The extended essay (EE) is one of the core requirements one must fulfil in order to achieve the Diploma at the end of the IBDP course. Students must write a piece of no more than 4000 words in any subject of their choice. However, it is usually recommended for them to select a subject that they are taking as a part of the Diploma Programme.
One may think it’s not complicated. After all, how hard could it be to choose any topic and write an essay on it? Turns out, very hard. The IB Class of 2012 has been presenting their extended essays over the course of this week and the essays are, in fact, a lot more complicated than they seem.
Students must research extensively on their topics. This research should include primary sources as well as secondary sources, as the information they base their study on and analyse shouldn’t be biased. Apart from coming up with a good research question, finding relevant primary sources is probably the hardest part of the extended essay.
Lucy Shin, a student of the Class of 2012, is one of the few students who has nailed it so far. She has strong sources, which have been analysed and presented to support her hypothesis. However, getting such great sources was no easy task for Lucy. She had to put in a lot of effort, but it seemed to have paid off.
So, here’s a tip for the IB kids out there – don’t choose a topic that doesn’t have many primary sources or a topic that is far too broad.
Apart from trying to find primary and secondary sources for their essay, there is the issue of whether or not the students are making accurate claims. For a second, when you’re in the audience and the concerned teacher asks “How are you sure your calculations and dependent factors are right?” you begin to doubt how much you can rely on the claims these students have put forth. By the end of presentations session, one is left wondering whether the student’s hypothesis was even right to begin with. The ideas that they put forth are like no other. According to the information they’ve been able to find, or rather not been able to find, they were the first ones or one of the very few to have come up with such a statement.
However, as always, there is a brightside. For all the hours of hard work, the extended essay teaches students many valuable skills. Students learn to manage their time more wisely, their researching abilities are improved and they learn a lot of new things. The extended essay is one thing that makes the Diploma Programme so different from other courses. It really prepares you for college, where you will without a doubt, have to research extensively. Apart from preparing you for college, your extended essay can also show colleges how interested you are and how much knowledge you have in a particular field.
Akshat Vasavada, for example, has taken up the experiment to find the sweet spot of a football. He’s extremely passionate about football and physics alike. The result was a question that involved both his athletic and academic side.
Although the extended essay scares the students and stresses them out, IB students keep pushing, never willing to give up. That’s one of the best part of it all. It prepares us for the world out there, the one that we will be thrown into, the one which will require us to unfold many queries. The extended essay teaches students one of the most important life lessons: never give up; stay determined and keep pushing until you achieve your goals.
Preethi Dasari
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