TOK Essay (EA)
External Assessment (EA):
The IB has two types of assessments: external and internal. External assessments are submitted to and evaluated by the IB. In TOK, the external assessment is the TOK essay. The titles for this essay are released by the IB in September of the senior year. The essay is written during the first semester of the senior year, scored out of 10 points, and accounts for 2/3 of the overall TOK grade.
TOK essay on a prescribed title
The TOK essay engages students in a formal, sustained piece of writing in response to one of the six titles that are prescribed by the IB for each examination session. These titles take the form of knowledge questions that are focused on the areas of knowledge.
The TOK essay is an external assessment component. Each student’s essay is submitted to the IB to be marked by IB examiners. The TOK Essay must be written in standard 12 type size and be double spaced. It is not primarily a research paper, but it is expected that specific sources will be used, and these must be acknowledged.
Essay titles
The IB releases a set of six prescribed titles for each examination session.
The chosen title must be used exactly as given; it must not be altered in any way.
Word count
The maximum length of the essay is 1,600 words. Extended footnotes or appendices are not appropriate for the TOK essay.
If an essay exceeds the word limit, then examiners are instructed to stop reading after 1,600 words and to base their assessment on just the first 1,600 words. Students are required to indicate the number of words when the essay is uploaded during the submission process.
Guidance and authenticity
The TOK essay must be the student’s own work. However, the teacher plays an important role in supporting the student during the planning and writing of their essay.
Teachers explain the requirements of the task and ensure that students are familiar with the assessment instrument, provide clarifications in response to students’ questions, monitor students’ progress, and check the authenticity of the student work.
Three formal recorded interactions between the student and teacher are required. These three interactions must be recorded on the TOK essay Planning and Progress Form (TK/PPF) on ManageBac.
During class, students should discuss the prescribed titles with the teacher. The final choice of title remains with the student, who should develop their own thinking and ideas.
After choosing the title and developing their initial ideas in relation to it, the student must discuss their initial work/explorations with the teacher by sharing them in outline form.
After this, the student is permitted to present one full draft of the essay to the teacher. The teacher should provide oral or written advice on how the work could be improved. This advice may take the form of written comments of a global nature, but teachers are not permitted to mark or edit this draft. While the student may seek further advice from the teacher, for example, on the appropriateness of a particular example or on the clarity of a section of writing, no further written advice on drafts is permitted. The next version handed to the teacher must be the final version for submission.
All work submitted to the IB for moderation or assessment must be authenticated by a teacher and must not include any known instances of suspected or confirmed misconduct. Each student must confirm that the work is his or her authentic work and constitutes the final version of that work. Once a student has officially submitted the final version of the work it cannot be retracted.
This page has been adapted from the IBO materials.