Supporting Your Child Through the IB Diploma: IAs, the Extended Essay and Exam Preparation

The IB Diploma is a demanding two-year programme, and parents often hear the acronyms before they understand them: IA, EE, TOK, CAS. Here is what the main components involve and how families can help.

A note from BKK Families: 22 schools in our Bangkok directory teach the International Baccalaureate, and a few, including Ascot, KIS and NIST, offer it all the way from primary to the Diploma. You can compare them in our schools directory.

Internal Assessments (IAs)

Most IB subjects include an internally assessed component, marked by the school and moderated by the IB. The format varies widely by subject: it might be a research investigation, a portfolio, or an individual oral in a language course. Depending on the subject, it typically counts for roughly a fifth to a third of the final grade, so it rewards early planning. Encourage your child to agree a realistic timeline with their teacher rather than leaving it to the final term.

The Extended Essay (EE)

The Extended Essay is a compulsory piece of independent research, culminating in a paper of up to 4,000 words. It is often a student’s first taste of university-style research: forming a question, planning, drafting and refining over several months. Students do best when they pick a focused question in a subject they enjoy and use the feedback sessions with their school supervisor well. Note that the IB is introducing an updated Extended Essay model with first assessment in 2027, so check the current requirements with your school.

A word on academic integrity

Assessed coursework must be the student’s own work. The IB’s academic integrity policy treats help from private tutors with completing or editing assessed work as non-permitted assistance, and the rules for the Extended Essay are stricter still: feedback beyond what the school supervisor provides is not allowed. If your child works with a tutor, keep that support to understanding the syllabus, building skills and preparing for exams, and ask the school what is permitted for assessed components.

Theory of Knowledge and CAS

Theory of Knowledge (TOK) asks students to reflect on how knowledge works, and CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) takes learning beyond the classroom. Both are required parts of the Diploma core, and TOK and the Extended Essay together can contribute up to 3 bonus points toward the 45-point total.

Final exams

For most subjects, written examinations at the end of the two years form the basis of the final grade. Steady revision over the course, including past papers under timed conditions, tends to serve students better than last-minute cramming.

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