IB extended essay (EE): rules, criteria and how to plan it
How the IB extended essay works from May 2027: choosing a subject and question, the 4,000-word limit, the reflection sessions and viva voce, and the criteria.
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What the extended essay is
The extended essay (EE) is a piece of independent research on a question you choose, written up as a formal academic essay of up to 4,000 words. Every Diploma student writes one.
- It takes about 40 hours of your own work.
- A supervisor, a teacher at your school, guides you.
- IB examiners mark it, not your school.
- It's graded from A to E. You need a D or higher to get the Diploma, and together with your TOK grade it gives up to 3 points. How IB grading works has the table.
This chapter follows the IB's new extended essay guide, first assessed in May 2027. If you submit in an earlier session, your school follows the previous guide, which has different criteria.
Subject-focused or interdisciplinary
You choose one of two pathways:
- Subject-focused: your research sits in one Diploma subject, using its methods and concepts.
- Interdisciplinary: your research combines two Diploma subjects, using what each one brings to the question.
The subject or subjects come from the IB's list for your session. It's strongly recommended that you write in a subject you study, and for an interdisciplinary essay, that you study at least one of the two. Choosing a subject you know well matters more than choosing one that sounds impressive.
Choosing a question
A good research question is focused enough to answer properly in 4,000 words, and open enough to need an argument rather than a summary.
- Start broad, then narrow. Begin with a topic you're curious about, read around it, then narrow it to one question.
- Check it can be researched. You need sources or data you can actually get, whether from a library, an experiment, a survey or a set of texts.
- Check the scope. A question that tries to cover a whole field won't fit. One method, one case or one set of texts usually will.
- Check it with your supervisor at your first reflection session, before you've spent weeks on it.
The same work can't count as both your extended essay and an internal assessment. If you write your EE in a subject where you also have an IA, choose a clearly different question.
Word limits
The essay can be at most 4,000 words. Examiners stop reading at the limit, so anything after it earns nothing, and an essay that runs over loses marks on every criterion.
| Counts towards 4,000 words | Doesn't count |
|---|---|
| The introduction, the body and the conclusion | The contents page and headings |
| Quotations | Maps, charts, diagrams, annotated illustrations and tables |
| Footnotes and endnotes that aren't references | Equations, formulas and calculations |
| References and citations, and the bibliography | |
| The Reflection and progress form |
Essays in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have their own character limits, set out in the guide.
Your essay also needs these parts: a title page, a contents page, an introduction, the body, a conclusion and a reference list or bibliography, plus the conventions of your subject.
Your supervisor and the reflection sessions
Your supervisor is expected to spend three to five hours with you over the whole essay. That time includes three reflection sessions, which are compulsory and recorded on the Reflection and progress form (RPF):
- First reflection: you discuss your initial ideas and background reading.
- Interim reflection: you show the progress you've made, the problems you've met and how you plan to solve them.
- Final reflection, the viva voce: a short interview after you've handed in the finished essay, about what you learned and how you worked. It also helps confirm the essay is your own.
Each session is recommended to last 20 to 30 minutes. Come prepared: bring excerpts from your notes and the questions you want answered.
Your supervisor:
- reads and comments on one draft only, between the interim and final sessions, and doesn't edit it;
- receives your final version before the viva voce, after which it can't be changed;
- confirms the essay is your own work, using the viva voce and what they have seen along the way.
Keeping a researcher's reflection space, a journal of your reading, notes and decisions in any format, makes the sessions and your reflective statement easier to write.
If no one at your school can supervise in your chosen language or subject, the school can agree to an external mentor, who signs a form for the IB. Your school-appointed supervisor still has to meet every requirement.
The reflective statement
After the viva voce, you write a reflective statement of up to 500 words on the RPF. It's about how the extended essay changed you as a learner: the skills you built and what you would take into future work.
- Examiners stop reading at 500 words.
- The RPF must be in the same language as your essay. If it isn't, the reflection criterion scores zero.
- If the RPF is missing or blank, the reflection criterion scores zero.
How the EE is marked
Examiners mark the essay out of 30 against five criteria. Four apply to the essay as a whole, and the fifth to your reflective statement only:
| Criterion | What it looks at | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| A. Framework for the essay | Your research question, your methods and the structure of the essay | 6 |
| B. Knowledge and understanding | How well you know and use the subject or subjects | 6 |
| C. Analysis and line of argument | How you analyze your sources or data and build an argument | 6 |
| D. Discussion and evaluation | How you discuss your findings and evaluate your research | 8 |
| E. Reflection | What your reflective statement shows about your growth as a learner | 4 |
| Total | 30 |
Each criterion is marked by best fit: the examiner picks the level that most fairly matches the work, and the top level doesn't need a flawless essay. The total out of 30 is then turned into a grade from A to E using boundaries set for each session.
A plan for the EE
Your school sets the dates. A typical shape:
- Choose a subject and topic, read around it and keep notes from the start.
- First reflection: agree a working question and method with your supervisor.
- Research: gather sources or data, and keep a record of every one for your references.
- Interim reflection: show your progress and sort out what isn't working.
- Write a full draft and hand it in for your supervisor's one round of comments.
- Revise and hand in the final version. Check the word count, the structure and every reference.
- Final reflection (viva voce), then write your reflective statement on the RPF.
The language you write in
An extended essay in a language subject, from groups 1 or 2, is written in that language. An essay in any other subject is written in English, French or Spanish, though the IB allows some other languages for some subjects.
Your work has to be your own
The essay and the RPF are uploaded together, and the upload confirms that the work is yours. Using someone else's words, ideas or data without saying so, or handing in writing that someone or something else produced, is academic misconduct. It can cost you the grade, and with it the Diploma.
- International Baccalaureate. Extended essay guide, first assessment 2027. Pathways, choosing a subject, 4,000 words and what counts, structure, 40 hours, supervision, the reflection sessions and viva voce, the RPF and its 500 words, external mentors, the criteria and their marks, best fit, and the D grade condition.
- International Baccalaureate. Extended essay updates and the extended essay subject brief. The new guide, first assessed in May 2027, and its two pathways.
- International Baccalaureate. Extended essay, Diploma Programme core.
- International Baccalaureate. Environmental systems and societies guide, first assessment 2026. The same work can't be both an IA and an extended essay.
- International Baccalaureate. Diploma Programme Assessment procedures 2026, part B: General regulations. Response languages for the extended essay (article 9).
- International Baccalaureate. DP passing criteria. The points table for TOK and the extended essay.
- International Baccalaureate. Academic integrity policy (2019).