how to write a geography essay ib

IB Geography IA - Some Golden Tips & Trick 🌟

Get ahead of the game with this ultimate guide to acing your IB Geography IA. Learn insider tips and tricks to nail your IB exams and impress your examiner!

Table of content

Ib geography ia criteria breakdown to make things easy, overview of the ib geography ia criteria: what belongs where, fieldwork question & geo context (criterion a), method(s) of investigation (criterion b), quality of information (criterion c), written analysis (criterion d), conclusion (criterion e), evaluation (criterion f), types of data sources you need to keep a check on, primary data, secondary data, what to do and what not to, sum up your ib geography ia with a bang, the secret ro setting your hypothesis the right way, hypothesis in the introduction, hypothesis in the conclusion, hypothesis in method of investigation, the power of the right resource.

To ace the IA, your essay needs to be outstanding, and we're here with a guide to help you do that.

The IB Geography IA is a  2500-word  empirical report based on primary data conducted on a regional scale. It mainly concentrates on a single topic from the curriculum.

There is a possibility that your entire class will research a related study; therefore, you must understand what distinguishes a great essay from a bad one!

The IA in Geography accounts for  20% in HL  and  25% in SL  of your overall IB mark.

Obviously, how you deliver in this area of IB determines whether you obtain the score sum you desire. In this IB geography IA guide, we'll go over the specific places where students end up losing scores, a structural breakdown of each section of the IA, and much more, so you can write an IA in Geography that is unique and use this guide to help learn critical pointers that can make-or-break your essay!

Things we'll be covering in this IB Geography IA guide are

If you need an all-in-one HL package, we have the right thing for you: Our exclusive  IB Geography HL Notes . This magic bomb constitutes the deadliest ingredients to elevate your essay, as it brings along some of its craziest resources! Could it get any better?

This table explains how your IB Geography IA will be marked and which sections will be given due importance based on the marks allotted to each, thus being called the criteria on which you will be drawn. For reference, we've tagged each criterion from  A to F.

It is essential to know that your Geography IA essay can be, at most, the word limit of  2,500 . Hence, we have given a rough idea of how many words can be dedicated to each criterion. Of course, this estimate is flexible, and you can adjust it as you like.

A criterion-wise detail of what plays an important role, how to structure it all, and how much efforts need to be put into each. If you understand this part (and adhere to it), nothing can stop your IA from breaking records!

The table might look intimidating, but we're here to break it down. Here we break down the criteria based on what to cover in each and how to ace this baby!

We have also curated a premium collection of IB Geography resources IB Geography HL , IB Geography SL  help you get a gist of an ideal Geography IA essay, so take advantage of them.

Let us get started with the criteria briefs now.

Your fieldwork question guides your empirical research. The question should be targeted, suitable, and phrased as a subject that can be addressed on the ground by collecting relevant primary data. If applicable, you can give a quick preliminary assessment or forecast in response to the fieldwork question. This prognosis might also be expressed as a hypothesis.

Here, you have to include a short statement on the geographic setting, describing the why and where of the fieldwork inquiry that will be conducted. This could also comprise pertinent geographical, environmental, and demographic variables and any observational data, notions, or traits. To convey the spatial aspect (which is extremely important), a map/blueprint of the study region and the places used throughout the fieldwork inquiry is required.

You also have to identify which curriculum aspects the research corresponds to, the geographical investigation subject or sub-topic in the curriculum and if the study would be from the alternative themes, central theme, or HL continuation. It might have two or even more different subjects or themes.

This criterion evaluates the fieldwork's emphasis and geographic context and the degree to which the connection between both the fieldwork inquiry and the geographic context is clearly explained. The fieldwork question ought to be geographically specified.

How to Get a 3

• The relationship between the field research question and the relevant syllabus subject, course materials, or geographic concept should be thoroughly explained.
• The connection to spatial/area theory should enable the development of hypotheses and forecasts.
• The fieldwork inquiry should be geographical and concentrated, explicitly defining a specific area and enabling primary data analysis within the internal assessment's constraints.
• More than one location-specific map should be shown, each following mapping norms and providing concrete understanding and specifics about the research site.

In this section, you need to explain the method(s) you utilized to gather data. When applicable, the explanation may describe the tools used, polling methodology, time, place, and conditions of data gathering. The method(s) employed should be validated and, therefore, must facilitate the production of an adequate amount and quality of primary data to answer the fieldwork inquiry.

This parameter evaluates the explanation, rationale, and applicability of the technique or procedures used to examine the specified inquiry, mainly polling and mapping methods and secondary or primary data gathering as applicable.

• The files and knowledge-gathering method(s) need to be explained, together with an explanation as to how the combination of this information obtained relates to the concept, inquiry posed, or hypotheses for the IA.
• For brownie points, you may also provide statistical tests you conducted.
• The technique(s), data-collecting tools, and sample preparation procedures must be appropriately applied.
• The essay has to lead to reliable and high-quality primary data to sustain a statistical and qualitative approach.

Here, you must use the best suitable approaches to handle and present the material you have gathered. These strategies would be the most successful means of describing the data collected, and they ought to be used effectively. Test statistics (with posterior probability), charts, infographics, mappings, labelled illustrations, grids, and ground drawings are some methods that may be used based on the type of your fieldwork inquiry.

It would help if you also considered the geographical context, the facts gathered, and the treatment and presentation of the content.

This parameter will consider the value of the research conducted, and its appropriateness for interpretation in objective criteria D. It also believes if the data segment and structure are adequate if it employs a good variety of methods and if the presentation adheres to IB's approved norms.

How to Get a 6

• The research and sources of data gathered need to be closely related to the analysis or hypotheses posed.
• The data needs to be of substantial volume and nature to facilitate investigation or response to the leading question.
• The most suitable strategies should be employed for displaying the statistical information acquired. Those strategies involve planning the flow of your essay well in time and creating an action plan based on how you will go about the primary research.
• The maps, charts, infographics, and other graphics must adhere to the set of rules mentioned by the IB.

You need to analyze and make sense of the information you acquired in connection to the fieldwork inquiry in the written analysis to prove your understanding of the research. This involves identifying any themes or geographical patterns that emerge from the data. Efforts must be made to detect and justify any abnormalities when possible. This portion must include the handling and presentation of the subject and the literary evaluation.

This criterion evaluates the performance of the written analysis, focusing on the following:

• linkages to the topic and hypotheses
• Defined geographic semantic features
• Data obtained, and
• Graphical content utilized.

How to Get an 8

• The written analysis has to employ descriptive and inferential statistical methodologies suitable for the evidence and the inquiry posed.
• The themes, patterns, and data discovered, as well as any exceptions or anomalies, need to be discussed and related to the research topic, hypotheses, spatial theory, field site, and methodologies employed.
• With little or no loopholes in the corroborating evidence, the textual analysis has to provide an answer to the posed topic/question.

The results of your fieldwork research should be summarised in conclusion. A precise, brief explanation must be provided in response to the fieldwork inquiry. Additionally, your results contradict the initial judgement or assumption you set at first.

This criterion evaluates your ability to synthesize the results of the fieldwork inquiry and come to a well-supported judgment.

How to Get a 2

• The fieldwork inquiry needs to have a conclusive result backed by the research.

Here must go through your investigation approach, including how you gathered primary data. Consider any elements that could have influenced the information's accuracy, like preconceived views and unforeseeable external events like climate change. It would help if you also made clear and reasonable suggestions for how the study may be refined and expanded in the coming years.

This parameter evaluates your ability to assess the research technique by balancing the selected approach's merits and/or limitations and making recommendations for changes.

• The most essential and suitable advantages and disadvantages should be discussed regarding data collecting techniques, field research objective design, data interpretation, and place selection.
• Development recommendations need to be presented, as well as the possible consequences of these changes.

We all know the two types of data sources to be used in your IAs: Primary and Secondary. It is imperial to understand the role both of them play in your IB Geography IA topic.

If you need a comprehensive guide that covers all significant aspects of writing an IB essay, our  Free IB Notes  have you covered, so worry not!

This data must be derived from your independent field readings and research. Your IB geography IA topic must start with primary data, as your fieldwork must yield enough data to allow proper observation and understanding.

Collecting both qualitative and quantitative primary data may be required during your geographical fieldwork studies. Your goal and fieldwork inquiry should decide the sort of data gathered. Measurements are used to acquire quantitative data, which may then be analyzed employing numerical and other methods.

