Guide to the IB Extended Essay in 2025
February 17, 2025
If you鈥檙e an International Baccalaureate student getting ready to write your IB extended essay, you might be experiencing some very understandable trepidation. But have no fear鈥攚e鈥檙e here to help you understand what鈥檚 required of you, how to plan ahead (IB extended essay topics), and how you鈥檒l be graded (IB extended essay rubric). Keep reading for a good dose of preparation and confidence before you begin the journey. In this article, we鈥檒l cover:
- What is the IB Extended Essay?
- The IB Extended Essay鈥擱equired Content
- IB Extended Essay Topics
- IB Extended Essay鈥擲ample Essays
- IB Extended Essay Tips
- IB Extended Essay Rubric
- IB Extended Essay鈥擬ore Resources
What is the IB Extended Essay?
The IB extended essay is a 4,000-word paper that asks you to immerse yourself in research and academic writing. A required part of the IB program, the Extended Essay is a chance to dig deep into a topic that fascinates you.
No small task, the IB Extended Essay is an opportunity to gain practical research and writing skills that will come in handy again in college. As you write, you鈥檒l learn how to:
- Identify credible sources
- Formulate a research question and limit your scope of research
- Communicate ideas to an audience
- Develop a well-supported argument
The IB extended essay is largely an independent, self-directed project, but don鈥檛 worry鈥攖he IB program doesn鈥檛 throw you into the deep end. You get to select a mentor (usually a teacher at your school) to help guide you through the process. As you write, you鈥檒l be required to meet with your mentor three times. As part of your final evaluation, your mentor will interview you in a final reflection section called a viva voce. During the viva voce, your mentor will check for plagiarism and malpractice, ask you to reflect on challenges and difficulties, and prompt you to discuss what you鈥檝e learned through the research and writing process. Your mentor will then generate a report that factors into your final grade.
The IB Extended Essay鈥擶hat’s Required?
Your final essay must include the following:
- Title page
- Contents page
- Introduction
- Body of the essay
- Conclusion
- References and bibliography
What Are the IB Extended Essay Topics?
For this essay, it will be up to you to generate a topic; the International Baccalaureate does not provide prompts. However, your essay will need to fit within one of . You鈥檒l choose from the following list of IB Extended Essay Topics:
- Studies in Language and literature
- Language acquisition
- Individuals and societies
- Sciences
- Mathematics
- Arts
IB Extended Essay Topics (Continued)
At a glance, the subject areas might look limited, but the topics you can choose to write about are actually wide-ranging. The 鈥渋ndividuals and societies鈥� category includes social science topics like economics, history, world religions, and philosophy. And, if you鈥檙e leaning toward 鈥渟cience,鈥� you can choose from classic subjects such as biology, chemistry, and physics, or related topics like environmental systems or health science, among others.
The IB also offers a special 鈥渨orld studies鈥� option for students interested in researching global issues. This subject would allow you to center your writing on global issues such as migration, global health, cultural exchange, or climate change. Do note that these subject areas are
IB Extended Essay鈥擲ample Essays
Wondering what an outstanding IB Extended Essay looks like? The International Baccalaureate provides quite a few . Here are five essays that earned A grades.
- Language and literature:
- Environmental Systems and Societies:
- Psychology:
- Music:
- Business Management:
IB Extended Essay — What Are Some Tips?
1) Pick something you鈥檙e passionate about
As you can see from the titles above, the IB extended essay is a great place to delve into a niche topic that fascinates you. Since you鈥檒l be spending many months on this essay, you鈥檒l want to pick a topic you genuinely enjoy spending time learning about. It鈥檚 also smart to choose something you鈥檝e already learned about in your IB classes so that you have a strong foundation of knowledge to start with. In music class, do you love pondering why music makes us feel a certain way? Maybe an essay about music theory will keep your gears turning. Do you come alive trying to solve seemingly impossible problems in physics class? Now鈥檚 your chance to put those equations into action.
Since this essay is all about your academic interests, it鈥檚 also a good idea to pick a topic that鈥檚 relevant to what you plan to study in college. Selecting a relevant topic will provide you with significant exposure to the field and will also give you something meaningful to talk about in your college admissions essays.
2) Limit your scope
What鈥檚 the meaning of life? Why do wars happen? What is time? Some questions are just way too big to answer, and your IB extended essay is not a good place to tackle expansive, philosophical questions. Instead, think of this essay as a place to investigate one piece of a big question. If, let鈥檚 say, you鈥檙e generally interested in what helps women reach positions of leadership in business, this is a good place to examine how one or a few companies approach this issue. Or, if you鈥檙e interested in studying what inspires surrealist painters, you鈥檒l want to pick one or a few painters to research, likely all from the same time period. For both these topics, you鈥檇 need a whole textbook to tackle the full question, but limiting your scope will make it much easier to write a clear and cohesive 4,000 words.
On the other hand, it鈥檚 possible to narrow your focus too much. It would be impossible, for example, to write 4,000 words about a single sentence in a novel. Make sure you talk about scope early and often with your mentor. Together, you can find the perfect Goldilocks scope for your project that鈥檚 not too big and not too small.
