Get a 7 in IB Diploma English

If you’re planning to take the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme coursework in Literature in English (i.e., English A1), your goal is probably to beef up your profile for college applications. As such, you may be aiming for the max score in the course, a seven (on a scale of 1-7). To give yourself the best opportunity to achieve this goal, you need to be rigorous in your preparation, an attentive and engaged reader, and capable of providing critical literary analysis in both written and oral formats. You’ll probably need some luck along the way to reach that seven, but the following guide offers some valuable advice.

Steps

Staying on Course

1. Be clear on the course objectives. The goal of Language and Literature coursework in the International Baccalaureate program, in English and otherwise, is to develop skills in textual analysis, oral and written communication, and recognition of contexts, themes, forms, styles, and aesthetics. For English A1, there are three major assessment objectives:
   • First, “knowledge and understanding.” The goal here is to develop your ability to read and respond to texts of various types, by recognizing elements such as stylistic choices and cultural contexts for both creation and reception of the work.
   • Second, “analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.” The coursework aims to enhance your skills at critically analyzing a text through thoughtful interpretation and evaluation, along with your ability to synthesize ideas from multiple works into evaluations of literary techniques, genres, and conventions.
   • Third, “selection and use of appropriate presentation and language skills.” Comprehension and analysis are inherently weakened without the ability to clearly and coherently write and speak about a subject in an appropriately structured and formal language, so the maturation of such skills is another goal of the program.
2. Prepare for each component of the course. It is broken up into four parts, which in combination are prescribed to take a minimum of 150 hours (SL) or 240 hours (HL).
   • Please note: IB courses are offered at both a standard (SL) and advanced (HL) level. The essential goals and basic structures of the course remain the same, but HL requires a greater time commitment and demands a more rigorous evaluation criteria. Unless otherwise noted, this article refers to the HL course, although it is largely applicable to SL as well.
   • The four parts described below are the same in HL and SL, but the number of works within each varies.
   • Part 1: Works in Translation. Three translated foreign-language works from the prescribed literature in translation (PLT) list are chosen, with the goal of furthering understanding of cultural contexts in the production and reception of texts. This is commonly referred to as “World Lit.”
   • Part 2: Detailed Study. Three works, each from a different literary genre, are selected from the prescribed list of authors (PLA) for close analysis of form, style, content, and context. At least one of the works will be poetry.
   • Part 3: Literary Genres. Three works, all from the same genre, are selected from the PLA to provide a more thorough investigation of the conventions of a particular literary genre.
   • Part 4: Options. This section provides the flexibility to choose and study three works regardless of genre or form. They need not appear on the PLA or PLT.
3. Don’t procrastinate. In some corners of the academic world, IB students are rather notorious for procrastination, for instance by waiting until the night before to complete the “World Lit” assignment that constitutes 25% of the grade.
   • Procrastination is possible not because the coursework is easy for most students, but because of the amount of self-guidance and self-motivation required for the program. High school students who are used to very structured and supervised daily assignments and regular assessments can find it hard to adjust, or simply assume that they need not keep their “noses to the grindstone.”
   • IB programs are thus excellent preparation for college, where self-guidance and self-motivation are essential. Professors, after all, will not “hold your hand.”
   • Establish a clear schedule to keep up with your assignments, and set your own deadlines if necessary to make sure that you don’t fall behind. Don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for guidance or assistance.
4. Read with a purpose. There is no getting around the fact that there is a substantial amount of reading in IB Diploma English. Simply reading the material, however, is unlikely to be enough to secure that score of seven.
   • Read each selection more than once, whenever possible. The more familiar you are with the work, the better able you will be to effectively analyse it.
   • Take notes as you read. Jot down key details of each work — setting, main subject(s) or character(s), etc. — along with identifying key themes, stylistic elements, and so on. Highlighters can be your friend here as well.
   • WikiHow offers several articles on effective note taking in a variety of settings.
   • As you read, ask yourself questions like: “In what conditions/contexts did the author create this work?”; “How does the use of language and style reflect the author’s intent?”; “How does this work reflect and/or diverge from common literary genres?”; and, most simply “Why did the author write this piece?” Considering such questions as you read will better prepare you for your assessments.
5. Stay organized. Even the best notes are worthless if you cannot find them when needed. You are likely to end up with far more notes than you are used to in high school classes, so organization is critical — and good practice for college coursework.
   • Clearly label and identify your notes. For handwritten notes, use a clean sheet for each new note-taking session, with the topic and date clearly marked. For typed notes, create individual documents, and label and store them in a manner that makes them easy to identify and retrieve.
   • Invest in a good binder that allows you to store your notes in one place, and also reorganize them as needed to maximize their accessibility and utility.
   • Good organization also refers to the basics: make sure you do the correct assignments for each class meeting, and bring the proper materials with you.