Qualitative data goes without quantification and is gathered via witnessing or subjective assessment. Qualitative data can be obtained, tagged, evaluated as needed, or presented as visuals or writing. Due to the apparent theoretical basis of qualitative data, there will be enough data for written analysis and conclusion.

One easy way to understand

Primary = First-hand data and information you collect.

This source entails collecting data from sources that have already been assembled in textual, numerical, or map format. Secondary data may be used to augment primary data, but it should only serve a minor role in the research. Secondary data sources ought to be cited to avoid plagiarism and penalty.

One easy way to understand:

Secondary = Second-hand data and information you obtain via published articles, journals, etc.

The smallest of things make the biggest of impacts. While most kids will overlook these details, we strongly suggest you take them into consideration:

• Be careful to follow the instructions provided by the IB. The document has several brief remarks offer valuable insight into formatting your findings. You can find their updated guidelines right  here !
• Specify why you chose this particular fieldwork inquiry to be conducted.
• Address the research question with a concise, speculative verdict (which is your hypothesis) based on the geographic theory.
• Indicate which section of the course your IA is relevant to.
• Create a goal/critical topic with a conceptual and geographical framework.
• Choosing acceptable hypotheses for the study is arguably the most significant component in delivering a good essay.
• Develop a hypothesis that establishes a link between geographical features and potential causes since it is the easiest way to facilitate your investigation.
• Describe the location of your fieldwork topic like a movie trailer. The assessor has yet to see the place you're describing in the essay, and your words and graphs are their only eyes. Don't be poetic and dramatic! Just be thorough and clear about what the location/area is like.
• Add three maps that constitute the main factors: additional information, dimensions, and a north indicator.
• Your IA is more about situating the study inside the framework of whatever you've learned and describing the inquiry's backdrop. In short, it is about the why and where, so remember to keep these 2 in mind.
• Specify why you picked the volume and technique of sampling for your primary data source.
• Make sure all maps and graphs feature labels on the sides and a heading and are incorporated into your work.
• Demonstrate that you made an inquiry that resulted in reliable and high-quality data.
• A lack of adequate data will prevent the need for high-quality analysis.
• The IB expects you to select not the most appropriate data for your hypothesis but to also present it as most suitably and efficiently feasible.
• Your IA ought to be analytical in nature. Sampling methods and statistical tests are some excellent techniques to demonstrate this.
• Emphasize the significance of the correlations in your information regarding your hypothesis and research topic.
• Any suggestions for improvement you give in criterion F must be feasible and realistic.
• Appendices must only contain samples of items that were utilized or are illustrative of things that were used.
• Pick 2 or 3 objectives to assist you in examining and resolving your research question.

Though the summing up is just 5 marks, the conclusion plays a significant role in summarizing your essay and making sense of everything. To make a final impression that sets a bar:

• Return to your introduction to review your hypotheses and the setting where your research is taking place.
• Make sure you clearly show what conclusions you can make from the information and how you researched it.
• Take your time with getting overly detailed now; it will come later, but make sure you get your points through.

The final technique to improve your grades is to do a thorough evaluation. Several IB geographers make the mistake of just outlining the flaws in their inquiry. More is needed to get access to the highest rank of the marking criteria. Instead, emphasize both the good and potential negatives of your inquiry and offer strategies to enhance the validity and credibility of your findings.

A hypothesis might sound like a big and scary word that belongs to PhDs but trust us, it's not. While many of you might be familiar with the concept, we decided to dedicate a special section to it to polish up your assumption setting and how to do it the right way (because trust us, a well-set hypothesis is your gateway to scoring crazy marks quickly!).

Said a hypothesis is an informed assumption. It's just your analysis and estimate of the relationship between two set variables. It predicts the study's expected conclusion. In other words, it expresses your expectations for your geography IA's result.

• It is crucial to remember the logic behind each action and decision taken in any inquiry component as part of the inquiry's objectives. This implies that it's critical to document all the conditions surrounding the question and any factors that could impact the data gathered. Minor elements such as the hour of the day, whether at the time of the survey, emergency plans, and unanticipated disasters that may affect the study or inquiry are all aspects to consider.
• You can provide your hypothesis derived from data perception (rather than data collection), prior occurrences, or understanding of the problem under inquiry.
• Either one null hypothesis or an alternative hypothesis (but never both) needs to be specified in the view. It is essential to note that the null hypothesis will always be the opposite of the true belief and thus be harmful.

Keeping the hypothesis established in your introduction while assessing the facts and figures is crucial. First, the gathered information should account for the factors listed in the view. The findings may determine whether the hypothesis will be accepted or dismissed. This is commonly conducted qualitatively and then quantitatively verified to provide a clear and comprehensive overview of the situation evaluated.

In your conclusion, make a remark regarding your hypothesis, saying if it was proved or disproved in your analysis. Imply the variable(s) in the model specify this and the statistical data supporting it. The conclusion should be brief. As a result, just the relevant facts should be used to justify your admissibility of the hypothesis.

You must give details of the approach used to obtain the information in your Geography IA essay. Criterion B (the method of investigation) of the assessment is comprised entirely of this. It contains, but is not restricted to, sample designing, data gathering procedures, discussion of results and analysis methodologies, as well as a draft of the data gathering survey questionnaire. The questionnaires should be labelled with a particular effort to justify the utilized variables.

Using resources like the web, guides, and your observations is essential, but not as much as your professors' feedback! Do not hesitate to ask your teacher any queries you might have. They are the best ones to steer you on the correct path and present you with additional IA resources. As a result, you can produce a more excellent IA and earn more stars!

Nail IB's resources are a goldmine if you want to crack your IB Geography IA with excellent scores. We have new blogs coming in every week that bring numerous tips and tricks to the table that are bound to help you get a head start on your essays, so remember to bookmark it right  here ! Your IA essays will be a cakewalk with our samples, guides, and many other resources.

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Geography Extended Essay: Definition, Rubric, And Topics for IB

by  Antony W

July 18, 2022

The IB program requires you to write a 4,000-word extended essay on any subject of your choice. So if you’ve picked Geography as your focus area, you’ll find this guide incredibly helpful.

This guide to Geography extended essay covers the following:

• Choice of topic
• Treatment of your selected topic and
• The assessment criteria

What’s Geography Extended Essay? 

An extended essay in Geography provide students the opportunity to employ a wide variety of abilities and develops an original and in-depth geographic investigation. Spatial focus as well as the application of geographical theories characterize the length of this assignment.

Choosing a Geography Extended Essay Topic

One thing you have to get right before you start writing an extended essay in Geography is topic selection.

1. Pick a Narrow, Focused Topic

The topic you choose should have a geographical focus because you’ll have to ensure the research topic guides you down a route that uses acceptable geographical materials and fosters the application of pertinent geographical concepts, theories, or ideas.  

To be abundantly clear, the topic you choose should not be excessively broad because essays written on broad topics are rarely successful.

Make your topic narrowly targeted to promote in-depth investigation as opposed to a broad one. Additionally, it is essential that you establish the geographical background of the essay early on.

2. Base Your Topic on Local Research

Investigations conducted on a local basis often receive the best grades. This restricted emphasis discourages an excessive dependence on existing information and promotes original research.

Extended essays written on topics known and accessible to the student have a larger probability of success due to the student’s stronger personal connection, which stimulates more in-depth research.

3. Choose a Topic that Encourages Original Research

The cornerstone of a successful geography extended essay is a robust technique that includes the collecting of high-quality facts.

Good data allows the IB learner to conduct the sort of in-depth examination that distinguishes the finest works. It’s unlikely that an essay relying solely on published textbooks will receive a high grade.

How to Treat Your Geography EE Topic

You don’t want to view a geography extended essay as merely an extended piece of fieldwork.

Although there may be parallels in technique, the extended essay doesn’t have to lay a heavy focus on original field data. In other words, you can rely on already existing research ideas on previously published data to get the work done.

When researching the topic you’ve selected, pay more attention on written analysis, interpretation, and assessment, as well as the development of an argument rather than data collection and processing procedures.  

Supporting Your Geography Extended Essay

A geography extended essay must include proper ways for showing information or data. You should include diagrams, sketch maps, tables, and graphs, making sure you acknowledge their origin if you draw them from other sources. 

We strongly recommend the use of maps at the beginning to provide a clear geographical backdrop for the inquiry. Every map must provide an indication of direction and size, as well as a key.

