Essentially a student needs 24 points to obtain an IB Diploma but there are also other conditions. For example, they must obtain at least twelve points in their Higher Level subjects and must not score less than a Grade 3 in any HL subject. So a 5, a 4 and a 3 would be acceptable but two 6s and a 2 would be a failing condition. Since 2010, students who score 28 points or less will also fail to be awarded a Diploma if they score an E grade in their Extended Essay.

Extended Essays are marked out of 36 points and an essay that scores less than 8 out of 36 is deemed ‘poor’ and is awarded an E. When this rule first came in last year I had to remark all the Chemistry Extended Essays before the grades were announced to confirm that the E mark was correct. In fact only very few were awarded an E. In all the Group 4 Extended Essays in May 2010 only 188 out of 7083 candidates obtained an E grade, that is, 2.7%. The 2011 Statistical Bulletin has not been published yet but the figures for November 2010 are very similar. 21 out of the 776 Group 4 candidates were awarded an E Grade. This is also 2.7% of the candidates. I suspect some of these would have scored less than 24 points and so failed the Diploma anyway but it seems a pity if a poor score on an EE means losing the Diploma.  

An Extended Essay is a piece of research work but it is also an exercise in getting students to report their finding in an acceptable academic manner and the marking criteria reflect this. It should actually be possible for all students to gain at least satisfactory (a score of 16 or more out of 36) simply by addressing the criteria irrespective of the quality of their research.  So why do some student score such abysmally low marks? From the Extended Essays that I see (and I see a lot of them) there would appear to be two main reasons. Upon analysis these actually come down to just one reason. It could be that the student is simply not up to it and is very weak but this is rarely the case. The first two marks are for Criterion A – Research Question. If this is not a sensible and reasonable topic to investigate in the subject within 40 hours then the Essay stands little chance. An unsuitable Research Question is one of the two main reasons. The other is that the Essay does not address the EE Assessment Criteria. In fact both of these come down to poor supervision since part of the supervisor’s job is to advise on the Research Question. I have much advice on this website on how to supervise an EE and have given examples of the common reasons why students do not score the maximum marks for each criterion. The point of this blog is to get you to assess your skills and knowledge as an EE supervisor. If you have not been trained demand that your school provides you with training before accepting a supervisory role – it is part of the responsibility of the school to provide training for all EE supervisors. It is not fair on students to provide them with a supervisor who cannot advise properly. No supervisor in Chemistry should allow some of the poor Research Questions I have seen. One of the most recent was “What is soap and what are the physical and chemical properties of it?” The resulting essay was just a narrative of properties found in any simple chemistry text book. There was no argument, no justification, no proper referencing of sources in the EE, and no analysis. With sound supervision even this mundane title could have been made to gain the student a minimum of 8 marks on some of the criteria but with no checklist and no proper supervision the student had no chance.

Be fair to your students – know how to advise them so that they can achieve at least a satisfactory C grade (let alone the minimum marks to avoid an E grade) just by following some very simple guidelines. It is not rocket science. No student should fail to get their IB due to lack of proper supervision on their EE.