Computer Science subject report · May 2009

May 2009 extended essay reports Page 1 © International Baccalaureate Organization 2009 COMPUTER SCIENCE Overall grade boundaries Grade: E D C B A Mark range: 0 - 7 8 - 15 16 - 22 23 - 28 29 - 36 The range and suitability of the work submitted This was the first session under the revised guidelines which are now common across all subjects. This report will examine the effects of these changes with respect to the essays submitted under the subject computer science. An extended essay provides an opportunity for a student to research a topic independently to a level of understanding dee per than he/she previously had, to analyze the results of this research providing appropriate conclusions, and to produce a written report that presents the research in a clear and understandable way. A computer s cience essay is one that explores the reas ons for how or why an element or application of IT actually functions. It must go beyond the level of popular journalism and deeper than t he knowledge expected of an IB c omputer science student. An essay that is basically descriptive will fail to gain as m uch credit as one that seeks to investigate and explain. The vast majority of essays chose topics that could have produced good computer s cience essays. There were few that clearly fell into other areas of the IB curriculum. Students that chose topics that allowed them to research deeply into the relevant computer science were the ones that scored high marks. Some students used the extended essay as an opportunity to voice their own feelings about a particular issue (e.g. negative publicity given to hackers ). Such essays almost always gained low marks. More detail on the suitability of the chosen area of study is given below under the „research question‟ heading. Candidate performance against each criterion A: research question The suitable selection of th e research question remains the key to a successful essay. Too general a topic will make any realistic attempt to produce anything more than a superficial investigation impossible. A topic which has an obvious answer will likewise limit any meaningful inv estigation and will fail to