• As supporting data, the usage of sketch maps and labeled or annotated diagrams is strongly encouraged.
• You can use computer-generated maps provided you identify the computer software used.
• Hand-drawn maps should be neat and legible, with appropriate use of color shading, a scale, and a key.
• If you include photographs in your work, make sure they’re integral to the text and not just decorative.

IB Geography Extended Essay Assessment Criteria Explained

The following is the assessment criteria used for the extended essay in Geography:

Criterion A: Research Question

The research question must be specific, relevant to the topic of geography, provide a geographical context for the essay, and inspire an inquisitive approach.

Many effective essays in geography explore the research issue through the formation of one or more hypotheses. If you include a hypothesis in your work, make sure it’s well constructed, testable, grounded in geographical theory, and incorporate proper investigation channels.

Criterion B: Introduction

It is essential to contextualize the study issue geographically and theoretically. Therefore, the introduction should define the scope and location of the inquiry and illustrate the relevance of the issue to existing geographical knowledge and theory.

There should be an explanation of why you chose the issue and why it merits examination. The introduction of the essay should be simple and straightforward.

Criterion C: Investigation

It is essential that the inquiry utilize a variety of data sources, including those specified in the “Treatment of the issue” section. The materials you pick for the essay must be pertinent to the subject and give the evidence that will support your argument.

The essay must employ adequate qualitative and quantitative data and/or information. For instance, questionnaires must have enough respondents for the results to be reliable.

Adopting a technique that begins with the gathering and selection of relevant material leads to a methodical analysis with legitimate results, interpretation, and conclusions, and concludes with a critical review of the evidence and the strategy used is the correct essay planning.

Criterion D: Knowledge of the Topic

A successful essay requires knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical basis and an awareness of the academic setting.

Using both primary and secondary sources , you should integrate their own ideas with current geographical theory to accomplish this.

Criterion E: Reasoned Argument

The argument can be personal, but it must also be rational and well balanced. By using proper maps, diagrams, drawings, pictures, and charts/graphs, you can convey evidence in graphical as well as textual format.

If and where applicable, the argument you present should give evidence that leads to the acceptance or rejection of the initial hypothesis. Avoid prejudice in the context of an issue, dispute, or problem inquiry.

Criterion F: Application Analysis & Skill Evaluation

The majority of the evidence supplied to support an argument in a geography extended essay comes from data analysis. This necessitates the application of proper analytical procedures and tests of significance.

The use of interaction and gravity models, network analysis, correlation techniques, dispersion measurements, sampling procedures, and standard error estimates are among the legitimate tools distinctive of geographical investigation.

When analyzing qualitative data, you must employ the right analytic procedures. Your research should demonstrate an understanding of the data’s legitimacy, validity, and limits, as well as the methodologies employed.

It is possible that the outcomes of the study are surprising or do not appear to conform to prevailing trends. This might lead to the absence of data. Even if that’s the case, the essay must nonetheless include a critical examination and evaluation of the material presented.

Criterion G: Language Selection

This criterion examines whether you’ve utilized Geographical terminology and language correctly and consistently throughout the essay.

It is essential to adopt a style that is impartial, avoids long personal assertions and viewpoints, and conveys geographical facts and concepts clearly and precisely.

Criterion H: Conclusion

The conclusion should include a summary of the investigation’s conclusions and quickly recap the pertinent evidence. If and where applicable, you should indicate which hypotheses have been accepted or rejected – and give an explanation. 

The conclusion of your essay should examine the adequacy of the approach and identify any defects or constraints in the investigational procedure.

The conclusion should not be an emotional personal remark about a topic, dispute, or problem, nor should it bring new facts not presented throughout the argument.

Criterion I: Formal Presentation

This criterion addresses the extent to which the essay complies with academic norms about the format of research papers. It is inappropriate to offer an essay without a bibliography or citations.

Essays that remove one of the required extended essay outline get a rating of no higher than good, and those that omit two of them get a rating of subpar.

All graphic material mentioned in the body of the article (maps, pictures, field drawings, charts, and so forth) should be at the appropriate locations, not at the conclusion or in appendices. It should be well organized and utilized to complement the textual material and clarify explanations.

Big data tables, published large maps, transcripts of interviews, and lengthy series of computations go to the appendices. It is not necessary to add field notes as an appendix, but you can include at least one completed questionnaire form.

You need to cite source of any data, diagrams, graphs, charts, tables, and pictures where feasible.

Criterion J: Abstract

The abstract should clearly express the research topic, describe how you conducted the study, the techniques employed, and the types of data collected.

Also, it should provide a concise summary of the findings as stated in the conclusion.

Criterion K: Holistic Judgement

For holistic judgment, you need to make sure your Geography extended essay reflects the following characteristics:

• Intellectual initiative: You can demonstrate this by creating a hard research subject, applying unique or imaginative techniques of data collecting and data analysis, and generating an original work.
• Understand the topic’s theoretical context and maintain it as the focus of the inquiry.
• Utilize introspection in the construction of your argument and assessment of your writing.
• Pick and employ inventive illustrative ways
• Overcome difficulties that emerge
• Modify views based on fresh facts.

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

Extended Essay

Hints and tips.

If you can, base your EE on a geographical model e.g. Bradshaw model. The examiners really want to see that your title is tightly related to the subject of Geography and models or a direct link to theorists will help this.

Show that your EE has a clear spatial element. A location map and saying where you are studying no longer seems good enough. You need to now say why you have chosen a particular area and why there may be differences within that area. If you can, then follow that up by using some sort of  map to show your results would be great. Also, try and say why your particular issue e.g. crime, gun ownership or flooding is an important issue for geographers to study.

The examiners now seem to want you to try and incorporate some form of statistical analysis to show that you have collected enough data and can prove there is a correlation, especially if this is a primary data focused EE.

Useful Resources

Campus des Nations - EE Website

Campus des Nations - Reflective Project Website  

Suggested Structure

While you will be given lots of help from the librarian and the EE coordinator the EE can still be daunting to start. Here are a few suggestions of how you could structure your EE - do be aware though that this is not the only way that you can do it.

Potential Structure

Use subheadings to divide up the different sections of your EE. Suggested subheadings:

1.0 - Introduction - Why is this an important issue to study? How does it fit in the context of the discipline(s) of 'Geography (and another)'. State your research question - 1 paragraph - this is short as you will expand on it in 1.1 and 1.2.

1.1 - The Global Context - Why is this an important issue on the global scale? It would be good to include evidence such as a graph to illustrate the importance. For example, increase in population and more migration has impacted the growth of urban areas, which has lead to increased pollution in cities, consider the graphs that would show this on a  global scale.  - 2 paragraphs

1.2 - Area of Research - geographical theory. What models can you use to put the focus of your EE into context? For example, rise of the middle classes, the nexus, land use models, climate change, etc.

1.3 - The Focus - Restate your rsearch question. Put your research question it in to context of why it is important at the local scale.

2.0 - Background

2.1 - Locational Context -  What location are you focusing on? Why are you focusing on this area? Graphs and maps are useful here to help you to illustrate your points.

3.0 - Methodology - How are you collecting your information? Think of it like a recipe as the idea is someone could replicate your study in a different area. Why is this a valid way to undertake the research? Justify why you have chosen the methods behind your research or primary data collection. For the different websites or reports you are using how reliable are these sources? Remember this could be primary or secondary data EE.

4.0  - Discussion - As you do for a 10 or 16 mark EAQ you need to create an argument. So the inital part of your discussion will need to discuss to what extent your ascertain is correct and then you need to suggest other factors that may have impacted the results you have found. Use further subheadings to break up this section. You must include graphs and maps in this section. (Remember if you can't map or graph it it probably shouldn't be a Geography related EE.)

5.0 - Conclusion - Summarise your findings and relate it back to the global setting. How could this inform us of how to deal with the issue on a global scale?

6.0 - Bibliography - MLA format.

Formal Presentation

Size 11 or 12 font.

Double spaced

Font - Times New Roman/ Lato/ Tahoma

Create a header and write the subject (Geography) and your candidate code on the right.

Insert page numbers on every page.

Front Cover needs to include:

The Subject

The Research Title

The Research Question

Your Candidate Code

Include a contents page.

Footnotes for intext citations.

Bibliography for all our sources including any images, maps or graphs that you are using - do this as you write your essay as it is hard to go back and refind all of your sources. MLA format.

