AI is everywhere in the IB now. Some students just straight up paste assignments into ChatGPT. Others ignore AI completely and stick to handwritten notes and panic-revision.
Both extremes are wrong.
Short answer: yes – if you use it as a study tool, not as a ghostwriter.
Most schools and the IB care about two things:
Original thinking – the ideas and structure must be yours
Transparency – you can’t pretend AI-generated work is your own
Clearly NOT ok:
generating full IA drafts or EE sections and handing them in
paraphrasing AI-written answers just to dodge plagiarism detection
using AI during tests / exams unless explicitly allowed
Generally acceptable (if school approves):
using AI to explain concepts you don’t understand
getting practice questions and step-by-step reasoning
asking for feedback on a draft you actually wrote
using AI to plan your revision and identify weak topics
The rule of thumb:
If you’d be embarrassed to tell your teacher exactly how you used AI, it’s probably over the line.
Most students start with generic tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot. They’re powerful, but they come with serious IB-specific problems.
Generic AI models:
don’t “know” which IB syllabus version you’re on
often mix up A-Level / AP / random internet content with IB
might use old exam formats or ignore HL/SL differences
Result: you feel productive, but you’re learning slightly wrong things – which is the fastest way to lose marks.
IB markschemes have a very particular style:
method marks vs answer marks
key phrases and definitions that unlock the mark
specific command terms (“evaluate”, “distinguish”, “compare and contrast”)
Generic AI doesn’t think in “marks”. It just produces nice-sounding paragraphs, which:
might be too long
might miss the exact phrase the markscheme wants
don’t train you to hit the marking points quickly
Ask a vanilla AI for “IB references” and you’ll often get:
fake page numbers
invented studies
wrong formulas dressed up confidently
Most IB students won’t fact-check every single line. That’s how you end up confident and wrong – the worst combo.
A normal chatbot:
doesn’t remember your weak topics properly over time
can’t show you accuracy, speed, or predicted grade
can’t easily structure a long-term revision plan
It helps once, in a single chat. But it doesn’t behave like a coach – just a clever Q&A.
Here’s how AI can genuinely help you learn faster without crossing any lines.
Good uses:
“Explain this markscheme in simpler words.”
“Break this IB Maths AA concept into steps with one example.”
“I keep losing marks on this type of question – what am I missing?”
Bad uses:
“Give me a full answer I can copy.”
“Rephrase this so it doesn’t look like AI wrote it.”
Good:
short, targeted questions for one topic
full exam-style questions with worked solutions after you try
mixed-topic sets to simulate real papers
Bad:
asking for the exact exam you’ll sit (and believing anyone who claims to provide it)
doing questions but never checking where your marks are actually lost
Good:
“Here is my 10-mark Economics answer. Which command term marks am I missing?”
“What would make this go from a 5 to a 7 in IB criteria language?”
Bad:
“Rewrite this to be better” with no learning, no reflection, no engagement.
AI feedback is only useful if you still think and then apply it to the next question.
This is where FourtyFive comes in.
Instead of being a general chatbot, FourtyFive is designed around IB revision specifically:
Questions are tagged to IB topics and subtopics, not random textbook chapters.
You can drill exactly what you’ll be examined on.
You avoid wasting time on nice-to-know content that isn’t examinable.
FourtyFive doesn’t just give you walls of text. It’s built to reflect markscheme logic:
guided steps that match how marks are awarded
emphasis on keywords and structure that examiners want
feedback that tells you which marks you actually missed
So you train your brain to think in “marks per line”, not just “text per question”.
Because everything you do in FourtyFive is structured, it can show you:
your accuracy by topic
your speed per question type
a predicted grade range based on performance
Instead of guessing what to revise, FourtyFive says:
“You’re losing most marks in these topics – fix these first.”
That’s the type of targeted approach generic AI can’t provide out of the box.
FourtyFive is built as a revision and practice tool, not an IA/EE generator.
You use it to:
practise questions
understand solutions
identify weak spots
get faster and more accurate
You don’t use it to generate final coursework. That’s the line. FourtyFive is very deliberately built to live on the safe side of that line.
You don’t have to choose only one tool – you just need to use them wisely.
Use FourtyFive for:
question practice
structured feedback
analytics and topic priorities
exam-mode sessions
Use a generic AI (within school rules) for:
alternative explanations (“explain this like I’m 15”)
brainstorming IA ideas (you do the actual work)
planning / summarising your notes
The key is simple:
FourtyFive for what is examinable, generic AI for extra explanations – and you remain firmly inside IB rules.
AI can absolutely make IB revision:
faster
more targeted
less stressful
But it can’t:
sit in the exam hall for you
think under pressure
improvise when a question is weird
That part is still on you.
If you want AI that actually trains you — rather than just producing nice-looking answers — then a syllabus-aligned coach like FourtyFive is where you start.