For M28 students, IB exams take place in May 2028 after starting DP1 in August 2026.
If you have missed practicals after an IB science switch, you do not normally need to repeat every experiment exactly as the new class completed it. You do need enough practical experience to develop the required skills, understand the syllabus, and complete the scientific investigation successfully.
Ask your new teacher which practical experiences were significant and how the school records participation. A DP1 switch is usually manageable, but missing skills should be addressed promptly.
What happens to practical work after switching IB sciences?
Practical work is integral to DP Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. It develops skills including planning investigations, controlling variables, collecting measurements, processing uncertainty, interpreting evidence, and evaluating methods.
Under the current science courses, the experimental programme is allocated 40 hours at SL and 60 hours at HL. These totals include the scientific investigation and collaborative sciences project. The official IB Biology overview explains how practical learning culminates in collaborative work and an assessed independent investigation.
The IB does not prescribe one universal checklist of experiments for every school. Departments construct practical programmes suited to their facilities, course sequence, and local context. Switching classes therefore does not necessarily mean repeating every missed activity one-for-one.
Your teacher must determine whether the missed work creates important gaps. Missing an introductory observation may require only review, while missing investigations involving uncertainties, graphing, safety, or specialist equipment may justify supervised catch-up work.
Practical experience and the scientific investigation
Students often describe all experimental work as the "IA," but the course components have different purposes.
| Component | Main purpose | Effect of switching |
|---|---|---|
| Routine practical work | Builds subject knowledge and investigative skills | Targeted catch-up may replace repeating every experiment |
| Collaborative sciences project | Develops interdisciplinary collaboration around a real-world problem | You must participate when your school schedules it |
| Scientific investigation | Produces an individually assessed report using your own question and analysis | It must match the science in which you are registered |
The scientific investigation contributes 20% of the final subject grade in current Biology, Chemistry, and Physics courses. It is supported by approximately 10 hours of teaching time, although school schedules and internal deadlines vary.
If you move from Chemistry to Biology before beginning the investigation, you will complete a Biology investigation. Work prepared for Chemistry does not automatically transfer because suitable questions, methods, terminology, and analysis are subject-specific.
If you switch after starting, meet both teachers and the DP coordinator immediately. An idea might be adaptable, but the assessment must match your registered subject and the new teacher must be able to supervise it. This comparison of IA expectations can clarify subject differences, but your school confirms registration and deadlines.
How to catch up on missed practicals
A useful plan separates knowledge, technique, and documentation. Copying a classmate's report may explain what happened, but it cannot provide experience using equipment, making decisions, or responding to unexpected results.
1. Request a practical audit
Ask your teacher for the activities completed before you joined. For each activity, identify:
- the syllabus concept it supported
- the equipment or technique used
- the data-processing skill practised
- any safety procedure introduced
- whether an alternative activity is required
This creates a defined workload and distinguishes essential experience from experiments that reinforced concepts you can recover another way.
2. Prioritize transferable skills
Focus on skills that recur throughout the course. Depending on the subject, these could include preparing solutions, using sensors, constructing calibration curves, identifying uncertainties, selecting controls, and distinguishing random from systematic error.
One supervised investigation can recover several skills simultaneously. Repeated measurements, for example, may develop equipment use, uncertainty treatment, graphing, and evaluation more effectively than reproducing several demonstrations.
3. Recover the underlying content
Practical catch-up cannot replace missing theory. Obtain the class sequence, textbook sections, worksheets, and key terminology, then complete diagnostic questions.
If Biology is your new subject, the RevisionDojo IB Biology guide provides an overview. Study Notes, Flashcards, and the Questionbank can then reveal whether you understand the concepts illustrated by earlier practicals.
4. Arrange supervised access
Do not independently repeat activities involving chemicals, heat, biological materials, electrical equipment, or other hazards. Catch-up should occur during a lesson, workshop, lunchtime session, or another period approved and supervised by the school.
If repetition is impractical, your teacher may choose an alternative targeting the same skills. Videos and supplied data can support understanding, but they may not replace hands-on experience when equipment competence is the gap.
Protecting your scientific investigation
Do not rush into a question merely to appear caught up. First establish what can be measured reliably, which equipment is available, what safety restrictions apply, and how much data you can realistically collect.
A manageable investigation needs a focused question, justified method, sufficient relevant data, appropriate analysis, an evidence-based conclusion, and evaluation linked to actual methodological limitations.
A topic change may be possible, but time and supervision impose practical limits. The guide to changing an IA topic explains why repeated restarts can weaken the investigation even when no universal numerical limit applies.
Experimental, database, modelling, simulation, and fieldwork approaches may be suitable, depending on the subject and teacher approval. A non-laboratory approach is not automatically easier because it still requires defensible methods, appropriate data, subject-specific analysis, and evaluation.
Common mistakes after switching sciences
- Assuming nothing needs recovery: Later lessons may rely on techniques taught before you arrived.
- Trying to repeat everything: Targeted catch-up is usually more useful than recreating every lesson chronologically.
- Using another student's data as your own: Practice resources do not remove authenticity requirements.
- Ignoring level differences: Moving from SL to HL increases course depth and allocated experimental time.
- Starting without approval: Feasibility depends on safety, equipment, time, and supervision.
- Treating AI feedback as authorization: Jojo AI can support revision, but it cannot approve methods or certify safety.
Conclusion
Missed practicals after switching IB sciences do not normally invalidate the course or force you to reproduce every previous experiment. Work with your school to recover essential knowledge and skills, participate in required components, and complete an investigation appropriate to your registered subject.
A practical audit and focused plan are more effective than recreating an entire term. RevisionDojo can support independent study and report review through its coursework grading resources, while your teacher remains responsible for safety, supervision, and approval.