Reflections

Reflections - The first and second reflection should be no more than 150 words and they need to show how you are engaging with the EE e.g. things that you have learnt, evolved or been encouraged to read from the initial investigations.

How to Reflect From the IBO

Extended Essay Writing Reflections - A how to with examples including sentence starters.  

JK Geography - Extended Essay Help

Geography - Checklist

Examples of Geography Extended Essays

It sometimes difficult to know where to start when it comes to the EEs. It is always good to have a look at what the style and structure of an EE is like for our subject. Click on the link below for IBO assessed Geography EEs.

Useful Resource

Geography EEs - Recommend read example B - 32/34

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The Best IB Geography Study Guide and Notes for SL/HL

International Baccalaureate (IB)

If you're an IB Geography SL/HL student in search of some extra help, you've come to the right place. Whether you're looking for IB Geography notes for a test on a single topic or cramming for the final IB Geography papers, this guide has all the information you need.

We created this IB Geography study guide using the best free and paid online materials for IB Geography and ordered the materials following the IB Geography SL/HL syllabus .

2022 IB Exam Changes Due to COVID-19

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the IB has decided to extend the adaptations which were put in place for 2021 to 2022. May 2022 IB assessments will have two routes, exam and non-exam, depending on which your school chooses. Currently the IB program plans to return to its usual assessment model in 2023. Stay up to date with the latest information on what this means for IB diplomas, course credit for IB classes, and more with our IB COVID-19 FAQ article .

How To Use This Article

If you want to study a specific topic, use the Command + F function on your keyboard to search this article for specific IB Geography resources. For example, if you hope to read about Population change, use Command + F to bring up the search function. Type in "Extreme Environments and it will bring up all of the study materials for that topic.

Unfortunately there aren’t many high quality free notes sites that reflect the curriculum changes made to IB Geography in 2019 . Because of that, we’ve compiled three types of resources to help you study: 

• Notes and Activities: The comprehensive notes are generally 2–4 pages for each individual topic, and are useful if you want a summary or need a recap. Some resources also have video explanations. Some of the notes sites listed here include free notes, while others require a paid subscription. The subscription sites we listed here are sometimes used by schools, so before paying, ask your teacher to make sure you don’t already have a subscription for free through your class! On the other hand, the practice activities we linked to are totally free.
• Case studies: These case studies for each topic are there to help you better understand that topic using specific real world examples.

If you're looking for summary material to help you study for the IB Geography papers, check out the notes with supporting video for each topic. These notes are brief and great for a quick refresher.

How To Use This Guide Throughout the School Year

Use this guide throughout the school year as a review for in-class quizzes if you need more help learning the material. You need to be mastering the topics throughout the school year and not just waiting to cram before the IB Geography papers.

The activities we list are great for practice during the year. Just click on the main link and use the menu on the right of the page to navigate to the specific topic you want to practice.

The Best Study Practices for IB Geography

Make sure you're practicing related IB Geography past paper questions as you learn each new subject. You can find free IB Geography HL and IB Geography SL past papers here . Also, if you're having difficulty understanding your in-class lesson, you should be reviewing the corresponding chapter in a textbook or this study guide.

Common Study Mistakes IB Geography Students Make

For IB Geography, there are lots of topics to master, so you can't fall behind. Common mistakes students make are:

#1: Trying to avoid the material you didn't learn in class. If you didn't understand it in class, you need to find more help whether through this article or tutoring.

#2: Only studying a week or two before the IB Geography papers. You will not be able to master all of the topics below in only a week or two (after all, the course is spread out over 1 to 2 years). Make sure you are learning the topics as they're taught to you in class, but you can use this article for support in learning the following topics. 

Part #1: Geographic Themes—60 Hours for SL, 90 Hours for HL

The IB Geography syllabus gives you seven options for study. If you're on the SL track, you'll need to master two subjects; if you're on the HL track, you'll need to master three.

Part #1: Geographic Themes

Option a: freshwater.

• Comprehensive unit guide
• Unit notes with video references
• The 2010 Pakistan Floods
• The Three Gorges Project in China
• The Nile and the Mississippi
• USA/Mexico water conflict (scroll down to bottom of the page)
• Integrated Drainage Basin Management

Option B: Oceans and Coastal Margins

• Comprehensive unit notes
• 1997/1998 El Niño
• Typhoon Haiyan case study
• South China Sea conflict (scroll down to bottom of the page)
• Bimini development case study
• Oil spills case study

Option C: Extreme Environments

• Uranium mining in Niger
• Desertification in Morocco
• Dust Bowl case study
• Soil erosion and solutions
• The Aral Sea
• Acacia Project in Senegal (scroll down to the bottom of page)

Option D: Geophysical Hazards

• Comprehensive notes
• Montserrat volcano (scroll down to the bottom of page)
• Fracking causes earthquakes (scroll down to the bottom of page)
• Unit study flashcards
• The Chernobyl disaster case study
• Unit notes with video reference s
• The 2010 Haiti earthquake
• Anchorage, Alaska earthquake case study
• Impact of climate change on vulnerable countries
• Large scale action on climate change

Option E: Leisure, Tourism, and Sport

• Leisure in China
• Leisure in the United States
• The NBA league in North America
• London Olympics 2012
• Rio Olympics 2016
• Ecotourism in Kenya

Option F: Food and Health

• Famine case study
• Global life expectancy
• Comprehensive list of case study topics

Option G: Urban Environments

• Habitat for Humanity in Manila
• Urban deindustrialization (scroll to the bottom of page)
• Infrastructure growth (scroll to the bottom of the page)
• Unit SlideShare notes
• Redlining the New Deal
• Phoenix, Arizona: The Least Sustainable City in the US

Part #2: SL and HL Core: Geographic Perspectives (Global Change) —70 Hours SL/HL

Since this is core knowledge, both SL and HL students will be tested over the following material.

Topic A: Population Distribution—Changing Population

• Unit notes with video reference
• Internal migration in Mongolia
• Population distribution in China (scroll down to bottom of page)
• Forced migration in Syria (scroll down to bottom of page)
• Life expectancy in Japan

Topic B: Global Climate — Vulnerability and Resilience

• List of potential case study topics
• How climate change affects agriculture
• Geoengineering

Topic C: Global Resource Consumption and Security

• The rise of the global middle class
• Illegal flows
• Circular economy case study

Part #3: Geographic Perspectives: Global Interactions—HL Only, 60 Hours

If you're HL, you'll also be tested over the following three topics.

Topic A: Power, Places, and Networks

• Global power players (bottom of page)
• The narcotics trade
• World's most isolated places
• Multi-governmental organizations (European Union case study)

Topic B: Human Development and Diversity

• Additional unit notes
• Cambodian indigenous minorities fight tide of development
• List of case studies with videos
• Anti-immigration movements

Topic C: Global Risks and Resilience

• Global supply chain risks
• Comprehensive list of case studies with video

Part #4: Internal Assessment: SL and HL Fieldwork—20 Hours

In order to do well on the internal assessment, students have to meet the following criteria (which we've taken directly from the IB Geography syllabus):

#1: Students must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of specified content #2: They must demonstrate application and analysis of knowledge and understanding #3: Students must demonstrate synthesis and evaluation #4: Students have to select, use, and apply a variety of appropriate skills and techniques

With that in mind, here are two study guides for internal assessments:

• This guide walks you through each step of the Internal Assessment and provides guidance on how to structure your essay and what types of data you need to collect
• This site includes sample cover pages, booklets that go over data collection, and even a PowerPoint introduction to the assignment

What's Next?

Learn more about IB Geography:

• Every IB Geography Past Paper Available: Free and Official

Learn more about other IB Classes:

• Every IB English Past Paper Available: Free and Official
• Every IB Math Studies Past Paper Available: Free and Official
• Every IB History Past Paper Available: Free and Official
• Every IB Economics Past Paper Available: Free and Official

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• IB DP Geography concepts
• Geographic themes [Paper 1]
• Core: Global change [Paper 2]
• Higher Level: Global interactions [Paper 3]
• IB DP Geography Key Terms
• IB DP Geography Exam style questions
• IB DP Geography Geographic Skills
• IB DP Geography Visual Stimulus
• IB DP Geography Approaches to learning skills
• IB DP Geography Exam preparation
• IB DP Geography Revision
• IB DP Geography Internal Assessment
• IB DP Geography Extended Essay
• Developing your extended essay research question

Producing an extended essay outline

• Geography extended essay methodology
• Structuring your Geography extended essay
• Reflections for the Planning and Progress Form
• Geography extended essay assessment

This page is intended for students preparing a Geography extended essay or a World Studies extended essay where Geography is one of the focus subjects.

