IB MYP Individuals and Societies: Global contexts in MYP Individuals and Societies – Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This practice set is for IB MYP Individuals and Societies and follows the IB MYP Individuals and societies guide (for use from September 2014/January 2015; published May 2014, updated April 2021). It covers the six global contexts, statements of inquiry and how a context frames an investigation, and suits MYP years 4 and 5 (no SL/HL split). MYP has no prescribed content list – schools design their own units – so your teacher will share the task-specific clarifications.

Each question is labelled with the criterion it trains: A Knowing and understanding, B Investigating, C Communicating, D Thinking critically. Real MYP work is judged against criterion level descriptors (1–8, in four bands), so the [1] points here are a revision aid, not IB marks. The town and data in question 8 are fictional.

See the study guide, the revision notes, the MYP Individuals and Societies hub and the printable checklist.

Questions

1. (Criterion A) List the six MYP global contexts. [3]

2. (Criterion A) State what the guide requires a teacher to do about a global context for each unit, and name the context it says many I&S inquiries focus on. [2]

3. (Criterion A) Explain the difference between the key concept time, place and space and the global context orientation in space and time. [3]

4. (Criterion A) Suggest the best-fitting global context for each unit outline.

(i) How a powerful banking family used paintings and buildings to display its status. (ii) Why life expectancy differs between the richest and poorest regions of one country. (iii) How the arrival of railways changed where people could live and work. (iv) How a coffee chain sources beans from three continents, and the effect on forests. (v) How the street plan of one city changed between 1800 and 1900. [5]

5. (Criterion D) A school plans a unit on the building of a large dam on a river. Explain how the unit would differ if it were framed by fairness and development rather than globalization and sustainability. Give one inquiry question for each. [4]

6. (Criterion B) A unit on the global supply chain of cheap clothing uses the key concept systems and the global context globalization and sustainability. Write a statement of inquiry for the unit and explain why it is transferable. [3]

7. (Criterion B) Three draft research questions are shown.

• Q1: “Was the Industrial Revolution good?”
• Q2: “How have the number and type of shops on one high street in my town changed between 2015 and 2025?”
• Q3: “What exactly did farm labourers in my region eat each day in 1347?”

Evaluate the three questions, choose the best, and improve Q1. [5]

8. (Criterion B) A student investigates access to home broadband in Brennick, a fictional town, under the global context fairness and development. She surveys 240 households.

District	Households surveyed	Households with broadband
North	80	68
South	90	45
East	70	56

(a) Calculate the percentage of households with broadband in each district and in the whole sample. [2] (b) Calculate the gap, in percentage points, between the highest and lowest district. [1] (c) Calculate the percentage of all households without broadband that are in the South district. [1] (d) Explain how the global context should shape the student’s next step. [2]

9. (Criterion B) Write an action plan for this research question, set in the global context scientific and technical innovation: “How has the use of contactless card payments changed the way stallholders at one weekly market take payment since 2020?” [6]

10. (Criterion C) Plan a one-page infographic for Year 7 students that explains what a global context is, using palm oil in Indonesia as the example. [5]

11. (Criterion D) “Orientation in space and time is the only global context a history unit really needs.” To what extent do you agree? [10]

Answers

1. Identities and relationships; orientation in space and time. [1] Personal and cultural expression; scientific and technical innovation. [1] Globalization and sustainability; fairness and development. [1] [3] Examiner insight: Each point needs two correctly worded contexts; “time and space orientation” or “sustainability and globalization” may not be credited.

2. The teacher must identify a global context for the unit, or develop an additional one, to show why the inquiry matters. [1] Many I&S inquiries focus on orientation in space and time. [1] [2] Examiner insight: “State” needs the fact only, but both parts must be there; the word “must” (a requirement) is the point being tested.

3. Time, place and space is a key concept – a big idea about the position of people, objects and ideas, used across subjects. [1] Orientation in space and time is a global context – the real-world setting that shows why a unit matters. [1] A unit can use both: the concept is the lens for thinking, the context is the reason the inquiry is relevant. [1] [3] Examiner insight: “Explain the difference” needs both sides defined and a link between them; describing only one earns at most one point.

4. (i) Personal and cultural expression. [1] (ii) Fairness and development. [1] (iii) Scientific and technical innovation. [1] (iv) Globalization and sustainability. [1] (v) Orientation in space and time. [1] [5] Examiner insight: Another context can earn the point with a reason (for example, (iii) as a turning point), so justify any less obvious choice.

5. Fairness and development focuses on who gains and who loses – displaced villagers, farmers downstream, city electricity users. [1] Question: “Who benefited from the dam, and were those displaced fairly compensated?” [1] Globalization and sustainability focuses on long-term environmental effects and wider links, such as river flow, sediment and power exported elsewhere. [1] Question: “Can the dam meet energy needs without lasting harm to the river system?” [1] [4] Examiner insight: The points come from showing the focus changes; two questions with no explanation of the shift earn half at most.

