MYP Maths Investigation
Module 3 - Investigation Structure

Lesson 10 - The Unstructured Investigation

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TL;DR

  • The Unstructured Investigation follows the stages of an investigation, but you are given all the information at once and must answer in a single answer box.

  • There are specific rubric criteria that the examiner is looking for.

  • This question is about 20% of your final grade.

The Unstructured Investigation follows many of the same elements as the Structured Investigation, but it does not have them split into parts (a), (b), (c) etc.

Instead you are presented the whole investigation task in bullet point form, and you have to answer all the bullet points in a single answer space.

The wording of this normally looks something like:

Investigate the values in the table to find a relationship for XXX in terms of \(n\).

In your answer, you should communicate the following in an organized and coherent manner:

  • predict more values and record these in the table

  • describe in words a pattern in the table for XXX

  • write down a general rule for XXX in terms of \(n\)

  • test and verify your general rule for XXX

  • justify your general rule for XXX

Usually, the sequence in the unstructured investigation is more difficult to work with than the one in the structured investigation.

Each of these bullet points must be covered and is marked against a specific criteria in the rubric.

The number of marks for each criteria do vary slightly, but in general:

  • Predictions (P) is worth 2 marks (sometimes 3 if it is a larger table);

  • Descriptions of patterns and determining the general rule (D) is worth 4 marks (sometimes 5 marks if it is more difficult);

  • Testing the general rule (T) is worth 2 marks;

  • Verifying the general rule (V) is worth 3 marks;

  • Justifying the general rule (J) is worth 4 marks (sometimes 5 marks if particularly difficult).

On top of this you are assessed for your Mathematical Communication against two further criteria in the rubric:

  • Notation and terminology (N) is worth 3 marks;

  • Coherence (L) is worth 3 marks.

In total the unstructured investigation is usually worth 21 marks.

When combined with the structured investigation (8 marks) and the show that step (3 marks) we usually have a total of 32 marks for the whole investigation question. This is 32% of the final eAssessment mark.