3) Choose a good mentor
Speaking of mentors, choosing wisely will help you enormously as you embark on your IB extended essay. You鈥檒l want to make sure you choose someone with existing knowledge in your research topic. Your English teacher may be able to give you great writing advice, for example, but they won鈥檛 be able to guide your research and scope if you鈥檙e writing about marine animals or modern dance.
Before you approach a teacher, make sure you have at least one topic idea (or even a few) in mind so that you can make sure they鈥檒l be a good fit to supervise your project. When you meet with them, find out what their mentorship style is like. Make sure they鈥檒l have time to read several drafts of your essays, meet with you a few times, and give you feedback. Some IB schools require your IB extended essay mentor to sign an agreement form as well, so make sure you find out what paperwork is required in advance.
4) Get organized, way organized
The IB Extended Essay is not something you can crank out the night before it鈥檚 due. The essay is meant to be a substantive, in-depth, thoughtful, and thoroughly researched analysis. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. This might be the longest paper you鈥檝e written to date, and it will likely require more research than you鈥檝e been asked to do before. Timelines vary by school, but you鈥檒l likely spend between eight months and a year working on your IB Extended Essay. So, how will you pull it all off? For these 8-12 months, organization will be your guiding light. We recommend you:
- Get started early. If your essay is due November of your senior year, start generating topic ideas during your junior year right after winter break.
- Create a long-view schedule for yourself. What will you accomplish each month of your process?
- Give yourself deadlines. Once you choose a mentor, suggest 2-3 draft deadline dates to hold yourself accountable throughout the writing process.
- Find a note-taking system that works for you. You鈥檒l be reading many articles and books and it鈥檚 hard to keep track of all your sources. Create a document or spreadsheet where you keep track of the sources you鈥檝e found and check them off as you read. As you finish reading a text, type up important quotes and a few notes explaining how it connects to your topic and to your other texts.
5) Write a messy first draft
Writing never comes out perfect the first time, even for experienced researchers. In your first draft, give yourself permission to get all your thoughts out, no matter how unstructured or rambling they are. Call this your brainstorming draft. When you鈥檙e ready to revisit it, see what patterns emerge, what common ideas you can group together, what beginning buds of ideas you can make bloom into full-fledged analysis.
6) Communicate to an audience
When you鈥檙e used to producing writing that only your teacher reads, it can be hard to remember to write for an audience. But at the end of the day, writing is communication, and the best writing is clear and thorough communication that anyone could pick up and read. For your IB extended essay, you鈥檒l want to remember that many people will be reading your final essay, and not all of them will be experts in the niche topic you choose to study. Ask yourself: how can I explain my research to an audience who doesn鈥檛 already agree with my analysis?
To communicate to an audience, you鈥檒l want to:
- Provide sufficient general background information on your topic.
- Don鈥檛 assume your reader is familiar with your sources. Introduce them as if they鈥檙e guest speakers about to walk up to a podium and deliver a lecture.
- After including quotes, facts, and figures, be sure to explain what those sources mean in your own words and how they connect to your bigger-picture argument.
- Don鈥檛 assume your arguments are self-evident. In this essay, communicating to an audience means supplying ongoing interpretation and analysis, even if it feels like you鈥檙e explaining the obvious. Your reader isn鈥檛 on your research journey with you, so your points might not be so obvious to your reader.
IB Extended — Is There a Rubric?
Although your IB extended essay provides a report that factors into your grade, your essay will also be assessed by external examiners at the IB. Per the IB extended essay rubric, essays are graded on a scale from 0 to 34 based on 5 different criteria:
- Criterion A: Focus and Method (6 points maximum)
- Criterion B: Knowledge and Understanding (6 points maximum)
- Criterion C: Critical Thinking (12 points maximum)
- Criterion D: Presentation (4 points maximum)
- Criterion E: Engagement (6 points maximum)
As you can see, critical thinking is the most significant rubric category. This means that the IB wants to see you arrive at your own unique analysis of your topic, drawing connections between sources and data, and making well-supported arguments. This means they want a lot of you: your ideas, your interpretations, your thoughts. Make sure you emphasize that in your essay, but of course don鈥檛 forget the other categories.
The score a student receives corresponds to a letter grade scale that is slightly different than what we鈥檙e accustomed to in the U.S. Here鈥檚 how the letter grade corresponds to the numerical score:
| Total Points Earned | Letter Grade | Descriptor |
| 30-34 | A | Excellent |
| 25-29 | B | Good |
| 17-24 | C | Satisfactory |
| 9-19 | D | Mediocre |
| 0-8 | E | Elementary |
You must earn a D or higher to receive your IB Diploma. To learn more about the different criteria included in the IB Extended Essay Rubric, you can explore the .
IB Extended Essay鈥擣inal Thoughts
We hope you found our look at the IB extended essay rubric and IB extended essay topics to be helpful. Ready to dive into research? You may want to read our 10 Expert Tips for Improving Reading Comprehension before you hit the books.
And if you鈥檙e a high school student in the process of mapping out your pathway to college, take a look at a few other useful guides:
