Criterion C: Personal engagement

The “personal engagement” criterion assesses the extent to which the student engages with the topic by exploring the mathematics and making it their own. It is not a measure of effort.

Personal engagement may be recognized in different ways. These include thinking independently or creatively, presenting mathematical ideas in their own way, exploring the topic from different perspectives, making and testing predictions. Further (but not exhaustive) examples of personal engagement at different levels are given in the teacher support material (TSM). *There must be evidence of personal engagement demonstrated in the student’s work. It is not sufficient that a teacher comments that a student was highly engaged. * Textbook style explorations or reproduction of readily available mathematics without the candidate’s own perspective are unlikely to achieve the higher levels.

Significant: The student demonstrates authentic personal engagement in the exploration on a few occasions and it is evident that these drive the exploration forward and help the reader to better understand the writer’s intentions.

Outstanding: The student demonstrates authentic personal engagement in the exploration in numerous instances and they are of a high quality. It is evident that these drive the exploration forward in a creative way. It leaves the impression that the student has developed, through their approach, a complete understanding of the context of the exploration topic and the reader better understands the writer’s intention