6. A statement that links systems to globalization and sustainability without naming the topic, such as: “When one part of a global production system cuts costs, the effects spread to workers and environments elsewhere.” [1] It uses the key concept (connected parts) and the context (global links, long-term effects). [1] It is transferable: it could also guide a unit on smartphones or food. [1] [3] Examiner insight: A statement that names a brand, country or date is a fact about one case and loses the transferability point.

7. Q1 is too broad and vague: “good” for whom, where and when? It is not manageable or assessable in the time allowed. [1] Q3 is focused but unanswerable: records that detailed for that year are unlikely to exist. [1] Q2 is best: one place, a fixed period, and evidence from business directories and a street survey. [1] Q2 also has a clear context link – orientation in space and time, or globalization if the focus is chain stores. [1] Improved Q1: “How did the opening of a cotton mill change working hours and wages in one named town between 1800 and 1840?” [1] [5] Examiner insight: Credit comes from using the guide’s points (relevance, manageability, available resources); “Q2 is more specific” alone earns one point at most.

8. (a) North 68 ÷ 80 × 100 = 85.0%; South 45 ÷ 90 × 100 = 50.0%; East 56 ÷ 70 × 100 = 80.0%. [1] Whole sample: (68 + 45 + 56) ÷ 240 × 100 = 169 ÷ 240 × 100 = 70.4% (3 s.f.). [1] (b) 85.0 − 50.0 = 35.0 percentage points. [1] (c) Without broadband: 240 − 169 = 71 households; South 90 − 45 = 45. 45 ÷ 71 × 100 = 63.4% (3 s.f.). [1] (d) Fairness and development asks why access is unequal, so the next step should explain the gap, not just record it. [1] For example, compare income or housing type by district, or interview South households about cost and availability of a connection. [1] [6] Examiner insight: The overall figure must come from the totals (169 ÷ 240), not the mean of three percentages (71.7%); averaging percentages from unequal groups is a common slip.

9. Aim and context: to find out who gains and who loses when payment technology changes. [1] Methods: structured interviews with about 10 stallholders across stall types. [1] Add observation: count card and cash payments at a few stalls during set periods on two market days. [1] Recording: a tally table and interview notes in a fixed template. [1] Timeline: a schedule with deadlines for permission, data collection, analysis and writing up; ask the market organiser before starting. [1] Evaluation built in: note limits such as a small sample and unreliable memories of 2020. [1] [6] Examiner insight: An action plan needs order and timing as well as methods; a list of methods with no sequence or deadlines usually limits strand ii.

10. Title and one-line definition in plain words: “A global context is the reason a topic matters.” [1] A central map of Sumatra and Borneo, labelled with areas of rainforest cleared for oil palm plantations. [1] Two or three panels showing the same topic through different contexts, for example globalization and sustainability (long-term damage) and fairness and development (whose forest land and livelihoods were lost). [1] Short sentences, simple words and colour coding per context for Year 7. [1] Sources listed in a recognised convention at the bottom. [1] [5] Examiner insight: Criterion C rewards style matched to audience and format, plus documented sources; a dense paragraph for 11-year-olds loses the audience point.

11. Introduction defining a global context, with a clear line of argument. [1] Agree: the guide notes many I&S inquiries focus on orientation in space and time, and history studies turning points. [1] Agree, with example: the first US transcontinental railroad (1869) as a turning point that shrank journeys across a continent. [1] Disagree: the guide encourages other contexts, and one context narrows the questions asked. [1] Example: Britain’s 1807 and 1833 Acts studied through fairness and development ask whose rights were denied. [1] Example: the transatlantic telegraph cable (1866) through scientific and technical innovation asks who gained from faster news. [1] Example: German unification (1871) through identities and relationships asks how a nation was imagined. [1] Evaluation: time and place runs through all history, but as a key concept, not necessarily the context. [1] Weighs the view that one context gives a course consistency. [1] A justified conclusion that answers “to what extent”. [1] [10] Examiner insight: Criterion D rewards a judgement built from evidence on both sides; examples must show what a different context changes, not just name more history topics.

Where marks are usually lost

• Swapping the key concept time, place and space with the context orientation in space and time.
• Writing a statement of inquiry that names a place, person or date.
• Research questions that are too broad (Q1 type) or impossible to research (Q3 type).
• Averaging percentages from groups of different sizes instead of using totals.
• Action plans with methods but no order, timing or permissions.
• Extended answers that list topics but never show how the context changes the inquiry.

Next steps

• Review the global contexts revision notes.
• Reread the global contexts study guide.
• Practise investigation skills with the criteria in practice question set.
• Course hub: MYP Individuals and Societies.
• Printable checklist.
• Try all free 10-minute diagnostics.
• Book a free trial class.

Official syllabus

This practice set is aligned to the IB MYP Individuals and societies guide (for use from September 2014/January 2015; published May 2014, updated April 2021), published by the International Baccalaureate Organization: its global contexts section, example statements of inquiry, and year 5 objectives and assessment criteria.