The research investigation is IA3 in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, worth 20% of your subject result, drawing on Unit 4. Do not confuse it with IA2, the student experiment, which draws on Unit 3 and asks you to modify a practical. IA3 asks you to evaluate a claim using evidence you gather from research.
Marked out of 20 across four criteria worth 5 marks each. The ISMG is identical across the three sciences. Only the subject matter and the examples change, so the skill of writing to it transfers between Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Needs a specific and relevant research question. This is where the task is effectively decided, before you collect a single source.
Find relationships between sources rather than summarising each in turn.
Argue, then conclude. A conclusion that arrives without the argument in front of it does not reach the top band.
Go back to the claim you were given. Plan this return first, because it is what the criterion is asking for and the section most often truncated.
Under the 2025 syllabus the criteria are Forming and Finding, Analysing, Interpreting and Evaluating. If a resource lists “Research and planning” or “Conclusion and evaluation”, it is describing the retired 2019 criteria. Check the ISMG attached to your own task sheet.
Two research questions for the same Chemistry investigation. The top band of Forming and Finding needs a question that is both specific and relevant, and QCAA defines those words precisely.
Caps at “relevant”
Does the reserve maintain genetic diversity?
Specific and relevant: QCAA’s own published example
Does supplementing the prey population of the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) increase the carrying capacity in the named reserve to maintain 90% heterozygosity?
The second question adds a named species with its binomial name, a named location, a precise technical term in place of a vague one, and a quantified threshold. A question is specific when it names a measurable independent variable and a measurable dependent variable, states the relationship between them, and is narrow enough to answer within 2000 words.
The full research investigation guide, criterion by criterion
Upload your draft, the task sheet and your ISMG to see where each criterion currently sits, and what would move it.
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