If you are reading this article, you are likely at the stage in your IB journey where you have identified your research question for your Physics Internal Assessment (IA) and are thinking about how to proceed. Perhaps you are a bit further along and have done your experiment and are starting to plan your write-up. Whatever stage you are at, our Physics IA Lab Report Checklist can help to ensure you maximise your marks and earn the grade you deserve. Along with our checklist, we’ve also included a section on common mistakes students make when completing their lab report, so be sure to read that section and avoid costly errors. The information below is an excerpt from our Physics Internal Assessment Standard and Higher Level student guide written by Hugh Duncan, which has helped thousands of IB students around the world with their Physics IA.
The following list of questions can help you check that you have included the essentials in your Physics IA lab report and that they meet the required IB standard. Certain labs may not need every piece of information mentioned. You need to decide what to use and what to ignore. The report can be word-processed, though your teacher may just ask for hand drawn or GDC graph and not a full report for some experiments.
1. Have you included a title with your assignment?
2. Have you stated the aim of the experiment?
3. Do you need to discuss the background theory at this point?
4. Is there a diagram of the apparatus?
5. Is the diagram drawn with a sharp pencil and ruler (or word processed)?
6. Is the diagram at least half a page and labelled?
7. Have you clearly described in sufficient detail how the experiment was carried out?
8. Is it in the correct tense and person? If the lab involved planning, have you had to modify the procedure?
9. Are the results clearly tabulated?
10. Is the results table drawn with a sharp pencil and ruler (or word processed)?
11. Does the table follow the lines of the paper?
12. Did you include units in the column headings of the table?
13. Have you assigned an error to your readings in the appropriate part of the column?
14. Are the readings and errors compatible? Is there evidence of error calculation where needed?
15. Is there a graph of the data? Is it titled or matched with a given table?
16. Are the axes’ units chosen suitable to demonstrate the relationship?
17. Is it suitable graph paper?
18. Is the graph at least half a page?
19. Is the graph drawn with a sharp pencil and ruler (or word processed)?
20. Is the graph a sensible scale?
21. Are the graph’s axes fully labelled?
22. Have you plotted points as small crosses or similar on the graph?
23. Have you double-checked your plotting?
24. Have you included error bars?
25. If it’s a straight line, have you plotted a best fit using the mean (x,y) or similar?
26. Have you calculated the slope and intercept? Have you included their units?
27. Have you drawn a second line or similar to determine their errors?
28. Have you compared your findings with the expected to predict relationship/value?
29. Have you evaluated your findings and your method?
30. Have you suggested where things went wrong or could be improved?
31. Have you given credit to any references? Have you put all the pages in the correct order and stapled them together?
32. Have you put your name on your work?
If the answer to all of the above questions is YES, then you should feel confident in handing in your work.
All labs are different but it is clear that students tend to make the same simple mistakes much of the time. These slip-ups and oversights can easily be avoided if a student reads over the teacher’s comments on the previous labs and if the student also uses a guide, such as this, each time a lab report is being written up! Here is a quick list of the most common mistakes to avoid:
1. Forgetting to include your name or experiment on the front of the lab report.
2. The pages are not stapled together or are stapled in the wrong order.
3. No aim is given.
4. Not including a title on the results table.
5. Results are not fully boxed in a table.
6. Column headings are incomplete or lacking units.
7. Errors missing or inappropriate errors given.
8. Data is not rounded to be compatible with the errors of one sig fig.
9. No calculation example of how the data is manipulated.
10. No example of how the manipulated error is calculated.
11. Graph paper is not used for the graph.
12. There is not title on the graph.
13. There are no units on the graph axes.
14. A poor scale is chosen (e.g. 1cm = 7kg)
15. The graph is smaller than half a page.
16. Data points are confined to a small corner of the graph (i.e. origin included when not needed).
17. No best line is drawn or drawn free hand and without use of mean point.
18. No gradient can be found or its units cannot be determined.
19. No second best line is drawn or used and no error is on the gradient.
20. No intercept, second best, units or error is calculated.
21. Only the vaguest comment is in the conclusion (e.g. ‘the lab worked well’).
22. No comparison to the expected result is given.
23. A minimum of four specific problems and solutions is not offered.
Your IB Physics Internal Assessment is a serious piece of work, to which you will need to devote time and attention in order to earn the grades you want. If you are at the beginning of your IA process, then plan accordingly and be sure to give yourself enough time to thoughtfully complete your report. There are a multitude of resources available to you along the way, our IB Physics Internal Assessment study guide included, so find the ones that work for you to help you ensure your IA is ready to submit.
If you like what you read and are looking for more guidance on how to succeed in IB Physics, check out our IB Physics resource page for more helpful tools.