It is best practice to produce a well thought out extended essay outline, that your supervisor can feedback upon, before the start of the summer break. This means that you will not waste any effort in the summer break upon an approach that will not ‘work’ for the extended essay or upon a title that will not allow you to succeed.

Share your extended essay outline in such a way that your EE supervisor can give meaningful feedback upon it.

Your extended essay outline should include at least the following:

Your research question, your data - what are you basing your arguments upon, your introduction - how are you framing your arguments, your methodology - where did your data come from, your graphs and maps - the geographical presentation of your data, structure - how to you plan to structure your extended essay.

At this point your research question should already have been agreed and recorded on ManageBac.

The research question must be sharply focused and effective treatment must be possible within 4000 words, such as “To what extent does the quality of life in selected communes in the city of Geneva vary with distance from Lake Leman”. For a Geography extended essay your research question must reference the location you are focusing on.

The research question is clear and addresses an issue of research that is appropriately connected to the discussion in the essay. 5-6 marks - Criterion A: Focus and method

At this point your title should already have been agreed and recorded on ManageBac.

You need to have a title that frames your extended essay, such as “Differences in quality of life in the city of Geneva, Switzerland”.

You need to show that you have sufficient data to analysis.

Your extended essay must be analytical. You need to be super careful that the overall feel of your essay is not descriptive.

List each of the data sources you intend to use. Insert the title of the data source into your document and hyperlink to its source. For each of your data sources outline what you intend to do with it - graph it to show something, map the data to show something or carry out statistical tests upon it.

The introduction should tell the reader what to expect in the essay. The introduction should make clear to the reader the focus of the essay, the scope of the research, in particular an indication of the sources to be used, and an insight into the line of argument to be taken.

The introduction (at this stage) should express the following:

• What is the Geography behind your extended essay? What geographical models, theories or concepts will you be using as a framework for your discussion?
• What is the global/larger issue that you are looking at and then applying to a more local scale?
• Why is your research question worth asking? Consider the issue on the global arena and then narrow that down to why it is worth asking in the context of place (location). Why are the arguments that you are going to make matter?

The focus of your methodology (at this stage) needs to be how you are collecting the data you intend to use to illustrate your discussions, arguments and conclusions.

There are two types of data - primary and secondary. Primary data is data that you collect - for example, interviews, pedestrian counts, temperature readings, mapping the locations of data points. Secondary data is data that somebody else has collected. It could be the data that you find in the appendix of a report produced by an NGO, governmental organization or an UN office. In both cases, you need to analysis and presentation the data yourself. You should not just be using the graphs and maps that other people have produced.

You can use primary and/or secondary data for your extended essay. As you will be making arguments and conclusions based on the data you need to be able to discuss the data source, reliability and accuracy.

Primary data

At this point in your extended essay journey, if you are going to be collecting primary data you should have a clear data collection plan.

• What primary data will you be collecting?
• What sampling techniques will you be using?
• How big will your sample size be? How do you know it is large enough?
• When will you be doing the data collection?
• Where will you be doing the data collection?
• How valid do you think this data will be?

Secondary data

At this point in your extended essay journey, you should already have access to sufficient secondary data.

• What are the sources of your secondary data?
• How old is the data?
• How big are the secondary data sets? Are they large enough for you to carry out meaningful analysis?
• How reliable is the data?

An appropriate range of relevant source(s) and/or method(s) has been selected in relation to the topic and research question. There is evidence of effective and informed selection of sources and/or methods. 5-6 marks - Criterion A: Focus and method

You need to be making use of personally produced graphs, maps and (potentially) statistical tests to analyse your data.

At this stage, you should have already produced some maps and graphs as a ‘proof of concept’ for your intended arguments. These graphs and/or maps should be included at this point.

List the graphs and maps you will be including in your extended essay (you do not have to have produced them all at this point - but you should have produced some). Each map and graph needs to have a suitable title and a link to/description of the data you will be using to produce it.

The research is analysed effectively and clearly focused on the research question; the inclusion of less relevant research does not significantly detract from the quality of the overall analysis. Conclusions to individual points of analysis are effectively supported by the evidence. 10-12 marks - Criterion C: Critical thinking

You need to produce a section by section outline for your extended essay. Each section needs:

• section title
• an outline of the arguments that you will be making in it
• the data/map/graph that will be supporting your argument(s)
• intended word count

Your extended essay needs to have the following sections - but sections can be broken down further into sub-sections using subheadings:

• Introduction
• Methodology
• Bibliography

The structure of the essay clearly is appropriate in terms of the expected conventions for the topic, the argument and subject in which the essay is registered. Layout considerations are present and applied correctly. The structure and layout support the reading, understanding and evaluation of the extended essay. 3-4 marks - Criterion D: Presentation

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IB Geography EE examples

Filter exemplars, to what extent does the quality of services in shopping malls in vilnius affect their spheres of influence based on akropolis and mada, to what extent can the difference in quality of life between poznań and zielona góra in 2023 be interpreted as a consequence of shock therapy in poland from the 1990s, want to get full marks for your ee allow us to review it for you 🎯, to what extent zhagalau neighborhood of astana, kazakhstan is environmentally sustainable in 2023, to what extent is it possible to predict the results of the eurovision song contest based on observable geopolitical and cultural patterns, to what extent are the nutrition transition and epidemiological transition models applicable to studying the spatial variation of noncommunicable diseases in new york city and jakarta, fast track your coursework with mark schemes moderated by ib examiners. upgrade now 🚀, what are the main causes and impacts affecting portugal’s transition to renewable energy during the 21st century, to what extent have the smart initiatives implemented in punggol has enhanced the liveability of its residents, how has the construction of masianokeng lifestyle shopping centre impacted the lives of masianokeng community and other neighboring communities, to what extent is frankfurt involved in sustainable urban development, analyzing the areas of riedberg and praunheim, to what extent do socio-economic factors, in particular, accessibility, land costs, geographical location, and availability of resources, influence the location of industries in the gdansk metropolitan area, to what extent can models and concepts described in the geography of transport systems by jean-paul rodrigue explain the relatively low traffic numbers at mostar international airport, flooding in the sumas prairie: to what extent is the sumas prairie at risk of a flood with magnitude of the 2021 november event, to what extent can the mangroves on st.john’s island benefit from restoration techniques used in other locations in singapore, to what extent can the increase in crime through ashaier divisions in the city of hebron from 2014 to 2021 be attributed to socioeconomic and geographical concentrated disparities, how has the revitalization of jurong lake gardens improved the quality of life of local residents and visitors, to what extent has south africa’s agrarian land reform programme been successful at promoting socio-economic development within the country’s agricultural sector, how does the upper course of the savegre river influence the local temperature (micro-climate) during the month of january, “to what extent can ecotourism at the can gio mangrove biosphere reserve, ho chi minh city,vietnam be considered successful”, spatio-temporal analysis of high-risk dengue clusters in bedok and jurong areas of singapore, to what extent does mountain biking affect the ecological health of mount fromme, to what extent does the standard of living within nur-sultan differentiate between the neighborhoods esil and baikonur in 2021, to what extent did transportation time, effect x gymnasium’s students’ academic performance, during the school year of 2020-21, before quarantine, how has tourism economically and environmentally affected the community of ‘muela, in what ways is greening the areas of warsaw a sustainable way of improving the standard of life in the city, to what extent does the life expectancy, education, and gross national income (gni) per capita influence the effectiveness of healthcare services in maseru, lesotho during the covid-19 pandemic, to what extent is traffic congestion a problem in maseru cbd, the effect of covid-19 on the tourism income of athens, to what extent are apartment prices affected by the quality of public services in different districts of lodz, to what extent has air pollution from the transportation sector decreased between 2005 and 2017 in paris, france due to the implementation of mitigation strategies for global climate change, contemporary study of the influence of the education and employment of women on the fertility rates in singapore, the classification of dulwich college singapore’s microclimate: an inquiry into the institution’s degree of urban and nature reserve microclimatic character.

IB Geography: Complete Guide

Charles Whitehouse

Comparing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Geography course with A-Level Geography can help students make informed decisions on which curriculum best suits their academic needs and future plans. Both are globally recognised qualifications but have different areas of emphasis and assessment methods.

