IB DP Year 2 Revision Plan Before the Mocks

The most useful change you can make before IB mocks is to stop revising by topic and start revising by paper. Mock papers reward timed answers that use the right command terms, and a plan built around that will do more for your predicted grades than another week of re-reading notes. Most students in Year 2 are closer than they feel.

Work backwards from your mock dates. Pick one weak area per subject, practise a full paper under timed conditions every week, and protect time for your internal assessment deadlines. That combination, done consistently, is the core of a sound IB DP Year 2 revision plan.

Work backwards from the mock timetable

Start with the dates your school has given you, not with a blank page of subjects. Count the weeks between now and each mock, then mark the last two weeks before each one as a consolidation window. Everything earlier can be spent on building skills and closing gaps.

Leave a little slack. Mocks rarely arrive exactly when the plan expects, and a week lost to illness or an unexpected IA deadline can throw out a rigid schedule. A plan with one or two empty afternoons is far more likely to survive contact with real life.

Diagnose before you schedule

Many students spend their revision hours on the topics they already enjoy. It feels productive, but it rarely moves the grade. Before you write a timetable, take the last set of past papers or assessed work for each subject and sort every lost mark into one of three buckets:

• Knowledge gaps, where you did not know the content or the definition.
• Command-term errors, where you knew the content but answered a different question, such as describing when the paper asked you to evaluate.
• Time pressure, where you ran out of minutes on the last question.

Each bucket needs a different fix. Knowledge gaps need focused reading and practice questions. Command-term errors need you to read mark schemes and rewrite a few answers. Time pressure needs timed practice on short sections. Spending your week on the right bucket matters more than the number of hours you put in.

Turn past papers into a weekly routine

Once a week, sit one full paper or a substantial section under exam conditions, with no notes and a timer. Mark it against the mark scheme the same day while the reasoning is still fresh. Then spend the next session on the two or three answers where you lost the most marks, rewriting them until they hit the criteria.

This rhythm does two things. It builds stamina for the real exam, and it shows you whether the fixes you made last week are actually working. If the same error appears three weeks running, that is a signal to change your approach, not to try harder.

If you want a steady source of exam-style questions with progress tracking, our online question bank ← Back to all articles