DP2 students often plan mock exam prep as something that starts "closer to May," treating the earlier months of the year as pure content-coverage time. This undercounts how much else is competing for that same runway — Internal Assessment deadlines, the Extended Essay, TOK, and CAS requirements all land in the same months a mock series would ideally be running. Waiting until spring compresses everything into far less time than DP2 actually has.

Why DP2's calendar has less spare time than it looks

Most IB schools schedule IA submissions across the DP2 year specifically so they don't all collide with final exam preparation — which means a meaningful chunk of the year is already committed before mock exam practice even starts. A mock series that begins in September or October runs in parallel with IA and EE work rather than competing with it in a single compressed stretch before May exams.

What starting late actually costs

  • Fewer total mock sittings per subject, which means less opportunity to test whether a fix to a weak area actually held under exam conditions.
  • IA and EE feedback arriving too close to their own deadlines to meaningfully act on, since mock exam prep and assessment deadlines both get squeezed into the same final months.
  • Less time to make an informed HL/SL adjustment if a mock result reveals a subject is genuinely misaligned with the level a student is registered at.

Why criterion-based subjects specifically need more, earlier attempts

IB grades against published criteria and command terms rather than a fixed point-per-step marking scheme, and reliably meeting a specific criterion — say, "analysis" or "evaluation" at the top band — is a skill that improves with repeated, marked attempts, not with more content review. A student needs several genuine attempts, each with detailed feedback on where a response fell short of the top band, to build the habit of consistently meeting it.

What this looks like in practice

BuzzyBrains Academy's IB Test Series runs full-length Paper 1/2/3 mock sittings starting early in the DP2 year, marked against the same criterion-based grade descriptors IB examiners use, alongside separate IA and EE review so the two don't compete for the same compressed weeks closer to exams.

If your child is heading into DP2 this year, the IB Test Series page has the full pack and add-on review details — starting now is what keeps mock prep from being squeezed out by IA and EE deadlines later.