Brad Cartwright

The Two Most Important Extended Essay Criteria for Supervisors

October 18, 2024

This week we are going to take a look at how we make a huge impact on our students’ Extended Essay grade without paying any attention to the paper itself. 

Have you ever been baffled, frustrated, or even angry at the score your Advisee got on his or her Extended Essay?   

I have internally raged at IB Examiner’s judgments of what I was sure was an A paper only for it to get a B with very little explanation or feedback.

If you’re an experienced IB Teacher, you’ve been there.  If you are not, let’s do everything we can so that you never feel that way.  

Most often this happens because we fail to realize that there are two particular criteria that actually have nothing to do with what the student wrote in the paper.  

This newsletter is designed to help you see how easy it is to make a big difference for your Advisee.

To begin, let’s take a look at the Extended Essay Mark Scheme (here’s a downloadable version).

As you can see, there are a total of 34 marks on the Extended Essay.  

But you might also note that 10 of the 34 marks are not about the paper at all.  

They are about the Presentation (4 Marks) and the Engagement (6 Marks).  

This is critical for us to know because it is here that we as Supervisors can have an enormous impact on the student’s outcome.    

Also, check this out.  These are the Grade Boundaries for the Extended Essay: 

While these ranges may vary slightly from year to year, you can count on these being the grade ranges of marks earned to earn an A or B and so forth.  

Ok, so here’s my take on where we as Supervisors can have an enormous impact on the overall grade of the Extended Essay, without even dealing with the paper itself.

That’s because these 10 marks for the Presentation and Engagement, are often the difference between our predicted grades and the actual grade the Extended Essay earns from the IB Examiner. 

Let’s take a look…

Criterion D: Presentation (4 Marks)

Here is what the marks scheme says, “This criterion assesses the extent to which the presentation follows the standard format expected for academic writing and the extent to which this aids effective communication”.

In other words, this criterion assesses the presentation of the essay. 

Or rather, simply the way that it looks as you flip through it.  

It looks at the organization, the formal elements (such as the title page, table of contents, page numbers), and the correct and consistent use of a citation style. And as we know, consistent use of a citation style can be easily achieved by using citation tools and following the guide.  

Let’s take a look at the actual mark scheme for Criterion D: 

My thoughts and advice:

• This is where we can have the most impact on a kid’s paper.
• This criterion is literally about the way the paper looks based on the Subject Area that we teach.   I teach IB Economics, so I know the “standard format expected” for a paper in Economics.  It’s that easy.
• Don’t be “nice” here.  
• Be strict, be formal, no exceptions.
• Need examples of a solid format for all Subject Areas sanctioned by the IB?  Click here.
• My strategy here is: “Let’s not give the IB examiner any reason to take off marks.”  Perfection here is obtainable.  So, let’s do it!
• Goal for Criterion D:    4 / 4 Marks.  We have all of the power on this one.

The goal is 4 out of 4 marks, but even if they get 3, we are preserving critical marks toward earning the grade the paper deserves. 

The other Criterion where we can have a huge impact is, Criterion E.

Criterion E: Engagement (6 Marks)

Here is what the marks scheme says, “This criterion assesses the student’s engagement with their research focus and the research process.”

Engagement.  Engagement. Engagement.  

It’s all about the student writing about his or her own engagement in the Extended Essay process. 

Where? In their three reflections: The Initial, The Interim, and The Final.  

Let’s take a look at the mark scheme: 

My thoughts and advice:

• First Big Thought:  These reflections are evaluative.  Not descriptive.  Not analytical. They are evaluative, which means they judge how they student has managed the two specific processes—the research focus and the research process.
• Second Big Thought:  The mark scheme identifies two processes for the kid to write about.
  1. Process 1: The windy road process to arrive at a research focus or in other words, the research question.
  2. Process 2: The linear process of going from the beginning to the end of the Extended Essay process.  
• Third Big Thought: The IB loves their words so use them.
  1. Students should literally only use the IB’s words from the mark scheme in their reflections.  Look at the 5-6 mark band.  
     • What does it say?  
       • “Evaluate and include references to the student’s capacity to consider actions and ideas in response to challenges experienced in the research process.”  
       • “These reflections communicate a high degree of intellectual and personal engagement with the research focus and the research process.”
  2. So, in the interview process have students first identify their challenges and then evaluate (or judge) how they overcame those challenges.  
  3. Then have them talk about how engaged (or not) they have been in the EE process since the last interview.   
  4. Then in their reflections have them use the word engagement as many times as they possibly can.  I mean it.  No synonyms.
• Last Big Thought:  Teach the writing of the reflections overtly.  Here’s my writing structure if you want to take it.
• Goal for Criterion E:    5 / 6 Marks.  We have all of the power on this one too.

Wait, that’s it?  

That’s it.  

Obviously, the paper is very important, but we as Supervisors can have the most direct impact on the student’s grade by being relentlessly demanding in these two criteria. 

Those 4 marks for Presentation and those 6 marks for Engagement should be our goal for each of our Advisees. 

And most importantly, between what we think the paper deserves and the grade it actually receives from the IB.

If not, we are not serving them they way they deserve to be.

I love supervising the Extended Essay.  I love the journey.  

I love watching my students mature and evolve over the year-long process.  

And most of all, I love what I learn from these kid’s papers.

I hope that was helpful.

Thanks for reading and we'll see you next week.