Excelling at External Assessments

1. Play the percentages. The External Assessment component is worth 70% of your final grade (Paper 1 - 20%, Paper 2 - 25%, Written Assignment - 25%), so naturally it makes sense to dedicate a majority of your preparation time to these assignments. You’ll need to excel at both external and internal assessments to earn a seven, but you’ll have little chance of a good overall score without doing well with the former.
   • External Assessment is labeled as such because the assignments are evaluated by IB assessors off-site; that is, they are sent out to be graded.
   • This means it is more important to be aware of the general expectations for these assignments, and somewhat less essential to be concerned with your teacher’s specific points of emphasis.
2. Light up your Literary Commentary (Paper 1). For this assignment, you are provided two previously unseen passages, one poetry and one prose, and are given two hours to write a literary commentary on one of them.
   • For a literary commentary, purpose and effect are two key elements to consider. That is, what was the author’s intent for this piece (and how is that reflected in the construction of the piece), and how does the resulting piece impact the reader (based on cultural context)?
   • Before writing, read the entire piece carefully, identify major themes and assertions, highlight stylistic elements, and consider the author’s point of view carefully.
   • When writing, structure your essay clearly, provide quotes or specific references as evidence, and analyze — don’t just identify — the features of the piece. Explain what was written and why.
3. Energize your Essay (Paper 2). Here, you respond to a given question and write (within two hours) an essay that incorporates two works studied in Part 3 of the course (Literary Genres).
   • The question is almost certainly going to ask you to, to at least some degree, compare and contrast a key theme in two works within the same genre. When considering the three works in Part 3 (two of which you will write on here), mentally align them side-by-side and consider commonalities and differences.
   • Consider content, context, and literary elements utilized in each work.
   • If you can draw from a couple of specific quotes or key incidents from each writing, that will add weight to the major assertions in your essay.
   • Organization is, as always, critical. Make sure you clearly address the question given — it is surprisingly easy to write an essay without actually doing this. Turn your basic answer into your thesis statement, and use the body of the essay to flesh out this answer in more detail, using the two works as your evidentiary base.
4. Win your Written Assignment. This assignment is part of the aforementioned “World Lit” element of the course, where you are dealing with works translated into English. You write and submit a reflective statement (300-400 words) and essay (1,200-1,500 words) on one of the works studied in Part 1.
   • You have greater time flexibility to complete this assignment on your own schedule, which can be a blessing (plenty of time to refine it into a masterpiece) or a curse (waiting until the night before to write it). Choose the former if you want a shot at a seven for the class.
   • The reflective statement constitutes a rather meager component of your overall score for this assignment, so spend the bulk of your time on the essay. That said, make sure your reflection is clearly organized, free of grammar errors, and fulfills the requirements of the assignment. It is a personal reflection on your experience with the work, but that doesn’t mean you can skip out on details about the actual work itself.
   • The literary essay will (or at least should be) be the most complete analysis of any one written work you will produce during the class. You need to clearly define the author’s intent, show an appreciation for his/her writing choices, indicate an awareness of cultural contexts within which the work was written and is now being received, and do all of these in a clear, structured manner.
   • Identify the work and your major interpretive assertion about it (your thesis) quickly in the introduction, then use the body of the essay to substantiate this claim with supporting evidence that draws from the text itself, along with considerations of genre, literary conventions, intended audience, the impacts of translation, and so on.
   • If you do excellent work on this assignment, which constitutes 25% of your total grade, that seven may be within reach.

Acing Internal Assessments

1. Play the percentages (again). The assignments that fall under this section, which are assessed internally by your IB-approved teacher (hence the name), are worth 30% of your final grade. It includes an Individual Oral Commentary and Discussion and Individual Oral Presentation.
   • Focus your energies appropriately, then. This does not, however, mean that you should brush off these assignments as insignificant. If you really want to score a seven, that thirty percent will be critical.
   • Because your teacher is involved in the assessment, pay increased intention to his/her points of emphasis regarding the works themselves and the themes/topics/details worth extra consideration.
2. Own your Individual Oral Commentary and Discussion. For this assignment, you present a formal oral commentary on a extract of poetry from Part 2 of the class, followed by questions from the teacher, for ten minutes total, followed by an additional ten minutes of discussion about another extracted work from Part 2.
   • You are not made aware of the extracts to be considered until twenty minutes beforehand, so you may feel that you cannot do much preparation. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. By thoroughly analyzing each work in Part 2, thereby preparing yourself to discuss key components like poetic conventions, authorial intent, themes, contexts, and the like, you will be more capable of providing cogent, reasoned analysis quickly and clearly.
   • Conduct “practice runs” by selecting extracts yourself and preparing oral commentaries within the given time constraints. Even if the likelihood of your choosing the exact extract is small, the process of preparing, organizing, and presenting your thoughts within a given time limit will serve you well for the actual assessment.
   • For the questions and discussion session, prepare by thinking about questions and issues you would raise regarding these works. Practice either alone or — even better — with a partner by raising and discussing these questions / issues.
   • As you prepare, practice speaking within the prescribed time limit, neither too long (which can cause you to rush or be cut off) nor too short (which opens you up to even more questions from the teacher.)
3. Produce results with your Individual Oral Presentation. This assignment provides you a bit more flexibility, giving you 10-15 minutes to present a cogent analysis of one or more works from Part 4 (freely-chosen works).
   • Work in consultation with your instructor to determine which works to cover and what themes/issues/topics to emphasize.
   • Essentially, for the oral presentation, you want to achieve the same thing as in an essay, just in another format. You need to provide a clear argument (thesis), provide specific supporting evidence from the texts under consideration, and use clear, effective, proper language in doing so.
   • Your grade is determined by your demonstrated knowledge of the work(s), appreciation of thematic aspects, audience engagement, and manner of delivery, so what you say and how you say it are both of importance.
   • Practice, practice, practice. Practice your presentation as many times as possible beforehand. Practice in the mirror or in front of others. Sufficient preparation is the best way to battle nerves about public speaking and to ensure that your presentation comes in on time (10-15 minutes).
   • Instead of being wary of failure, think of this as your chance to shine — to determine what you want to discuss and present it in an engaging, effective manner.

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