IB Geography SL

You sit external written papers. One is based on a resource booklet and mixes structured short-answer items with extended-response questions; the other tests your optional themes in a similar style. A separate internally assessed fieldwork report contributes to the final grade. Confirm the exact paper structure and weighting for your cohort with your teacher, since the IB publishes the current specification.

The IB publishes the current duration, mark allocations and weightings for each paper in its official geography guide, and your school coordinator holds the same document. Do not rely on numbers from older past papers or forum posts, because specifications are periodically revised. Ask your teacher for the version that applies to your examination session.

The content is accessible, but the marks are won on precision and evidence. Students who lose marks usually do so through vague case studies, missing command words, or unbalanced evaluation rather than through not knowing the topic. Command terms such as 'examine' or 'evaluate' demand judgement, not description. Regular practice with mark schemes closes that gap faster than rereading notes.

Retake arrangements are set by the IB and administered through your school, so the rules, sessions and any deadlines depend on your circumstances. Speak to your programme coordinator as early as possible; they can confirm whether a retake in a later session is possible and what it involves. Do not assume the conditions match your original sitting.

You do not choose freely: your school selects which optional themes it teaches, and you are examined on those. Find out early which options your class covers and ignore the rest. If you are choosing a school or considering a transfer, ask which options are offered, because the fieldwork and case studies you build depend on them.

Start with the compulsory core, because its concepts and terminology reappear in optional themes and in extended answers. Then work through your school's options, building two or three detailed case studies per theme. Finish with timed practice: short structured questions first, then full extended responses. Interleave topics rather than blocking them, so recall is tested across the whole course.

Enough to be specific: named locations, approximate dates, scale, key figures, and the processes and outcomes involved. A handful of well-understood examples that you can adapt to unfamiliar questions beats a long list of half-remembered ones. Practise applying each case study to different command words, because exam questions rarely match the context you learned it in.

Ignoring the command word and writing everything known about a topic; describing a figure without interpreting it; quoting statistics with no units, dates or location; and offering only one side of an argument when evaluation is required. Weak links between physical and human processes also cost marks. Reading the question twice and planning for a minute prevents most of these.

Treat it as a project with its own timeline. Choose a fieldwork question you can genuinely collect data for, link it explicitly to geographic theory, and justify your sampling and presentation methods. Leave time for evaluation, which is where many reports are thin. Your teacher sets internal deadlines, so plan backwards from those rather than from the final submission date.

The IB publishes examination schedules, regulations and subject guides on its official website, and your school's programme coordinator is the authoritative contact for your session. Check those sources rather than third-party summaries, which are often out of date. This page is independent study material and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IB.