The IB Geography courseis diverse and dynamic, combining physical, human, and environmental geography. It's renowned for its holistic approach, requiring students to understand the interconnectedness of geographical phenomena at different scales. Additionally, the Internal Assessment (IA) in IB Geography provides hands-on experience in conducting fieldwork and writing a comprehensive report. This could provide students with a more practical understanding of geographical issues.

In contrast, A-Level Geography is more traditional in its focus. Though it does explore human and physical geography, its approach is more compartmentalised compared to the integrated approach of the IB. A significant portion of the A-Level course is also assessed via written examinations, with less emphasis on coursework.

In terms of exam performance in a recent session, 19.9% of IB Geography HL students achieved a score of 7/7, compared to 27.2% of A-Level Geography students achieving the top grade of an A*, illustrating that A-level Geography may be comparatively easier to achieve top marks in.

When choosing between IB and A-Level Geography, it's essential to consider university requirements. Some universities may favour one qualification over the other, depending on the course. For instance, the University of Cambridge explicitly mentions both A-Levels and IB as suitable entry qualifications for its geography course.

Thus, the decision should be based on individual preferences, university requirements, and long-term career aspirations. For more information on the differences between these two qualifications, read our article comparing the IB and A-levels .

Have a look at our comprehensive set of IB Geography Study Notes and IB Geography Questions , developed by expert IB teachers and examiners!

What level of Geography should you choose in the IB?

Choosing between Higher Level (HL) and Standard Level (SL) in IB Geography is a significant decision that will depend on your interests, aspirations, and academic strengths. Both levels offer a solid understanding of the subject, but the depth and breadth of study vary.

HL Geography is more intensive and covers additional topics under the theme 'Global Interactions', such as cultural diversity, economic interdependence, and globalisation. If you have a keen interest in Geography or plan to pursue it or a related field at university, HL Geography could be a great choice.

On the other hand, SL Geography offers a comprehensive overview of key geographical concepts and issues but involves a lesser workload. If you enjoy Geography but are not considering it as a major focus for further study, SL could be a good fit.

The International Baccalaureate Organization states that IB students must choose three subjects at HL and three at SL. Balancing your overall subject choice considering your strengths, workload, and university requirements is crucial.

It's also worth noting that some universities might have specific requirements. For example, the London School of Economics specifies that at least two HL subjects are needed for most of their undergraduate courses. Therefore, researching and consulting with your school counsellor can also be beneficial in making this decision.

Below is an overview of the grades achieved in each level in 2021, giving interesting insights into HL which attained higher mean grades.

Number of IB Geography SL & HL candidates and mean grades in 2021

Understanding the IB Geography grading system

The grading system of IB Geography , like other IB subjects, follows a 7-point scale, with 7 being the highest attainable score. The grade is a reflection of a student's overall performance in the course, including both external assessments (written examinations) and internal assessments (fieldwork report).

The IB Geography Guide details how these components contribute to the final grade. For Standard Level (SL), external assessments count for 75% and the Internal Assessment (IA) 25%. Higher Level (HL) students have 80% of their grade derived from external assessments and 20% from their IA.

The external assessments consist of two or three papers, depending on whether you are an SL or HL student. Paper 1 covers core themes, Paper 2 examines optional themes, and Paper 3 (only for HL students) explores the 'Global Interactions' theme.

The IA, a fieldwork report, allows students to investigate a local geographical issue or question. Students collect data, analyse it, and write a 2,500-word report.

Each component of the assessment is marked against specific criteria, with an emphasis on understanding, application, analysis, and evaluation of geographical concepts.

While understanding the grading system is important, it's equally crucial to approach the subject with curiosity and a genuine desire to learn. A grade is ultimately a measurement of learning, but the real value lies in the knowledge and skills acquired along the way.

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IB Geography exam format

The final IB Geography grade is significantly determined by written exams, which follow a specific format as per the IB Geography Guide. Understanding this format is crucial for students aiming for high scores.

For Standard Level (SL) students, there are two papers.

Paper 1, focusing on core themes, is divided into two sections: Section A, where you answer short-answer questions on each of the two topics studied, and Section B, where you write an extended response to one of the topics.

Paper 2, assessing optional themes, follows a similar format: Section A requires short-answer responses on each of the two studied topics, and Section B demands an extended response on one of these.

For Higher Level (HL) students, there is an additional Paper 3, focusing on the 'Global Interactions' theme. Here, students respond to two extended response questions.

The duration of each paper is 1.5 hours for SL and 2.5 hours for HL. Paper 1 and Paper 2 each contribute to 35% of the SL final grade, whereas Paper 1 contributes 25%, Paper 2 contributes 35%, and Paper 3 contributes 20% to the HL final grade.

Preparing for these exams requires a firm understanding of the syllabus content and good exam technique, including time management and understanding of command terms. Practice papers, such as those available on IB Past Papers , can be useful for familiarising oneself with the format and refining these skills.

What is a good IB Geography score?

In the context of the International Baccalaureate, a score of 7 is the highest achievable grade, and is generally regarded as excellent. However, what constitutes a 'good' IB Geography score can vary depending on the perspective.

From a university admissions viewpoint, a good score would be one that meets or exceeds the entry requirements for your chosen course. For example, the University of Oxford generally requires a score of 6 or 7 in Geography HL for its Geography course.

Lastly, from a personal standpoint, a good score could be one that reflects your best effort and the mastery of the subject's key concepts. It's also important to remember that the IB, with its emphasis on critical thinking and real-world application of knowledge, values the learning process just as much as the final grade.

In any case, achieving a 'good' score typically involves a combination of consistent study, understanding the syllabus, and effective exam technique.

How to revise and get a 7 in IB Geography?

Achieving a 7 in IB Geography requires a strategic approach to revision that incorporates understanding the syllabus, consistent practice, and effective study techniques.

1. Start early and create a study plan: Consistency is key in studying. Break down your study material into manageable chunks and spread your revision over several weeks or months before your exam. Remember, last-minute cramming is generally not effective for long-term retention.

2. Understand the assessment criteria: Familiarise yourself with the IB Geography assessment criteria. Ensure you have a clear understanding of the knowledge and skills required to excel in the exams and internal assessments.

3. Practice past papers: Familiarise yourself with the exam format by practicing past papers. This will help you become comfortable with the style of questions and improve your time management skills. Analyse the mark schemes to understand the expectations of examiners.

4. Engage in active learning: Instead of passively reading or highlighting, actively engage with the material. Summarise information in your own words, teach concepts to others, or engage in group discussions to reinforce your understanding.

5. Seek support: Collaborate with classmates, form study groups, or seek guidance from your teacher or IB Geography tutor . Exploring different perspectives and discussing challenging topics can enhance your learning experience.

6. Utilise online resources: Take advantage of online resources specifically tailored to IB Geography revision. Websites like IB Geography Revision and IB Documents offer study materials, revision guides, and practice questions.

This is what Isabella Grayson shared with us about her experience successfully completing IB Geography:

"Securing a high score in the IB Geography exam was no overnight success. My approach was multifaceted: I consistently reviewed the syllabus, making sure I understood the core concepts. Weekly revision sessions helped me keep the information fresh in my mind. Using flashcards for quick recall and group discussions to explore different perspectives were my go-to techniques. Most crucially, I dedicated time to complete and review past papers, which gave me a clear understanding of the exam format and the types of questions asked. It's a journey that demands dedication, but the outcome is more than rewarding!"

Ultimately, the path to achieving a 7 in IB Geography hinges on a deep understanding of the subject matter, rigorous revision, and employing effective exam strategies, all of which can be significantly enhanced with the assistance of IB tutoring . Remember that patience and consistency are key in this journey, and integrating regular sessions with an IB tutor can provide tailored guidance and reinforce your understanding. Alongside this, don't forget the importance of taking regular breaks to avoid burnout, ensuring a balanced approach to your studies.

Overview of IB Geography Internal Assessment

The Internal Assessment (IA) in IB Geography is a crucial component of the course, contributing to 25% of the final grade for SL and 20% for HL students, according to the IB Geography Guide . The IA is an independent investigation where students conduct fieldwork and produce a 2,500-word report.

The IA process starts with selecting a suitable geographical question. This question should be linked to the syllabus, but also be narrow enough to allow for an in-depth investigation.

