IB Psychology SLTopic 6 — The Exam PapersPaper 2Exam skill~10 min read
What Paper 2 Asks For
Paper 2 is the research methods paper, and it is unusual: half of it is about work you did yourself in class, and the other half is about a study you will read for the first time in the exam hall. Neither half can be answered from a memorised essay.
📘 What you need to know
Paper 2 is taken by both HL and SL, lasts 1 hour 30 minutes and is worth 35 marks.
It is weighted at 25% for SL and 35% for HL.
Section A: four compulsory SAQs about your own class practical, worth 20 marks in total.
Questions 1 and 2 are worth 4 marks each; Questions 3 and 4 are worth 6 marks each.
You are tested on one research method used in your practicals: experiment, observation, survey or questionnaire, or interview.
Section B: one compulsory ERQ on an unseen research study, worth 15 marks.
The ERQ must be discussed with reference to two or more key concepts.
The shape of the paper
Section A is the most predictable twenty marks in the whole course. You already know the practical; the four question types barely change.
Section A: everything comes from your class practical
During the course you carry out practicals using research methods. Paper 2 Section A tests you on one of them, and the method will be an experiment, an observation, a survey or questionnaire, or an interview.
All four questions revolve around that single practical, which is why it is worth writing it up properly long before study leave.
Question 4 usually asks for a different method from the one in Question 3, so have two alternative designs ready rather than one.
Question
Marks
What it asks
What to have ready
Q1
4
Describe the method you used
Aim, method, sample and procedure in four clean sentences
Q2
4
Explain how a concept relates to it
Two or three concepts you can link to your practical
Q3
6
Compare and contrast with another method
Similarities and differences with each of the other three methods
Q4
6
Design a new study on the same topic
The same research topic reframed for a different method
Write your practical up on one page. Aim, method, sample, procedure, findings, and the concepts it connects to. That single page is twenty marks of revision.
Section B: the unseen study
One compulsory ERQ, worth 15 marks. A research study appears in the exam paper and you discuss it using two or more of the six key concepts: bias, causality, change, measurement, perspective and responsibility.
The study may be experimental, such as a lab experiment, or non-experimental, such as an interview study, and it will be drawn from one of the four contexts. You cannot revise for the study itself. What you can revise is the concepts, and the habit of reading a method critically.
This is where Topic 5 pays off. Everything you know about sampling, validity, reliability, bias and ethics is exactly what you use to attack an unfamiliar study. Section B is a research methods question wearing an essay costume.
Worked examples
WORKED EXAMPLE
Prepare your practical for Question 1
Your class ran an experiment testing whether words presented with pictures are recalled better than words alone. Write the four sentences you would need for Q1. [4]
Aim
To investigate whether adding a picture to a word improves later recall.
MethodA lab experiment with two conditions and a standardised set of 20 words.
Sample
24 students from our year group, obtained by opportunity sampling, aged 16 to 17.
Procedure
Each participant saw all 20 items, then wrote down everything they could recall after a two-minute filler task.
Four sentences, one for each markno evaluation here — Q1 is describe, so keep it factual
WORKED EXAMPLE
Read an unseen study for Section B
The exam gives you a study in which 60 volunteers who responded to an online advert completed a mood questionnaire before and after an eight-week meditation course. Which concepts would you choose? [15]
Scan for who took part
Volunteers from an advert = bias (volunteer bias, self-selecting sample).
Scan for how it was measured
A self-report mood questionnaire = measurement (operationalising mood, social desirability).
Scan for what changed
Before and after over eight weeks = change, and no control group = causality.
Bias and measurement, with causality as a thirdtwo concepts done deeply beats four done thinly — pick the two with most to say
💡 Exam tip
Learn your class practical as a set of facts, not a story. Aim, method, sample, procedure, findings.
For Q3 and Q4, prepare the other three methods as well, not just the one you used.
In Section B, annotate the study on the paper before writing. Circle the sample, the measure, the design and any ethics issue.
Section B has no choice, so there is no time lost deciding. Spend it planning instead.
The concepts are the same six every year. They are the most reliable revision in the course.
Watch the weighting difference: Paper 2 is 25% for SL and 35% for HL.
⚠️ Common mix-up
Thinking you can revise the Section B study. You cannot. It is unseen by design.
Describing the whole practical for every question. Only Q1 asks for that.
Using the same method in Q4 as in Q3. Q4 normally wants a different one again.
Confusing Paper 1 and Paper 2 ERQs. Paper 1 offers a choice; Paper 2 does not.
Forgetting to name the concepts explicitly in Section B. The examiner should not have to guess which you are using.
Treating Section A as easy marks that need no revision. It is 20 of the 35 marks.
Up next: Writing a Strong SAQ in Paper 1 — how to turn four marks into four developed points, and what “describe” and “explain” actually want.
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