| Audit area | Details |
|---|---|
| A: Explanation and justification, 4 marks | Evidence required: Focused issue, significance and justified engagement choices; Status: Not checked |
| B: Process, 3 marks | Evidence required: Developed research and engagement process; Status: Not checked |
| C: Analysis and synthesis, 8 marks | Evidence required: Contextual analysis and integrated diverse perspectives; Status: Not checked |
| D: Evaluation and reflection, 6 marks | Evidence required: Evaluation of evidence, engagement, position and learning; Status: Not checked |
| E: Communication, 3 marks | Evidence required: Clear organization and transparent evidential basis; Status: Not checked |
| F: Recommendation, 6 marks at HL only | Evidence required: Focused, supported and context-appropriate recommendation; Status: Not checked |
| Final failure test | Details |
|---|---|
| Can the issue be identified in 15 seconds? | Pass condition: The reader can state what, where, who, power mechanism and stakes; Fast repair: Rewrite the first three sentences around those five elements |
| Can the process chain be followed? | Pass condition: Research and engagement visibly inform one another; Fast repair: Add first, then, this informed and this led me to links |
| Can every major claim be traced? | Pass condition: Each claim identifies research, engagement or both; Fast repair: Add citations, engagement labels and appendix pointers |
| Does evaluation alter the answer? | Pass condition: Limits narrow certainty, population, place or timeframe; Fast repair: Replace generic bias labels with a consequence for judgment |
| Is reflection case-specific? | Pass condition: A named encounter changes a political interpretation; Fast repair: Add before, encounter, after and significance |
| Can the HL proposal be implemented? | Pass condition: Actor, action, target, timeframe and mechanism are explicit; Fast repair: Rewrite the recommendation as an operational instruction |
| When | Details |
|---|---|
| 72 hours before | Required check: Confirm the correct SL or HL component, title, inquiry question, word limit and separate HL recommendation; Completion evidence: Final-file metadata and word-count record |
| 48 hours before | Required check: Match every in-text citation with the bibliography; verify names, dates, statistics, URLs and quotations; Completion evidence: Citation cross-check complete |
| 36 hours before | Required check: Confirm participant labels, consent choices, anonymity and removal of unnecessary identifying information; Completion evidence: Ethics and identity pass complete |
| 24 hours before | Required check: Complete the criterion self-marking record and repair the weakest descriptor element; Completion evidence: Evidence locations and final revisions recorded |
| 12 hours before | Required check: Remove comments, highlights, tracked changes, drafting instructions and hidden analysis in notes; Completion evidence: Clean exported file |
| Final export | Required check: Inspect every page for clipping, broken tables, illegible images, page breaks and missing references; Completion evidence: Submission-view inspection complete |
| Submission | Required check: Upload the correct file, reopen it, and retain the confirmation; Completion evidence: Uploaded-file verification complete |