IB English Lit HL study plan

Define the three assessment-facing senses of 'meaning' (authorial intent, textual construction, reader response) and write a one-paragraph definition of each in your own words

Map your two or three studied works onto a grid of text, author and reader, noting for each work one claim about intent, one about form, and one about reception

Annotate ten short passages from your studied works, labelling the specific formal choice that produces meaning (diction, syntax, image pattern, narrative voice) rather than naming a theme

Draft three thesis statements that make an arguable claim about how a text communicates meaning, then test each against a counter-argument

Practise close reading of unseen poetry under time: analyse two unseen poems in 40 minutes each, focusing on how structure and figurative language build meaning

Convert each timed analysis into a structured commentary with a controlling idea stated in the first two sentences

Identify and correct your three most frequent commentary habits (plot summary, feature-spotting, unearned evaluation) by rewriting flagged sentences

Build a personal checklist of formal elements to scan for in any unseen text within the first five minutes

Research and write a context brief for each studied work covering composition date, first publication and reception, and one contested critical reading

Distinguish contextual facts that genuinely shape interpretation from biographical trivia, and justify the distinction in writing

Compare how the same historical pressure (for example war, empire, class mobility or gender norms) appears differently in two of your works

Rehearse integrating context into an argument in no more than two sentences per paragraph without letting it replace analysis of the text

Select three pairs of works from different genres or periods and state the precise basis of comparison for each pair

Draft comparison paragraphs that move point-by-point between texts rather than text-by-text, using explicit connectives of similarity and difference

Trace one literary motif across three works and show how each text transforms rather than repeats it

Write a timed comparative response of 60 minutes on a past-paper-style prompt you compose yourself

Analyse two unseen prose extracts in 45 minutes each, attending to narrative perspective, tense and focalisation

Write a comparative commentary linking an unseen extract to a studied work on a single shared feature

Revise your Paper 1 checklist to cover prose-specific and drama-specific features alongside poetry

Self-mark both commentaries against IB-style criteria for understanding, interpretation and language, and log the gap between your judgement and your performance

Build a comparative essay plan bank of six prompts, each with a thesis, three comparative points and chosen textual evidence

Write one full comparative essay in 90 minutes under exam conditions using only annotated texts, no secondary sources

Convert your strongest comparative analysis into a global-issue framing by naming a broad, transferable issue and showing how both works explore it

Draft two candidate global issues and stress-test each against the requirement that it be genuinely present in both works

Script a ten-minute individual oral with a clear global issue, balanced treatment of two works, and at least six extract-grounded points

Rehearse the oral aloud twice, timing each section, and cut anything that summarises rather than analyses

Draft a research question for the HL Essay that is narrow, arguable and answerable from your chosen text alone

Outline the HL Essay in 1,200 words of structured notes with a line of argument, section headings and a source list

Write and revise one full HL Essay draft of 1,200 to 1,500 words, integrating at least three credible secondary sources into your own argument

Sit a full mock Paper 1 and Paper 2 back to back under timed conditions and self-mark both against the criteria

Consolidate a one-page revision sheet per studied work: key formal features, two contextual anchors, three quotable passages

Identify your three weakest criteria across all mocks and write a targeted action for each before the exam