The difference between an extended essay and an internal assessment lies on the requirements, length, grading, guidance, and the number of written tasks.
You get guidance from your teachers for all internal assessments, so it’s easy to score a 6 or a 7 in any of the IB-approved subjects.
You’ll hold reflection sessions with your supervisor for the extended essay, but they can’t predict how many marks you’ll get.
This article covers an overview of EE and IA, writing help for each, and a detailed difference between them.
What is an Extended Essay?
According to International Baccalaureate, an extended essay is an individual, self-directed project that engages students to challenging and interesting academic research.
The extended essay requires you to choose a subject, identify a topic, develop a research question, conduct in-depth research, and write a report not exceeding 4,000 words (14 to 15 pages). The essay can also take an interdisciplinary approach, which is common in World Studies.
Every IB student, regardless geographical location or school, has 10 months to complete the extended essay. You’ll spend a maximum of 40 hours between the first and the tenth month on the entire research, writing, and reflection process.
The purpose of an extended essay is to promote advanced research and writing skills, creativity, communication, intellectual discovery, and self-management skills.
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What is an Internal Assessment?
An internal assessment is any type of IB task graded by your teacher in your school.
You’ll write 3 to 5 internal assessments out of the six subject groups. You’ll choose an IA topic for each subject at Standard and Higher Levels, and follow the instructions for each subject to stand the chance to score a 6 or a 7.
Internal Assessments contribute 20 to 30% of the evaluation grades, and this can go to as high as 50% for some courses.
An internal assessment can be in the form of a written commentary, a lab experiment, an artistic performance, an oral presentation, or a mathematical investigation. For example, IB Economics IA requires you to write 3 commentaries within the 2 years of IBDP.
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IB EE vs IB IA: Comparison Table
The following table is a summary of the comparison between an internal assessment and an extended essay:
| Criteria | Extended Essay | Internal Assessment |
1 | Grading | Graded externally by staff hired by IB | Graded by your teacher and moderated by IB |
2 | Word count | 4,000 words | No more than 2,500 words |
3 | Number of tasks | You write only one extended essay | You write 3 to 5 Internal Assessments at SL and HL |
4 | Reflection | Students attend 3 reflection sessions with counts towards the final grade | Your teacher guides you to score a 7 in your subject of choice |
5 | Grade prediction | Your teacher can’t predict your grades | Your teacher can help you score an A based on subject selection advise |
Differences between Extended Essay and Internal Assessment
The following are the major differences between an extended essay and an internal assessment in the IB Diploma Program:
Assessment Grading and Evaluation
Your IB teacher is responsible for evaluating and grading your IA. You have direct interaction with your teacher who helps guide and shape your IA to improve its grade. After grading, your school sends the IA to the IB for external moderation to ensure grading consistency across schools.
IB examiners adjust internal assessment scores if necessary to reflect the grade the student truly deserves, especially if a teacher was either too harsh or lenient in their assessment.
The Extended Essay follows a different grading approach. Your school sends the EE to IB for external moderation, where IB staff will grade it on a scale from 0 to 34.
While you’ll have reflection sessions with your advisor for feedback, they do not make the final grading decision. This makes it harder to predict your final marks.
Subject
You will complete 3 to 6 Internal Assessments at Standard and Higher Level. The IAs can take various forms, including a research paper, oral presentations, social experiments, essays, and lab reports.
You will write one extended essay throughout the two years. IB allows you to write up to 4 drafts before the final submission. Your supervisor will be available to help you throughout the writing process.
You will have 40 hours to work on your EE. Research and Writing**: Spend at least 30 hours on research and source refinement, and the remaining 10 hours on writing the essay.
Length
An IA should not exceed 2,500 words. Even if your work is in the form of an essay, commentary, or other formats as allowed by your teacher, your work must not exceed the suggested word count.
The Extended Essay has to be 4,000 words long. Even if the structure of your essay differs based on the subject, you shouldn’t write more than the required limit because examiners don’t read additional words.
Failure
The IA is not as high-stakes as the Extended Essay. If you perform poorly on your IA, you can make up for it through, oral presentations, May exams, or the Extended Essay.
As long as you perform well in other components of the IB program, a poor IA grade won’t necessarily prevent you from earning your diploma.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to make up for a failed Extended Essay. You must aim to pass the EE in order to qualify for the diploma. To be eligible for the IB diploma, you should aim for at least a D grade on your EE. Anything lower would prevent you from receiving the diploma.
It’s essential to put in the effort to pass the Extended Essay for successful completion of the IB program.