Part 4 of 5: The New Subject-Specific Guidance for the Extended Essay

The New Subject-Specific Guidance for the Extended Essay

Part 4 of 5

September 22, 2025

We’re back for part four of the five-part series that is investigating this new and exciting Subject-Specific Guidance from the IB on the Extended Essay for the class of 2027.

And, as I’ve mentioned before, and thank you to many of you who have already signed up, this series is based on the deep dive experience that you can have in our Effectively Supervising the New Extended Essay workshop on November 8th via Zoom. So if you haven’t had a chance to sign up yet and would like to, we’d love to meet you. And remember, there is also a group discount for schools that send more than five teachers to the workshop.

Okay, this one is big.

The Subject-Specific Guidance for the new version of the Extended Essay has completely changed.

The Big Change...

The biggest change is that before, there was a separate Subject-Specific Guidance for every individual course in the IB.

That is no longer true.

Now, there is one Subject-Specific Guidance for each Subject Group, with just two exceptions.

Here’s the breakdown:

Language A has its own Subject-Specific Guidance.
Language B has its own Subject-Specific Guidance.
Classical Studies has its own Subject-Specific Guidance.
Group 3: Individuals and Societies now has one Subject-Specific Guidance for all courses.
Group 4: Sciences also now shares one Subject-Specific Guidance.
Group 5: Mathematics has one Subject-Specific Guidance.
Group 6: The Arts now has one Subject-Specific Guidance for all courses.
Cross-disciplinary subjects (Environmental Systems and Societies and Literature and Performance) now share one Subject-Specific Guidance of their own.

Why Cross-Disciplinary? Because both ESS and Literature and Performance already combine more than one discipline, and therefore, the IB created a specific Subject-Specific Guidance for those two courses.

That is a massive change.

Think of It as the Assignment Sheet

Here’s a easy way to think about it...

Just think of the Subject-Specific Guidance is the assignment sheet for the Extended Essay.

It literally tells the student, and you as the Supervisor, what to do in order to hit the Mark Scheme.

That is super important.

Think of it that way—the Subject-Specific Guidance is the assignment sheet.

I’ve seen many teachers around the world who don’t approach it this way. But the reality is, this is what gives clarity to the student about what they must do in order to succeed.

A Huge Point for Interdisciplinary Pathways

This is critical...

For the Interdisciplinary Pathway, students must use both Subject-Specific Guidances if they are combining subjects from two different groups.

For example, if a student is writing an essay that combines Economics (Group 3) and Biology (Group 4) they must follow the Subject-Specific Guidance from both Group 3 and Group 4. Their essay is guided by both.

But if a student writes an Interdisciplinary Pathway essay within one subject group—say, Economics and History—then they only use the Group 3 guidance, since both subjects fall within that group.

This is a huge point.

Supervisors and Coordinators need to keep this distinction in mind.

A Shared Structure

Each Subject-Specific Guidance is organized in the same way.

They all have the same structure, which makes them much easier to use.

The sections are:

What is distinctive about an Extended Essay in that subject area.
Choosing a topic. This section is similar to before but worth a close read.
Research and writing your essay. Step-by-step advice on the process.
Examples of topics, research questions, and approaches. This is incredibly useful—if you want to get a feel for what students could write about, these examples are a gold mine.
Considering the assessment criteria. How the Mark Scheme applies to essays in this subject group.

Every Subject-Specific Guidance follows this same structure.

Knowing this is really important, both for Supervisors and for students.

My Thoughts and Takeaways...

This Will Take Time. This is a huge change, and it’s going to take time for all of us to adapt. The best thing you can do is grab the Subject-Specific Guidance for your subject group and read it carefully. These are excellent documents, and reading them thoroughly is the best way to understand the changes.
More Collaboration. As an Economics teacher in Group 3, I am excited about this. Before, the History essay, the Economics essay, the Psychology essay, and the Global Politics essay all had separate guidances, so there was little room for collaboration. Now, there is one common guidance for all of them, which opens the door for real collaboration within departments. And what is true in Group 3 is also true in Group 6—the Arts. For the first time, the Visual Arts, Theater, Dance, and Film teachers are all working from the same guidance.
Fewer Documents to Manage. For IB Coordinators and EE Coordinators, this change is empowering. Instead of trying to wrap our heads around 30 separate guidances, we now have only eight Subject-Specific Guidances to understand. That makes it realistic for coordinators to be knowledgeable across groups and better able to support students and Supervisors.
Supervisor Expertise Critical. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, with just one Subject Specific Guidance per Subject Group, our expertise in our individual course is going to matter more than ever.
Clearer Guidance. The new documents are very clear. I especially love the “choosing a topic” sections and the example research questions. These are excellent resources, and if you haven’t looked at them yet, I highly recommend you do. They are excellent, excellent, excellent.
Challenges Ahead. Where I see difficulty is in supervising Interdisciplinary Pathway essays that draw on two different Subject-Specific Guidances. That is going to be tricky for schools to manage at first. But once you read the documents, you’ll see that they are clear enough to guide both students and Supervisors effectively.

So there you have it—a full rundown and my take one the new Subject-Specific Guidance for the Extended Essay for the class of 2027.

There’s a lot to this one. I am not oversimplifying it.

This is going to take time for all of us to dig into, and it’s going to take time for all of us to wrap our heads around. And that is exactly what we are going to do in our Effectively Supervising the New Extended Essay workshop on November 8th. If you would like to join us, we would love to host you.

Alright, that is four of five.

Next week is the final part of the series, where we’re going to talk about supervision and some best practices to consider with the new Extended Essay guidance from the IB.

I hope you have a great week and thanks for reading!

Brad

Book a Custom Training for Your IB Faculty - If your school would like a tailored training on the updated Extended Essay guidelines, we’d love to help—onsite at your campus or live online—just send me an email at [email protected] and we’ll work together to make it happen.

Effectively Supervising the New Extended Essay - November 8th, 2025 - This focused and practical workshop is designed to help teachers confidently navigate the updated Extended Essay framework for the Class of 2027. Together, we’ll explore what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and how to effectively guide students through both the Subject-Focused and Interdisciplinary pathways.