Use of a = Δv / Δt

A1 a = 3.1 m s⁻²

A1 F = ma = 3.8 × 10³ N

Write "3750 N" alone and you're arguing with an examiner who can only see one line. Show the acceleration step and the mark is banked whether or not the final arithmetic holds. This is also where ECF — error carried forward — saves you: get the acceleration wrong, substitute it correctly, and the last A1 still comes.

A few conventions worth knowing before your next paper:

OWTTE — "or words to that effect". The wording is flexible; the idea isn't.

ECF — a wrong value used correctly downstream still scores.

AG — "answer given". The result is printed in the question, so unsupported working earns nothing.

Do not allow — the examiner is explicitly barred from accepting that phrasing. These lines are the most useful thing in any scheme.

Model answer versus mark scheme — they do different jobs

The mark scheme is the minimum that scores. The model answer is what a clean 7 looks like written out in full. You need both, because the scheme tells you what to include and the model shows you how much to write and in what order.

Students routinely over-write. A four-mark "explain" question wants four creditable points, not four paragraphs — and time you spend padding is time taken off the last question on the paper. Compare your response to the model for shape: how long, how many points, where the working sits relative to the explanation.

Then compare it to the scheme for content. Two different passes, two different questions:

Against the scheme: did I say the thing that scores, in words the examiner can accept?

Against the model: did I say it in roughly the right length and order?

Why examiner insights change the grade

Examiner insights sit above both. They tell you what the cohort got wrong on this type of question — the phrase that keeps being rejected, the unit that keeps being dropped, the sketch that keeps missing an axis label. That's the pattern you can't see from your own script.

Take the classic Chemistry one. Asked what happens when you increase the pressure on an equilibrium, students write "the reaction increases". The scheme wants "the position of equilibrium shifts to the right" or "toward the side with fewer gaseous moles". Same understanding in the student's head, zero marks on the page. Nobody discovers that from checking answers — only from being told.

On RevisionPrep every question carries all four layers: answer, model answer, full marking scheme and examiner insights, written by the IB subject teachers who built the bank. Nothing auto-grades your response. That's on purpose — a model guessing at your answer teaches you nothing about what the scheme accepts.

How to run a practice session so the marks stick

Doing 40 questions and checking 40 answers is the least efficient hour in revision. Ten questions marked properly beats it every time.

Attempt the question fully written out, no notes, timed roughly at one minute per mark.

Mark yourself against the scheme before you look at the model answer. Award marks line by line and be mean about it.

For every mark you dropped, write one sentence saying why — wrong method, missing unit, imprecise wording, ran out of time. That sentence is the revision.

Read the examiner insight. If it names your mistake, tag the subtopic and come back to it in three days.

Redo one of the questions you lost marks on, from blank, later in the week.

Step 3 is the one everyone skips and the one that moves grades. A dropped-mark log of thirty lines, sorted by cause, will tell you more about your grade than any mock.

Common mistakes with mark schemes

Reading the scheme before attempting the question. You'll recognise the method and mistake recognition for recall. Attempt first, always.

Self-marking generously. If you wrote "it goes up" and the scheme says "increases proportionally", that's not a mark. Mark like someone who's never met you.

Ignoring the "do not allow" lines. They exist because thousands of students wrote exactly that thing. Free information.

Treating an AG question as a normal one. When the answer is printed in the question, the marks live entirely in the working. Show every step.

Only practising to the final answer in maths. Paper 1 is non-calculator for Maths AA. Answers you can't reach by hand aren't practice.

FAQ

What does M1 A1 mean in an IB mark scheme?

M1 is a method mark — awarded for using the right approach, even with wrong numbers. A1 is an accuracy mark, awarded for a correct value or statement. R1 is a reasoning mark. Method marks are independent, so showing your working protects you when the arithmetic slips.

Is an IB question bank with mark schemes better than past papers?

They do different jobs. A question bank gives you volume on one subtopic, which is how you build a skill. Past papers give you the real balance, timing and wording, which is how you calibrate. Use the bank through the year, papers in the final eight weeks.

What is ECF in IB marking?

ECF means error carried forward. If you get an early value wrong but then use it correctly in later steps, the later marks are still awarded. It's the single best reason to write out every stage of your working rather than jumping to an answer.

Do RevisionPrep questions come with full mark schemes?

Yes — every question in the 150,000+ bank carries the answer, a model answer, the full marking scheme and examiner insights, written by our team of 14 IB subject teachers. Mock papers come with a separate examiner markscheme in the same conventions as the real thing.

How many practice questions should I do per topic?

Fewer than you think, marked far more carefully than you currently do. Ten questions properly self-marked against the scheme beats forty skimmed. If you're getting 80% on a subtopic at Standard difficulty, move up a band rather than doing more of the same.

Practise with the scheme open. Every question in the RevisionPrep IB question bank comes with a model answer, full mark scheme and examiner insights — 4,000+ questions free with a sign-up.