Paper 2

FOR SL STUDENTS, PAPER 2 IS 1HR 45MINS AND IS WORTH 35% OF YOUR FINAL IB GRADE

The paper comprises four questions of a general nature. In response to one question you will write a comparative essay based on two literary works studied in the course. You will choose which two literary texts to use in this assessment, however your teacher will introduce 2-3 best suited texts during your Year 13 studies. Although you can use any texts from your Year 12 and 13 studies, you must not write on a text used in a previous assessment (IO) in this examination.

Attention should be paid to the relevance of the argument to the question chosen and to the appropriateness of the works selected by the student to address the question. You are expected to make detailed references to the works in your answer but are not required to include quotations (although they can be helpful). You will not be allowed to bring your texts to the exam.

Questions and assessment rubrics are the same for HL and SL.

The maximum mark for paper 2 is 30 marks.

Useful resources and documents

preparing_students_for_paper_2.mp4 (720p).mp4

This video was released by the IB to help teachers best guide their students for Paper 2.

There is a lot of excellent information here about how to approach the questions, understand the assessment criteria and structure a response.

It's not the most thrilling video but I highly suggest to take the time to watch it and take notes.

IB Specimen Paper 2

This is the only sample paper that we have for the new curriculum. Unfortunately, there are no sample student responses as of yet.

You will want to consider how these questions connect to the course concepts. There is a page on this site dedicated to these. You can find it HERE

Paper 2 - intro and unpacking the question - SSST

This is a very brief overview of Paper 2

The assessment criteria for Paper 2 is the same for both HL and SL.

The IB guidance video posted above has a section dedicated to unpacking these criteria.

Paper 2 (HL/SL) first assessment 2026

You may find it helpful to chart similarities and differences in 3 of the works you have studied to help prepare for this exam.

You may find this chart helpful in doing this.

You may want to chart the texts individually before creating a comparison chart. This is a useful chart for this individual unpacking

The videos below give you a quick overview of some key ideas and approaches for Paper 2

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