IB Lang Lit HL study plan

Map the Paper 1 assessment criteria (understanding/interpretation, analysis/evaluation, focus/organisation, language) into a personal checklist you can apply to any unseen text

Annotate two unseen prose extracts for audience, purpose, register, and the writer's constructional choices, marking where form and context shape meaning

Draft one 40-minute timed guided analysis of a single unseen text under exam conditions

Build a running glossary of 20 analytical terms (diction, syntax, deixis, modality, narrative perspective) with one self-written example sentence each

Analyse how a writer's stated or implied purpose shapes register and structure in two texts from different genres

Compare how two texts position their implied reader through direct address, irony, or assumed shared knowledge

Write a 300-word close reading of a single paragraph, tracing how word choice builds a controlling tone

Identify three contextual factors (publication venue, historical moment, intended readership) that change how a text is received

Trace how one historical or cultural context (e.g. postcolonial writing, wartime propaganda, digital media) is encoded in textual choices rather than stated outright

Practise the Paper 1 skill of moving from observation to interpretation to evaluation in single paragraphs

Analyse how setting and time reference (tense, anachrony, framing) construct a text's world

Write two timed 20-minute mini-analyses of unseen texts of different text types (e.g. a speech and a poem)

Consolidate Domains 1 and 2 by writing a full comparative commentary on how two texts from different periods handle the same theme

Articulate how a text's reception changes across time, using at least two concrete textual details as evidence

Revise your analytical glossary to 40 terms and test yourself on applying each to a fresh extract

Draft a personal list of six works (three pairs) you could use for Paper 2 and the HL essay