Planning a two-year IB Mathematics course is easier when you begin with the whole journey in view. Before refining individual lessons, decide how students will move through the syllabus, when they will meet essential skills, where assessment and review belong, and how the internal assessment and exploration work will fit around the teaching calendar.

To help, Full Marks Education has created two free editable two-year pacing workbooks: one for IB Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation (AI) and one for IB Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches (AA). Each guide is designed around roughly 185 instructional days per year and can be adapted to your school calendar, timetable and cohort.

Download the free IB Maths AI two-year pacing guide Editable Excel workbook for Applications and Interpretation. Download the free IB Maths AA two-year pacing guide Editable Excel workbook for Analysis and Approaches.

Start with the calendar you actually have

A two-year plan should reflect the teaching time available at your school, not an idealized number of lessons. Begin by marking term dates, holidays, examination periods, school events, reporting deadlines and any days likely to be lost. Then count the realistic teaching weeks for each year.

Next, protect time for the parts of the course that are easily squeezed out: diagnostic work at the beginning, formative checks, topic tests, cumulative review, technology practice and student exploration or IA milestones. A plan that assigns every available lesson to new content has no room to respond when students need more time.

Choose a deliberate sequence

The five broad areas of the course provide a useful structure: number and algebra, functions, geometry and trigonometry, statistics and probability, and calculus. The exact order can vary, but the sequence should make prerequisites visible.

For example, algebraic fluency and function notation support later work with graphs, modelling and calculus. In AI, technology and interpretation should be embedded from the beginning rather than added only before an assessment. In AA, algebraic reasoning, representation and proof should be revisited deliberately as the work becomes more sophisticated.

A useful two-year map does not simply list topics. It records the intended focus for each week, the five-day teaching sequence, an assessment or deliverable, and the link to wider course skills. That makes it possible to see where a topic begins, where it is practised, and where it returns in a more demanding context.

Build Year 1 for foundations and feedback

Year 1 is the time to establish classroom routines, check prior learning and build the language of the course. Use an early diagnostic to identify gaps in algebra, graphical understanding, calculator confidence and mathematical communication. Those findings should influence the pace of the first units.

By the end of the first year, students should have experienced each of the core ways of working that the course will demand: modelling, using technology appropriately, communicating working, interpreting answers in context and responding to feedback. They do not need to have finished every difficult idea, but they should have a secure platform for the second year.

Use Year 2 for completion, connection and exam readiness

Year 2 should complete the remaining syllabus while protecting time for retrieval and mixed practice. Do not leave all revision until the final weeks. Add short cumulative tasks throughout the year so students use earlier skills alongside new content.

As examinations approach, shift the emphasis from isolated topic exercises to selecting methods, managing technology, writing clear solutions and interpreting the command words in unfamiliar contexts. Use assessment evidence to decide what requires reteaching; a pacing map is a guide, not a reason to move on before students are ready.

Plan IA and exploration milestones early

Students produce better independent work when the skills are developed gradually. Schedule small opportunities to choose variables, discuss assumptions, use data responsibly, explain limitations and communicate findings before asking students to undertake major independent work.

The free workbooks include an IA and EE tracker so that the work is visible alongside ordinary lessons and assessments. Add your own school deadlines, supervision checkpoints and feedback windows at the start of the course. This prevents the IA from becoming an unplanned interruption to the final teaching term.

Make the plan usable by a department

A shared curriculum map should help colleagues make consistent decisions, not become a document that is opened only at the start of the year. Add a status column, note local adjustments and agree what is non-negotiable: the key ideas, prerequisite knowledge, common assessment points and essential calculator or technology skills.

The two pacing workbooks include a dashboard, unit allocation, Year 1 and Year 2 pacing sheets, an assessment calendar, IA and EE tracker, enrichment ideas, resource planning, a full syllabus map and printable year views. Edit the assumptions first, then tailor the individual weekly rows to your timetable and students.

Download the free planning workbooks

Turn the map into a teachable course

A curriculum map answers the question, “What should happen when?” The next challenge is ensuring that the slides, notes, practice, inquiry activities and assessments all support that sequence. Full Marks Education’s complete curriculum kits are designed to provide that connected teaching system.

Choose the kit that matches your course:

Use the free map as your starting point, adapt it to your school, and then choose the level of resource support that helps your department teach the plan consistently.

How to Plan Two Years of IB Maths AI or AA