IB Visual Arts HL cheat sheet

Submission length is 10–15 screens; the comparative study is externally assessed and weighted at 20% of the final grade.

The study must compare at least three artworks by at least two artists from different cultural contexts.

Criterion A (6 marks) assesses analysis of formal qualities: composition, color, space, scale, materials, and technique.

Criterion B (6 marks) assesses interpretation of function and purpose by connecting formal choices to use, audience, and context.

Criterion C (6 marks) assesses evaluation of cultural significance through traditions, beliefs, institutions, histories, and power relations.

Criterion D (6 marks) assesses making comparisons and connections, including similarities, differences, and their significance.

Criterion E (6 marks) assesses presentation and subject-specific language: coherent structure, accurate vocabulary, captions, and citations.

The five criteria total 30 marks; each reproduced work needs artist, title, date, medium, dimensions, and source.

Cultural context is not nationality; it includes social, political, religious, economic, and institutional conditions.

SL submits 9–18 screens; HL submits 13–25 screens; the portfolio is externally assessed and weighted at 40%.

Criterion A (12 marks) assesses skills, techniques, and processes through sustained experimentation with media, materials, and methods.

Criterion B (12 marks) assesses critical investigation of artists, artworks, cultures, and contexts linked to the student's own decisions.

Criterion C (6 marks) assesses communication of ideas and intentions, including aims, choices, and unresolved questions.

Criterion D (6 marks) assesses reviewing, refining, and reflecting through testing, rejecting, revising, and improving work.

Criterion E (6 marks) assesses presentation and subject-specific language: sequencing, legibility, captions, and source citations.

The five criteria total 42 marks: A 12, B 12, C 6, D 6, E 6.

Evidence can include annotated sketches, material tests, technical notes, failed attempts, photographs, and reflective commentary.

HL's larger screen count requires greater depth and breadth; duplicated experiments without new insight do not satisfy the range requirement.

SL exhibits 4–7 artworks; HL exhibits 8–11 artworks; the exhibition is internally assessed and weighted at 40%.

Criterion A (12 marks) assesses a coherent body of works showing sustained inquiry and meaningful relationships among artworks.

Criterion B (12 marks) assesses technical competence: control of media, materials, processes, and resolution appropriate to intentions.

Criterion C (6 marks) assesses curatorial practice: selection, sequencing, spacing, lighting, labeling, and viewer consideration.

Criterion D (6 marks) assesses evaluation: critical reflection on the exhibition's strengths, problems, and future directions.

The four criteria total 36 marks: A 12, B 12, C 6, D 6.

The submission includes a curatorial rationale and exhibition text; both must match the installed works and stated concept.

Curation decisions such as wall height, sightlines, traffic flow, and label placement are assessed under curatorial practice.

All exhibited works must be the student's own; teachers authenticate originality and document any collaborative or borrowed elements.