The IB Extended Essay Just Changed. Here’s What You Need to Know.

Am I affected?

If your first assessment is May 2027 or later you’re on the new guide. Everything below applies to you.

If you’re sitting exams November 2026 or before you’re still on the old rubric. The changes below don’t apply to you.

1. The marking changed. 

Total marks dropped from 34 to 30. Five criteria (A–E) are still there, but here’s the big one:

Criterion D - Discussion and evaluation is now worth 8 marks. It’s the highest-weighted criterion in the entire essay. (as it should have been, long before!)

Here’s the breakdown:

• Criterion A (Framework): 6 marks
• Criterion B (Knowledge and understanding): 6 marks
• Criterion C (Analysis and argument): 6 marks
• Criterion D (Discussion and evaluation): 8 marks
• Criterion E (Reflection): 4 marks

The old Presentation criterion? Gone.

What this actually means: the IB stopped rewarding students who can make things look appealing on paper and started rewarding students who can think and analyze. 

If your essay is amazingly formatted but you never take a position if you can’t answer “so what?” about your own research question — you will be losing marks on Criterion D. 

2. There’s a new pathway and it is a trap!

a.) The Interdisciplinary EE is new. 

It replaces the old World Studies EE. You pick two DP subjects and combine them through one of five frameworks.

The five frameworks:

• Power, equality, justice
• Culture, identity, expression
• Movement, time, space
• Evidence, measurement, innovation
• Sustainability, development, change

b.) The Subject-focused pathway — where you go deep into one subject  is still there. 

Choose wisely according to your subject.  As an English A teacher, I am happy that my students now have more freedom without tight categories, but for other subjects discuss with your teacher first!

Here’s the trap: Interdisciplinary sounds more exciting. So students pick it. Then they end up writing a Subject-focused essay with a second subject crammed in just for the sake of it. Examiners see this immediately.

The test is simple: does your research question actually need both subjects to answer it? Not “could I kind of touch upon a second subject if I tried.” Actually need is the key phrase here. What happens if you take out one?

If one subject is doing the real work and the other is just ornamentation, you’re writing the wrong type of essay.

One rule to know: ESS and Literature and Performance can only be done as Subject-focused. The IB won’t let you use them in Interdisciplinary. Don’t ask me why.

3. The three reflections are now one. 

In the old system: you wrote three reflections across the EE process on something called the RPPF (Reflections on Planning and Progress Form). Examiners saw all three.

The new system: you write one reflection 500 words max on a new form called the RPF (Reflection and Progress Form). You write it after your final meeting with your supervisor (the viva voce, which is a 20–30 minute interview). Only this one reflection gets marked under Criterion E.

You still have three meetings with your supervisor. That hasn’t changed. What changed is that you’re not writing assessed reflections along the way anymore which I always thought was a waste of examiner time. 

Here’s what this means :

You can’t build your reflection as you go. You’re writing it all at the end, after the viva. 

So from day one, keep notes. The IB wants you to use something called a Researcher’s Reflection Space (RRS) basically a journal where you jot down what you’re learning, what’s going wrong, what decisions you’re making. Advice from me: Do NOT skip this, you will thank me!

When you sit down to write that 500-word reflection at the end, you’ll need something to look back on. If you don’t keep notes, you’ll be trying to remember six months of work. Don’t do that to yourself. It just won’t happen that way!

4. AI is allowed. Yay! But kind of..

The rule is simple: you can use AI as a helper tool. You cannot use it to write your essay. Ah, humanizing it will do nothing as we use super advanced AI checkers to detect it, your Reddit suggested humanizer will not be bypassed by our good ol’ tools. 

What “as a helper tool” means: ( You should know it by now but let me tell you again!)

• Use it to compare sources
• Use it to think through ideas
• Use it to organize your thoughts
• Use it to check if your argument makes sense

What you cannot do:

• Ask it to write sections of your essay
• Copy-paste AI output into your essay and call it yours

If you use AI at any point even just to brainstorm you have to cite it. 

Same as you’d cite a book or article. The IB’s guide specifically mentions that AI hallucinates and goes awry so they want you to double-check anything it tells you against real sources. ( You should also know this by now, too, but there is no harm in hammering it into your beautiful minds once again!)

For the full rules, read Appendix 6 of the IB Academic Integrity Policy. There’s also an infographic called The IB and artificial intelligence tools. Both are referenced in the new EE Guide.

Bottom line: if you used AI and didn’t cite it, and you get caught, you lose your diploma. Don’t risk it.

5. There are now 8 subject guidance documents (not 30)

The IB reorganized how they explain what they’re looking for in each subject. Instead of 30 separate documents, they grouped everything into 8:

• Language A
• Language B
• Classical languages
• Individuals and societies
• Sciences
• Mathematics
• The arts
• Cross-disciplinary subjects (ESS and Literature and Performance)

Your job: read the one for your subject.

Not your supervisor’s PowerPoint. Not a YouTube explainer. The actual IB document. It’s called the Subject-Specific Guide and it’s basically the assignment sheet. It tells you what the examiner is looking for, shows you example research questions, and explains how to pick a topic. I sent the sections to my English A students. Ask your teacher to give you the relevant pages if the whole thing daunts you. Do not rely on somebody’s summary on the internet! Read it yourself!

Most students never open it. That’s a mistake.

If you’re doing Interdisciplinary, read both subject guides one for each subject you’re combining.