Paper 2 is the research methods paper, and it has a feature no other paper has: half of it is about work you did yourself. Section A is built on your class practicals. If you can describe one practical properly, you have already secured a large chunk of this paper.
📘 What you need to know
Paper 2 is sat by both HL and SL. You get 1 hour 30 minutes and it is worth 35 marks.
It is weighted at 25% for SL and 35% for HL.
Section A: four compulsory SAQs about your class practicals. Q1 and Q2 are 4 marks; Q3 and Q4 are 6 marks. Total 20.
You will be tested on one research method from your practicals: experiment, observation, survey or questionnaire, or interview.
Section B: one compulsory 15-mark ERQ on an unseen research study printed in the paper.
Section B must be answered using two or more of the six key concepts.
Section A: your own practicals
The four questions follow a fixed pattern year after year. Knowing the pattern is most of the preparation.
Q3 and Q4 carry more marks than Q1 and Q2, so they need more of your time as well as more of your revision.
What each question is really asking
Q1 — describe the method (4). Aim, method and sample. What were you investigating, what type of study was it, and who took part and how were they recruited.
Q2 — explain a concept in relation to it (4). Name the concept, say how it applies to your study, and justify why it matters there.
Q3 — compare and contrast with another method (6). The other method is named in the question. You need genuine similarities and genuine differences, balanced across both.
Q4 — design a study using a different method (6). Same research topic, different method. A workable design, not a wish list.
Prepare one practical properly rather than four vaguely. You only ever get asked about one method, and a clear memory of your own aim, procedure and sample will answer all four questions.
Section B: the unseen study
Section B gives you a research study you have never seen. It might be experimental, such as a lab experiment, or non-experimental, such as an interview study, and it will come from one of the four contexts: health and wellbeing, human development, human relationships, or learning and cognition.
The question asks you to discuss it using two or more of the six key concepts: bias, causality, change, measurement, perspective, responsibility. Two used deeply beats four used shallowly — but if you do use more, the answer has to show real range, not four thin paragraphs.
You cannot revise for the study, but you can revise for the shape. The concepts are always the same six, and most studies invite the same handful of moves: who was sampled, how the variables were measured, whether cause can be claimed, and what the ethics look like. Practise those moves on any study you meet.
Spending the 90 minutes
Section A is 20 marks and Section B is 15, but Section B is one long argument that cannot be rushed. Protect its time.
💡 Exam tip
Write a one-page summary of your class practical now: aim, method, sample, procedure, findings. Learn it.
For Q3, alternate: one similarity, then one difference, then another of each. Balance is part of the mark scheme.
For Q4, give enough detail that someone else could run your study. Vague designs lose marks.
In Section B, name each concept explicitly and use it as a paragraph heading in your plan.
Note the weighting: Paper 2 is worth more at HL (35%) than SL (25%). It deserves proportionate revision.
⚠ Common mix-up
Reusing the same method in Q4 as in Q3. Q4 wants a different method from your original practical, and it usually is not the one Q3 named.
Only listing differences in Q3. “Compare and contrast” needs both halves.
Describing the unseen study in Section B. The examiner has read it. Discuss it through the concepts instead.
Explaining a concept in isolation. It must be applied to the practical or the study in front of you.
Forgetting the sample in Q1. Sampling method and participant characteristics are part of describing the method.
Up next: What Paper 3 Asks For — the HL-only paper, built around a single claim, a source booklet and your ability to argue with evidence you have never seen before.
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