Most IB students know that planning matters for their Internal Assessment. However, many still fall into the same planning traps every year. These mistakes often don’t look serious at first, but they quietly lead to stress, rushed work, and lost marks later on.

Understanding the most common IA planning mistakes helps students avoid problems before they appear.

Mistake 1: Starting Without a Clear Focus

One of the biggest planning mistakes is starting the IA before the focus is clear. Students often begin by:

• Collecting lots of information
• Writing background sections
• Exploring multiple ideas at once

Without a clear research question or aim, this work often becomes unusable. Students then feel forced to restart, wasting time and energy.

Strong planning always begins with clarity, not content.

Mistake 2: Treating the IA Like Homework

Many students plan their IA as if it were a short assignment:

• “I’ll work on it this weekend”
• “I’ll finish the introduction soon”
• “I’ll fix it later”

This approach ignores the scale of the IA. Without defined stages and goals, progress becomes unpredictable and deadlines creep up quickly.

Mistake 3: Overplanning the Easy Parts

Students often spend too much time planning:

• Introductions
• Background information
• Formatting and presentation

These areas feel safe and familiar, but they rarely earn many marks. Meanwhile, planning for analysis and evaluation — the most important skills — is often vague or delayed.

Mistake 4: Leaving Evaluation Until the End

A very common planning error is treating evaluation as something to “add later.” This leads to:

• Weak conclusions
• Rushed judgments
• Missed opportunities for higher marks

High-scoring IAs plan for evaluation early and allow it to develop throughout the investigation.

Mistake 5: Ignoring Feedback When Planning Next Steps

Feedback is meant to guide planning, but many students either:

• Overreact and rewrite everything, or
• Ignore feedback and continue as before

Effective planning uses feedback to identify which stage needs improvement, not to restart the entire IA.

Mistake 6: Underestimating How Long Thinking Takes

Planning often focuses on writing time, not thinking time. Students forget to plan space for:

• Refining the focus
• Interpreting results
• Deciding what is most important

This leads to rushed decisions and unnecessary rewrites later.

Mistake 7: Planning Without Understanding the Criteria

Some students plan without fully understanding what the IA is assessed on. This causes effort to be spent on areas that don’t earn marks, while key skills are underdeveloped.

Good planning always aligns with assessment expectations.

How These Mistakes Affect IA Grades

These planning mistakes lead to:

• Last-minute stress
• Weak analysis
• Inconsistent quality
• Marks being capped early

The problem is rarely ability — it’s direction.

Planning the IA the Right Way

Strong IA planning is:

• Stage-based
• Criteria-driven
• Focused on analysis and evaluation
• Flexible enough to respond to feedback

Most students struggle because they don’t have a clear system for planning.

If you’re working on any IB IA or the Extended Essay, following a structured coursework framework can help you avoid these planning mistakes and stay in control from start to finish.

You can find a step-by-step guide to planning IB coursework effectively here:
👉 https://www.revisiondojo.com/coursework-guide

Final Thoughts

IA planning mistakes are common, but they are also preventable. By avoiding vague starts, overplanning low-value sections, and delaying evaluation, students can protect both their time and their grades. A clear planning system turns the IA into a manageable process rather than a constant source of stress.