Specimen papers
For those who have not noticed yet, specimen papers are available on the OCC. As I write, the OCC is slightly under construction. The papers can be found on the Language A1 section (soon to be found in the Language and Literature section) under 'Assessment'.
You may also notice that sample responses have been written on all of the specimen Paper 1 texts in the assessement section of our Subject Site. For each text, both a good and poor sample response have been given. Comparing these, together with your students, should help you gain a better understanding of these new forms of assessment. Notice there's a big difference in difficulty between the HL and SL texts.
Many German, French and Spanish colleagues have asked me when the specimen papers are coming out for their languages. I have contacted the IB about his matter, and it turns out that specimen papers for other languages will not be made, unfortunately. You may want to inform your colleagues.