TOK Essay

What is the essay all about?

The theory of knowledge course is assessed through a presentation and a 1600 word essay on your choice of one of 6 set title questions. The majority of your TOK marks come from the essay. The total TOK marks will be combined with your EE mark to give you a maximum of 3 points.

Your essay is marked externally. It is important that you upload the official PPF form, (TOK essay planning and progress form) together with your essay, otherwise you won't be able to submit the essay. On this form, you must write down 3 interactions you have had with your teachers in preparation for the essay. To ensure you achieve a good score for your essay, you should understand what the examiners are looking for.

Knowledge Questions

Knowledge questions are central to both the essay and the presentation. The documents on knowledge questions (see below) give you some tips on how to make them. The TOK guide also suggests possible knowledge questions per area of knowledge. Please look at these sections in the guide to help you get a better idea of what good knowledge questions look like and what makes good TOK material for discussions. For your essay, you should use knowledge questions as natural stepping stones to answer your essay question. These knowledge questions should ideally be embedded within your answer and linked clearly to real-life examples. Under no circumstances should you change the title of the essay question into a knowledge question, which you will then answer instead of the essay question.

Examples: using real life situations to illustrate your essays.

You should illustrate your essay with concrete examples, coming from the real world. These examples can, amongst others, come from your IB DP subject lessons, research you have done or articles you have read. Do not look for real life examples as such on this website or on other TOK websites. This website aims to help you understand what TOK is all about. By copying the real-life examples from this website, you will reduce the originality of your essay. You may not be the only student who had this idea... Just open your eyes, read the news and pay attention to what is happening around you. You'll be surprised how much original TOK material you can find. Of course, it's OK to mention some of the ideas you have seen in your TOK lessons. But show to your teachers that you are able to think for yourself and come up with some original insights. Examiners complain year after year that students are using the same examples across the world. Some of these examples are becoming a little "cliché". remember to include a range of perspectives within your essays. If you are looking for inspiration of different perspectives and ideas, you can look at the following BBC Radio 4 website (A History of ideas). You can, of course, also talk to your subject teachers to find out different perspectives. They may also be able to help you find some good examples. TOK is a subject that is placed at the heart of the IB DP. By comparing methodologies used in your subject lessons, and by offering examples from your lessons, you can reach some very interesting conclusions in TOK terms.