External Assessment — Paper 1 #

Paper 1 is a core part of the External Assessment. It covers four to seven topics, based on the chosen level.

Standard level and Higher level:

Topic 1: System fundamentals
Topic 2: Computer organization
Topic 3: Networks
Topic 4: Computational thinking, problem-solving and programming

Higher level only:

Topic 5: Abstract data structures
Topic 6: Resource management
Topic 7: Control

When it comes to Topics 1-4, most of the questions overlap between the SL and HL variants of Paper 1.

The maximum number of marks you can get for Paper 1 depends on the chosen level (70 or 100). Your Paper 1 score translates into 40-45% of your final grade, see grade boundaries.

Evaluation sheet #

I have prepared an Excel spreadsheet that may help you estimate your Paper 1 results. The estimation is based on your own assessment of how well you have learned the syllabus material. You can download the sheet using the button below.

Download the evaluation sheet

Topics vs. marks #

I spent some time going through all the past papers, and analyzed whether there is any regular (more or less) distribution of marks among the topics. It seems that there is — see the summary below.

Standard level #

Table

Topic	Topic 1	Topic 2	Topic 3	Topic 4
May 2014	19	13	13	25
May 2015	11	4	13	42
May 2016	25	11	15	19
May 2017	15	10	23	22
May 2018	14	10	17	29
May 2019	24	12	17	17
May 2020	-	-	-	-
May 2021	7	8	20	35

The data in the table above is not official.

Chart

Higher level #

Table

Topic	Topic 1	Topic 2	Topic 3	Topic 4	Topic 5	Topic 6	Topic 7
May 2014	19	4	8	11	37	2	19
May 2015	9	4	9	21	36	3	18
May 2016	27	7	12	12	22	7	13
May 2017	15	10	8	16	29	5	17
May 2018	14	10	12	11	39	0	14
May 2019	20	11	14	11	25	11	8
May 2020	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
May 2021	7	4	19	31	20	11	8

The data in the table above is not official.

Chart

Grade boundaries #

Computer science course has a variety of assessment components. Paper 1 is marked using markschemes and assigned a numerical mark by the external examiner. Grade boundaries are then applied to determine the overall grade on the 1-7 scale for this component.

These boundaries have no impact on your final grade. However, they may be used to estimate the difficulty of the component.

Standard Level #

Table

Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
May 2014	0	9	17	24	30	36	42
May 2015	0	9	17	25	31	37	43
May 2016	0	10	20	28	35	41	48
May 2017	0	12	23	30	37	45	52
May 2018	0	11	21	27	34	40	47
May 2019	0	12	25	34	41	47	54
May 2020	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
May 2021	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Chart

Higher Level #

Table

Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
May 2014	0	11	22	28	36	43	51
May 2015	0	12	26	33	41	50	58
May 2016	0	13	25	33	42	50	59
May 2017	0	15	29	38	48	57	67
May 2018	0	14	27	38	48	57	67
May 2019	0	16	32	44	53	63	72
May 2020	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
May 2021	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Chart