IB Core (EE and ToK).
Extended Essay
My extended essay experience was far from perfect. In fact, it was exactly the opposite. I take full responsibility for my experience however. I procrastinated till the very last day. Instead of having a 3000 word draft ready for my first day of year 13, I had exactly 97 words. I remember that helplessness that I felt crying in my room, hating myself for not completing it. IB IS GREAT!
Nah, but I got past that. I finally realized that I had to do it one day, and used all the unethical methods (that I am gonna keep to myself until I graduate university) to get extensions on my deadline. After about 2 weeks my 3000 word draft was complete, and a month later, my final draft. Realistically, it takes 3 works of real effort to write a good EE. So if you are lucky enough to have that much time, please do not procrastinate and start working on your EE if you are in that same position that I was in. You won’t regret it, trust me.
Realistically, nobody cares about your EE. It just prepares you for research that you may do at university. It helps you get comfortable with the research process and methods. In most cases, high school students are not conducting ground breaking cutting edge research that has any real world impact, so it’s calm. You don’t have to come up with a new theory.
Universities don’t care much about it either, unless you include it as “research” under your extracurricular activities list. So don’t stress it. Just do the work, make it look good, present your findings and pray for an A.
Theory of Knowledge (ToK)
From one IBDP student to another, ToK is an absolute waste of time. But you don’t have an option, so you might as well get it over with as soon as possible.
Over the two years, you complete two components of the ToK requirement. In the first year, it is the ToK exhibition and in the second, it is the ToK essay (1600 words).
TOK Exhibition:
Basically, you pick 3 (personal) objects and explore their uses and real
world impacts in different areas of knowledge like science, history,
ethics, etc. Show how different perspectives can change how we
understand things. You write approximately 350 words on each object.
TOK Essay:
You choose a prompt from a list made by the IB and answer it using the
given areas of knowledge. Look at the question from all angles, evaluate
the arguments, and talk about what it all means. Use real-life examples
and academic sources to back up your points. The essay has a word limit
of 1600 words.
Your ToK supervisor will ideally guide you throughout your classes and assist you in producing a good exhibition and essay. There isn’t really much to it. Use AI if you really have to, but I would strongly advise against it, as you do risk losing your diploma if you get caught. For the exhibition, just put in effort into presenting to your supervisor, and you should be fine.
Just work on your presentation skills I guess and impress your supervisor, since that is what matters (at least in Year 1). When submitting the exhibition to the IB, just work on feedback given to you by your supervisor and brush up on your object descriptions and you are good. For the essay, I simply say DO NOT procrastinate and genuinely put in at least some work to write something that you are even slightly proud of. In the end, your EE and ToK only contribute 3 points to your total, and most universities do not even care for those 3 core points, so it is what it is. If you really want the prestige and status of 45 points, put effort into it and you will get it!