IB Maths SL IA Example 1 (19/20)
The Mathematics IA is one of the most difficult tasks to complete in the IB program. This IA was created by an accelerated student who scored 19/20 (Grade 7) in the task and went on to obtain a final mark of 92/100 (Grade 7) in the November 2017 session.
This IA is written on Benford’s Law, a theory which claims that in most naturally occurring data sets, the probability of the leading digit of a number is not uniform (1 in 9 chance). This IA explores the limitations and derivation of Benford’s Law as well as its application in fraud detection. The primary application of this theory throughout the IA is its potential to detect fraud within Greece’s economic data from 1999-2010.
This 22-page IA is particularly useful in demonstrating the structure, level of mathematics and personal engagement required to obtain high marks while also providing interesting insights into the way financial fraud can be identified using mathematics.