IB Math AA HL Syllabus: The Five Topic Areas and the 2029 Change
By Renzo Diaz·3 min read
AA HL covers five syllabus areas — number and algebra, functions, geometry and trigonometry, statistics and probability, and calculus — across 240 recommended teaching hours, plus the mathematical exploration. Calculus and functions carry the heaviest weight of the five. A revised course begins teaching in August 2027, with first assessment in May 2029, and trims some content from the current syllabus rather than adding to it.
Knowing that AA HL "covers calculus" is not the same as knowing how much of the course calculus actually is, or how the five syllabus areas relate to each other once real exam questions start combining them. A revision plan built purely from the topic list, without a sense of relative weight, tends to spread effort evenly across areas that are not actually weighted evenly.
A syllabus list tells you what exists. It doesn't tell you what to spend your time on — that takes knowing how the areas are actually weighted against each other.
1. The five syllabus areas
AA HL's content sits under five headings: number and algebra, functions, geometry and trigonometry, statistics and probability, and calculus. Calculus and functions are generally the heaviest of the five in both depth and the proportion of exam questions that draw on them, which is consistent with AA's own emphasis on analysis using functions and calculus — the course's stated focus, not an incidental detail. The mathematical exploration sits alongside these five as a separate, internally assessed component, worth 20% of the final grade on its own.
Recommended teaching hours for an HL subject total 240, against 150 for the standard-level version of the same course — a genuine difference in depth and breadth, not just extra practice time on the same material.
Layer 1 — Number and algebra
Sequences, exponents, logarithms, the binomial theorem, and — at HL only — complex numbers and proof by induction.
Layer 2 — Functions
Function properties, transformations, polynomial and rational functions, and composite and inverse functions — foundational to nearly everything that follows in calculus.
Layer 3 — Geometry and trigonometry
Trigonometric identities and equations, vectors, and — at HL — 3D geometry and vector equations of planes.
Layer 4 — Statistics and probability
Descriptive statistics, probability distributions, and hypothesis testing.
Layer 5 — Calculus
Differentiation, integration, differential equations, and — at HL — series and more advanced techniques. Generally the largest single area by weight.
2. What changes in 2029, and what doesn't
The IB has confirmed that no content is being added in the 2027-taught, 2029-first-assessed revision — the changes are targeted reductions designed to make the course more coherent, not an expansion. At standard level, the removals include financial applications and bivariate data; at higher level, the same two plus proof by counterexample and Euler's method also come out. The five syllabus areas themselves, and AA's core emphasis on functions and calculus, stay the same shape.
The more significant change sits in assessment rather than content: Paper 1 and Paper 2 both drop from 110 to 100 marks at HL, Paper 3 drops from 55 to 50 marks and returns to a one-hour duration, and the exploration's internal-assessment criteria move from the current five-criterion rubric to a four-criterion model built around problem specification, abstraction, computation and interpretation. A student starting the Diploma in 2026 sits the current version; one starting in 2027 sits the revised one — the syllabus content is nearly identical, but the exam paper and the exploration rubric are not.
The 2029 revision removes specific content — it does not add any. The paper structure and the exploration rubric change more than the syllabus itself does.
3. Turning the syllabus into a revision plan
A syllabus list on its own doesn't tell you where a specific student is actually losing marks — that takes looking at real practice-paper results, not the topic list. The more useful starting question is not "have I covered every syllabus point" but "which of the five areas is producing the most lost marks right now, and is that a content gap or a method gap." A student who can solve a calculus problem in isolation but loses marks when the same technique appears embedded in a functions question has a transfer problem, not a calculus problem — and no amount of extra calculus drilling fixes that specific gap.
Treating the exploration as a sixth, separate area rather than an afterthought matters too: it carries the same 20% weighting as an entire written paper, and unlike the three exam papers, its timeline is set by the school, not by a fixed exam date — which makes it easy to under-prioritise relative to papers with a visible countdown.
The exploration carries the same weight as an entire paper. It just doesn't come with a countdown clock reminding you of that.
Sources
Both sources below are the IB's own current pages, checked directly in a browser.