The second phase involves planning and conducting fieldwork. This could involve primary data collection methods such as surveys, observations, and experiments, or secondary data collection like research from books, databases, and online resources. It's important to ensure data is collected ethically and with appropriate permissions.

Next is the data presentation and analysis phase. Here, students are expected to present their data effectively using appropriate geographical tools (like graphs, charts, and maps) and thoroughly analyse their results, identifying patterns and relationships.

Finally, students must conclude their report by answering the research question and evaluate their methodology, acknowledging any limitations and suggesting improvements.

The IA requires students to apply the geographical knowledge and skills they've acquired throughout the course, demonstrating understanding and critical thinking. IB Geography IA examples can be helpful for students to understand the requirements and expectations better.

Top resources for IB Geography preparation

In your journey to conquer IB Geography, reliable resources can be a significant asset. Here are some of the top resources that can assist in your revision and preparation:

1. The Official IBO Geography Guide : This guide should be your starting point as it contains the complete syllabus and assessment criteria.

2. IB Past Papers : These are vital for getting used to the format of the exams and for practising under timed conditions. Websites like IB Past Papers have extensive collections of past papers.

3. IB Geography Textbooks : These provide comprehensive coverage of the syllabus content. Notable examples include 'Geography for the IB Diploma' by Garrett Nagle and Briony Cooke and 'Planet Geography' by Stephen Codrington.

4. Online platforms : Websites like Geography All The Way offer extensive resources, including IB Geography Q&A Revision Notes , case studies, and interactive quizzes.

5. News Websites : Stay updated with current global events relevant to your syllabus. Websites like BBC , The Guardian , and National Geographic are good starting points.

Remember, these resources are tools to supplement your classroom learning. Use them strategically, and don't overwhelm yourself by trying to use all of them at once.

Exploring career opportunities with IB Geography

With a grounding in IB Geography, an array of exciting career opportunities opens up. Here are a few potential paths you could consider:

Urban Planning and Development : Geography helps you understand spatial relationships and environmental implications, making you well-suited for careers in urban planning and development. This could involve designing urban spaces, planning housing projects, or managing public utilities. Information on this career can be found at the Urban Land Institute .

Environmental Management : With climate change becoming an increasing concern, there's a growing need for professionals who can manage and protect our natural resources. A career in environmental management might involve creating sustainability plans, conducting environmental assessments, or working on conservation projects. More information can be found at the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment .

GIS Specialist : Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly growing field, and geography students, with their understanding of spatial data, are well-positioned to enter this industry. A GIS Specialist might create maps, analyse spatial data, or develop GIS software. More details can be found on the Esri website .

Teaching and Research : If you're passionate about the subject, why not consider a career in teaching or academic research? Inspiring the next generation of geographers or contributing to the academic field could be highly rewarding. Check out the British Educational Research Association for further insights.

Remember, the skills and knowledge you gain from IB Geography, such as data analysis, problem-solving, and critical thinking, are transferable and highly valued across many sectors.

In conclusion, IB Geography offers a comprehensive and exciting exploration of our ever-evolving world. Not only does it equip you with a nuanced understanding of key global issues, but it also hones transferable skills highly prized in the modern job market. The subject offers a broad spectrum of potential careers, including urban planning, environmental management, and GIS. When properly armed with the right resources and a strategic revision plan, achieving a top score in IB Geography becomes an attainable goal. Dive into the intriguing world of geography, and you'll find it's not just about places but about understanding the intricate dynamics of our world.

What textbooks are recommended for IB Geography?

The top textbook recommended for IB Geography is "Geography for the IB Diploma" by Paul Guinness and Garrett Nagle. This book not only comprehensively covers the core and optional units of the IB Geography syllabus but also offers a wealth of case studies, maps, diagrams, and fieldwork opportunities. It seamlessly integrates theoretical concepts with practical examples, encouraging students to explore and think critically about geographic phenomena. Moreover, the book comes with digital resources and quizzes, which can help reinforce understanding and retention.

Can I take both HL and SL Geography in IB?

When it comes to choosing between Higher Level (HL) and Standard Level (SL) in the IB program, it's not an either-or situation. You select one level for each subject, including Geography. The key differences lie in the depth of content, number of study hours, and the complexity of the internal assessment. HL is more demanding and comprehensive, requiring an in-depth exploration of two additional themes.

How many hours of study does IB Geography require?

According to the International Baccalaureate Organisation, SL Geography students should anticipate a minimum of 150 classroom teaching hours, while HL students should prepare for at least 240. However, these are merely the formal teaching hours and do not include the time students may need to invest in self-study, revision, and internal assessments. Personal study hours can differ greatly based on an individual's grasp of the subject and study habits.

Does IB Geography include fieldwork?

Yes, fieldwork is an integral component of IB Geography. It forms the basis of the Internal Assessment, providing students an opportunity to develop and apply their skills in a real-world context. Fieldwork allows students to conduct primary research, collect and analyse data, and draw conclusions based on their findings. The skills learnt through fieldwork are not just relevant to geography but can also be transferred to a host of other disciplines and future careers.

Are there online resources for IB Geography revision?

Plenty of online resources can assist you with IB Geography revision. Websites such as IBO and GeoRevision offer a wide range of study materials, including revision notes, study guides, flashcards, and past papers. YouTube also provides a plethora of video tutorials that can help visual learners. Moreover, there are online forums where you can interact with fellow IB Geography students worldwide and share study tips and resources.

Is there a difference between IB Geography SL and HL?

Yes, while SL and HL Geography share a common core syllabus, HL students have to study two additional optional themes and have a higher word limit for their Internal Assessment. This means HL students delve deeper into certain geographical issues, enhancing their understanding and breadth of knowledge. The decision between SL and HL largely depends on your interest in the subject, the number of study hours you can dedicate, and your future academic or career plans.

How is the IB Geography Internal Assessment marked?

The Internal Assessment, a crucial part of IB Geography, is marked on a scale of 25. The evaluation is based on a variety of factors like your research question's quality, the appropriateness of your methodology, the accuracy and analysis of your data, and your overall presentation and conclusion. Preparing a structured and thorough IA can significantly enhance your final IB Geography score.

How can I effectively manage time during the IB Geography exam?

Effective time management is pivotal for success in the IB Geography exam. One technique is to practice answering past papers in a timed setting to get a feel for the exam's pace and structure. For essay-based questions, allocate a few minutes at the start to plan your answer and structure your thoughts. Remember to keep an eye on the clock and avoid spending too much time on one question at the expense of others.

Are past papers useful for IB Geography revision?

Past papers are an invaluable resource for IB Geography revision. They offer an understanding of the exam's format and the types of questions that can be asked. Moreover, by timing yourself while answering these papers, you can improve your time management skills. Past papers also serve as a practical means to apply your knowledge, helping identify gaps in understanding that you can then work on.

How do universities view the IB Geography course?

Universities globally recognise the rigor and comprehensive nature of the IB Diploma Programme, including the Geography course. The critical thinking skills, research methodology, and understanding of global issues that IB Geography students develop are highly valued in a range of university courses and disciplines. Particularly for courses in disciplines like Urban Planning, Environmental Science, and International Relations, IB Geography provides a strong foundation.

Can IB Geography aid in understanding global issues?

Absolutely, IB Geography is renowned for its emphasis on understanding and analysing global issues. It provides students with a solid understanding of pressing concerns like climate change, sustainable development, population dynamics, and resource management. The course encourages students to consider these issues from various perspectives, fostering an appreciation for diversity and global interconnectedness. Hence, if you have an interest in global affairs, IB Geography could be a valuable subject for you.

Is there a specific calculator recommended for IB Geography?

While mathematical calculations in IB Geography are not as intensive as other subjects like Physics or Mathematics, having a scientific calculator could be beneficial for statistical analysis and data interpretation. The choice of calculator is not strictly defined for Geography and mostly depends on the individual's comfort and requirement. Some commonly used models are the Texas Instruments TI-30 series or the Casio FX series.

Does IB Geography involve a lot of essay writing?

Yes, a significant part of the IB Geography assessment involves essay writing. This not only includes essays in your final exam but also the Internal Assessment, which is an independent investigation presented in an essay format. Developing clear and cogent essay-writing skills is therefore crucial to succeeding in IB Geography.

Can IB Geography be self-taught?

