the rb economics internal assessment is responsible for many nights spent fruitlessly staring at the computer and often to no wheel school teachers may ask you to choose a new article write a new commentary and basically start from zero again are you two a victim of this don't worry my name is daenery and i've compiled a great guide to help you best tackle your economics eyes but before we start up just listen those taking their ib exams in 2022 and beyond meaning that you're starting your coursework in 2020 have even more reason to give your ia special attention the ibu has changed the economic syllabus this year and made some significant changes and if you haven't heard about it already here are a few snapshots if you're studying sl economics your eye commentaries are now worth 30 percent of your overall grade paper 1 is also worth 30 percent while paper 2 is worth 40 percent so your eye has become important while your paper one has decreased slightly in value but if you're studying hr economics your paper one scores make 20 of your overall grade paper 2 and paper 3 make up 30 each and your eyes stand at only twenty percent not only but twenty percent so the paper three has become slightly more important while paper one is completely less important you will also be interested to learn that there will be a new topic focus on sustainability this focus will include sustainability and poverty environmental sustainability and sustainable sustainable development goals adding the same viewpoint to your isa is going to really impress your examiners so it might be a good idea to add a paragraph or two about it now each of your three eyes will be based on your units two three or four pick one each time and don't repeat it the commentary needs to highlight a key economic concept that acts as a lens through which you analyze the article now if you know what the concepts are they are scarcity choice efficiency equity economic well-being sustainability change interdependence and intervention at least pick one for each with no repeats now before we start let's look at the internal assessment criteria there are five internal assessment criterias for each commentary and each commentary is assessed individually for the first five criterias that is a to e and the criteria f is applied to the whole portfolio making a maximum of 45 marks for criteria f just need to ensure that you fulfill your basic formatting requirements for your ib economics that is your font your size your speaking spacing make sure that each article must be based on a different unit of the syllabus and you must use different sources for each commentary so think of it as almost three free marks right now let's jump to the eye the most difficult part is to choose a relevant article and i'm going to give you some tips on how to find the right article the first is the date check with your school teacher on this the article must usually be written in the last year and preferably though not necessarily in the last six months any article written before that month would be considered outdated second is the time the article must be from a reputable news source example the new york times types of india bbc news economics times etc and it should not be from any informal news outlet or some tabloid third the content the article cannot have a full economics analysis already spelled out for you also you have to be careful that your article should contain a problem a solution and some pros and cons of the solution now usually the pros and cons come in the form of a short one-liner from ministers governments officials or other individuals like say the local farmers the firm owners etc quoted in the article fourth is the limp it should neither be too long nor too short a good length would be say 2.5 to 3 pages excluding pictures this ensures that you have enough meat for your analysis and lastly is the treatment after you've selected your article highlight the full sentences that you'll be making references to in your commentary the examiner will then zoom into the highlights the the portion that you've highlighted when reading your article when saving the article the header the footer the page number of the article should be made visible now hope this was clear now let's move on to write your entire commentary the first part is the introduction we recommend that you have an opening statement that briefly describes the article an example would be this article highlights the steps which singapore's government is taking to mitigate the contractionary effects which covert has on the singapore economy unlike in your essays you don't really have to define keywords or key terms unless they are of great importance and relevance to your commentary remember your word count is key which is 800 try to limit your introduction to less than 150 words post this we move on to the second step the second step is to explain the key problem in harvard rules you need to do this via diagrams now while explaining the problem use textual quotations they are very important for example if your commentary is on recession explain how the recession has arisen now quote the circumstances as mentioned in the text example millions are cutting back the expenditure amidst the covert 19 pandemic fearful that they will be unemployed in the near future now after that insert a suitable diagram in this case an adas diagram and explain it still quoting from the text and linking it to relevant economic concepts example the ad curve shifting leftward explaining that there is a decrease in aggregate demand since consumer expenditure which is a component of the aggregate demand has decreased note that words in the diagram are not counted in the 800 words limit hence take care to label your diagrams fully with headings for example the market for cars in california label your axes your points of intersections label them with alphabet so you can refer to them later and lastly shaded areas of their applicable example for dead weight loss which generally is used for market failure now sometimes articles can also give you specific data to work with example the price of one cup of price increase from 3.9 to 3.95 in these circumstances you may label your price that is your y-axis on the diagram with the exact figure that is 3.10 and 3.95 to show the increase the same applies if they give you exact quantities for the x-axis in short the more specific your diagram is the better also when explaining your diagram make your explanations as detailed and in a step-by-step manner many neglect this fearing that it will sound like a grandmother story but the truth is it is necessary to scoring well for your eye without it there is no meat on which you can base your analysis i hope this was clear up till now now let's move on to the main part of your eye that is to evaluate the solutions with accompanying diagrams and explanations of course to connect the problem to with solutions used by the government the central bank etc use one liner connector statements something to the likes of hence the indonesian government has enacted a fiscal policy also it is important to explain the policy with a diagram example for fiscal policy you would shift the ad curve right words and explain how the shift occurs then the time has come for evaluation give one to two pros about the policy using information from the text note that by explaining the mechanism of the policy that can sometimes be considered one pro follow one or two cons or disadvantages of the policy there are some common examples like the strain on the government's budget and opportunity costs for policies which require the government to spend example fiscal intervention supply side policy exchange rate policies etc also remember to contextualize each article usually has unique information explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the policy used in that specific circumstance leverage all that information and incorporate it into your explanation let me give you an example the article states however in this frugal society the idea of spending large amounts of money on cars is frowned upon then you could potentially quote this piece of information and explain the fiscal policy may have its limitations because of the marginal propensity to consume may be low and the extent of the increase in the aggregate demand may not be that significant now post this we come to the last part of your ia and that is the conclusion you cannot simply parrot to summarize what you've been saying in the commentary so far instead you need to give a very valuable judgment now do you think the policy should be implemented and if so why if you don't think it should be implemented what are the better alternatives do you have what factors did you consider these are some factors that you can use to weigh up the pros and cons you may or may not explicitly state these factors in the conclusion but you can use them long-term versus short-term effects assumptions made priorities is it a recession that you need to pull the country out of immediately else suffer the adverse effects who are the stakeholders and how are they affected pros versus cons what is the magnitude is it for the better or the worse are there any alternatives that eventually take a stand or at least state and explain what factors the final stand would depend on for example that you need more information example the decisions to implement such a trade policy would depend on the exact terms and conditions of the policy i really hope this has helped you understand what is required and always remember that you can reach out to me in in any case in case you have any queries and you are not alone through this dm me or reach me on instagram the link is in my description wishing you all the best for your eyes give it your best shot signing off