How to plan CAS and build your portfolio

Creativity, Activity and Service

What makes a strong CAS experience?

• It has a purpose and is appropriate for you.
• You can identify a personal goal or challenge.
• You take an active role rather than remaining a passive attendee.
• It provides a real opportunity to address one or more learning outcomes.
• You can collect proportionate evidence without letting documentation replace participation.

The CAS stages

1. Investigation. Identify interests, abilities and — in service — the needs of the community.
2. Preparation. Clarify roles, resources, risks, permissions and a workable plan.
3. Action. Carry out the experience and adapt when circumstances change.
4. Reflection. Make sense of decisions, challenges, impact and learning.
5. Demonstration. Show what happened and what was learned to an appropriate audience.

Planning the CAS project

The CAS project is collaborative and sustained. Agree a shared purpose, individual responsibilities, communication method, timeline, safeguarding or safety requirements and how the group will evaluate impact. Record changes to the plan: adapting intelligently is useful evidence, not proof that the project failed.

How to write a meaningful reflection

Reflection can be written, recorded, photographed or expressed in another suitable form. Avoid narrating every action. Select moments that mattered and answer questions such as:

• What did I notice that I had not expected?
• Which decision did I make, and what followed from it?
• Whose perspective changed my understanding?
• What was the effect on other people or the environment?
• What would I repeat, change or investigate next?
• Which learning outcome does this genuinely demonstrate, and where is the evidence?

Portfolio checklist

• A balanced range of creativity, activity and service over time.
• Goals, plans and dates that show continuity.
• Evidence selected because it supports a claim, not simply because it exists.
• Reflections at meaningful stages, including challenges and changes.
• Clear links to all required learning outcomes across the programme.
• A documented collaborative CAS project.
• Coordinator meetings and completion requirements recorded as your school expects.
• Consent and privacy respected in photographs and information about others.

Common mistakes

• Counting routine curriculum work or passive attendance as CAS.
• Writing many identical reflections after the event.
• Claiming every learning outcome for every experience.
• Photographing beneficiaries without informed permission.
• Focusing on hours rather than continuity, quality and learning.

CAS — frequently asked questions

Guidance aligned to current CAS practice. This is a personal organiser, not an official IB submission system — follow your school’s CAS platform for formal records. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization.

Where to go next

Open CAS portfolio. Other guides: Extended Essay guide · TOK guide. All guides.