EE Information

Extended Essay Information to Grade 12 (and Grade 11, for your information for next school year).

The short version:

EE Writing Days Sept 13-14 are mandatory as is is an official IB summative assessment.

If absent, we will require a Dr. certificate if you are requesting an extension, because this is an official IB summative assessment you're working on.

Any delays to deadlines will be considered a breach in Academic Honesty and thus can result in not being registered for the EE any longer (i.e. switch to course candidate). 

Deadlines and details follow below.

The detailed version:

We have reflected and evaluated our EE practices and have fine-tuned the process for this school year. We have also considered how new developments in generative AI can affect students’ approach to writing the EE. This year, our year 3 students can expect the following.  

• To have completed an inspection draft already by now (Aug 21 was the deadline).

• As a support to that deadline, we put in an EE day Sept 1st. If the inspection draft wasn’t already submitted, then this was the day to work on it and get it done. If it was done, it was a day to continue working towards a final first draft.

• September 14th at 4 pm the complete first draft is due and  2nd official reflection is due.

• October 6th: students will have received feedback on their first draft by this date.

• November 5th at 8 pm: the Final Extended Essay is Due.

• December: Viva Voce/third reflection

The Extended Essay, though done internally by students on their own and at school, is an externally assessed component of the IB Exams.  To increase students’ academic achievement and support them in this assessment and its process,  we have decided that we will have two days of EE writing in place at school.  The outcome of these two days is a complete first draft.

It will take place in the South and North Aula and a schedule will be provided by the DP Coordinator.  This writing time is to be considered similar to any other IB exam writing condition, i.e., it is not a time for collaboration or talking with others, it is an exam writing session. Students must come prepared to work and write their Extended Essay and thus have access to all reference material as needed this day. These sessions are invigilated just as though it is an IB examination. Students are permitted headphones or noise-cancelling headphones and access to the computer and any books or resources for the EE they bring with them.

Note: we anticipate that some students might say they prefer not to work under these conditions….that they'd prefer to work at home, for example, instead.  Given that this is an IB externally marked examination (in the end), we insist that this is the format for these two days and that students are expected to be present and working. If they are not present but still submit their work, their work may be flagged to check for academic honesty concerns.  Students must be prepared to work on premises with the supervision of teachers.   This being said, students are permitted to work outside of school on their EE as well. It could be that some students are already complete or nearly complete.  In cases where students have finished or are close to finishing, we ask they come in and re-read their work and edit it again before submitting or re-submitting on this day. Students who finish early:  once the student has read/editing their work, submitted it on Managebac, completed the reflection and submitted it, an invigilating teacher will verify it.  After that, the student will be permitted to leave. Alternatively, they can stay and work or study in the quiet room.

The outcome of the two days of writing must be a first complete draft and a 2nd reflection. Both must be submitted on  the Managebac platform by the 14th of September at 1600.   

If a student is absent during either of these sessions, it will be handled the same as if they are absent for an official IB examination. In such cases, we require a Dr. note given to the Principal or DP Coordinator to verify a substantial enough illness that kept them away from school for the exam writing session.  Without a Dr. note, there will not be an extension given and the student is required to submit whatever draft they have immediately. If no draft is forthcoming, this is a breach of academic honesty and we can thus no longer register the student for the Extended Essay and the student then becomes a course candidate.

 After September 14th, teachers will provide feedback on the complete draft by October 6th.   The students then must complete their Final Extended Essay and submit it to Managebac by November 5th at 8 pm.  The Viva Voce and final required reflection will be completed in December. 

Please note that if we do not receive a final copy on November 5th, we will submit to the IB the first complete draft instead. An attempt to have the school submit a final EE copy after November 5th to the IB would be another breach of academic honesty, and thus, we will not accept a late final copy.

 Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this process and thank you for your attention to this!