While it's technically possible to self-teach IB Geography, it can be quite challenging given the course's complexity and the high level of self-discipline required. Having an experienced teacher can be tremendously helpful in navigating the syllabus, understanding intricate concepts, and receiving feedback on assessments. However, if you're considering this route, ensure you have a solid study plan, access to resources, and perhaps a mentor for guidance.

How is geography relevant in the 21st century?

Geography's relevance in the 21st century is unparalleled. With globalisation, climate change, urbanisation, and social inequality being some of the significant issues of our time, geographical understanding is more critical than ever. Geography provides the tools and methodologies to understand these challenges, develop sustainable solutions, and promote a more equitable world. It also nurtures a global outlook, crucial in our increasingly interconnected world.

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Charles scored 45/45 on the International Baccalaureate and has six years' experience tutoring IB and IGCSE students and advising them with their university applications. He studied a double integrated Masters at Magdalen College Oxford and has worked as a research scientist and strategy consultant.

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Guy Davenport—the Last High Modernist

In the essays collected in Geography of the Imagination , one can glimpse the inner workings of the mind of a 20th-century literary genius.

Whitman appearing at Poe’s funeral, toward the back. A young Picasso catching a glimpse of the prehistoric bull paintings at Altamira. Allen Ginsberg, mid-chant at Charles Olson’s funeral, accidentally pressing the pedal to lower the coffin, leaving Olson’s remains “wedged neither in nor out of the grave.” Whittaker Chambers sponsoring Louis Zukofsky’s Communist Party membership bid. Kafka observing an air show as the first pilots took flight. Emerson expressing his dismay at the dinner-table talk of Thoreau and Louis Aggasiz on the sexual habits of turtles.

Books in review

The geography of the imagination: forty essays.

These are among the meetings of the minds gathered together in Guy Davenport’s masterpiece The Geography of the Imagination , a wide-ranging collection of essays that fuses together the multifaceted author’s long engagements with his cultural ancestors . The fruits of serious time spent reading, Davenport’s gift is a kind of literary eros: His affinity for these artists is so great that, even as he brilliantly analyzes their texts, he can’t help but try to conjure them to life. Scholar, critic, and artist rolled into one, Davenport was the standard-bearer for a variety of serious belles lettres, the likes of which is rare today—who now has done so much homework? Returned to print with a new introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan, Geography is a powerful reminder of the pleasures of erudition, and perhaps a barometer of today’s literary culture and its diminished capacity for difficulty.

For Davenport, the literary anecdote mattered; he recognized it as the “last survivor of an oral tradition.” And it was part of how his mind moved: Revolutionary ideas were embodied by great men (and, tellingly, less often women)—heroes of the past who came into contact, often fleetingly, and exchanged their genius. In his view, the flowering of culture is the product of these meetings rippling through history. Davenport himself was no stranger to these anecdotal encounters—he seems to have met a fair number of his artistic gods.

Here are some of the stories he sorts through: stumbling upon Ezra Pound’s original blueprint for The Cantos while helping the aged, mad poet move into a new apartment in Rapallo; a coffee chat with Samuel Beckett; attending boring Oxford classes taught by J.R.R. Tolkien; lunching in Kentucky with the photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard, the monk and writer Thomas Merton (“in mufti, dressed as a tobacco farmer with a tonsure”), and “an editor of Fortune who had wrecked his Hertz car coming from the airport and was covered in spattered blood from head to toe.” He reports that the restaurant treated them with impeccable manners. Perhaps more importantly, these morsels of storytelling lend Davenport’s formidable learning a voice, one with charm and humility, even a kind of boyishness (hero worship is always at hand). Moreover, they stitch together his unconventional leaps of logic and arcane references, grounding the reader even when the path of the essay may be unfamiliar.

The pleasure of reading Davenport is not just in spending time with someone who has read more widely and deeply than you have—though it’s that, too—but rather in his power of making surprising connections. The memorable lines that open the collection’s title essay propose to put all of culture, across all time, into some kind of relationship:

The difference between the Parthenon and the World Trade Center, between a French wine glass and a German beer mug, between Bach and John Philip Sousa, between Sophocles and Shakespeare, between a bicycle and a horse, though explicable by historical moment, necessity, and destiny, is before all a difference of imagination.

This assertion is, at its heart, a question of style: All cultures have buildings, beverages, music, theater, and modes of transportation, but the contrasts between them are central to how we understand ourselves and others. How these choices came to be, however, requires an investigation that can span centuries and vast distances. “Every force evolves a form,” taken from the Shakers and the seemingly inevitable simplicity of their art, is one of Davenport’s most cherished phrases—even as artists choose, forces of nature always work upon those choices. Chance and circumstance are key, but Davenport still insists on that most elusive of qualities, the imagination, to explain the particulars: People dream, guess, and suppose (to paraphrase him slightly), and these intangible urges press up against their material conditions and lead to moments of creativity. Even if you grew up in a cornfield, you might still dream of the sea.

“The imagination; that is, the way we shape and use the world, indeed the way we see the world,” Davenport writes, “has geographical boundaries like islands, continents, and countries. These boundaries can be crossed.” The title essay labors to construct an elusive third option between cultural determinism (that you are inevitably a product of your origins) and a free-floating subjectivity (that we can escape our contexts entirely). Davenport’s sprawling project as an essayist, then, is to try to track those boundary crossings and detect influences that might have escaped our notice at first. The essay’s culmination is an extended close reading of Grant Wood’s American Gothic , drawing a map out of every item in the frame. The bamboo screen from China (“by way of Sears Roebuck”), the glass from Venice, the pose of the couple out of the whole history of portraiture—this most American of images was created by a global flow of ideas and materials. Davenport’s “geography” is a kind of spatial aid to the way we think about culture: The painting isn’t just one exhibit in a long gallery of “periods” that follow one after the other. Instead, it’s a demonstration of many traditions all intertwined on the same canvas. Like a map—if one knows how to read it. And taking it all in at once is how we might begin to understand how the boundaries blur.

Another pleasure of reading Davenport is in his roaming, in never knowing his exact destination. He is just as likely to resort to simile and metaphor (“The imagination is like the drunk man who lost his watch, and must get drunk again to find it”) or swerve into a subject that is completely fascinating but also somewhat unclear in exactly how it connects to his original point. On the way to American Gothic is an extended examination of Edgar Allan Poe’s tripartite imagination: grotesque, arabesque, and classical, in Davenport’s telling. The close reading itself is elaborate and entertaining enough to quell the reader’s doubts of how, exactly, everything will fit together. Onward, then, he leaps to the Goncourt brothers, Spengler, Joyce, and so on. With Davenport, the reader is always on a journey, and it can feel good to know that there is someone a few steps ahead of you, guiding the way even if you’re temporarily lost.

Peripatetic as his writing was, Davenport was, by his own admission, someone who hated travel. He was born in South Carolina in 1927, and his Southern roots occasionally surface when his writing dips into the personal (particularly memorable is his story of being taken to his Black nurse’s house to eat clay in order to cure his indigestion). The majority of his life took place in the university: Duke, Oxford, Harvard, and eventually a post at the University of Kentucky. “The farthest away for the highest pay,” he is reported to have said. There were brief interruptions for travel as well as time spent in the US Army during the Korean War—his main memory of the latter seems to be reading Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers in the Fort Bragg rec room. Davenport would teach at Kentucky for decades, although his attitude toward the experience seems to have been ambivalent at best—he considered teaching noble in the abstract, but in practice a futile chore. Meanwhile, he toiled away inside his immense library at his brilliant and often arcane writing.

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After winning a MacArthur “genius grant” in 1990, Davenport retired to write full-time. Before his death from lung cancer at the age of 77 (he was a lifelong smoker), he was incredibly productive, with numerous volumes of essays, fiction, poetry, and translations of ancient Greek poets and philosophers to his name. He was also a painter and often an illustrator of his own work. In another essay collection, Davenport approvingly notes the wisdom of Montaigne in leaving the world of business and court intrigue to spend his days in peaceful, humanistic introspection. It’s not hard to see the older Davenport in this image: a gentleman squire, intellectually engaged but essentially aloof. He took pleasure in life outside his library, but his understanding came through the texts that structured his world.

At times, Davenport has the aura of “The Last Man Who Knew Everything,” the epithet once bestowed on the English polymath Thomas Young. However, a closer inspection shows that Davenport’s breadth of subjects, while impressive, has a focus. High modernism is his home, particularly in literature (Joyce for his master’s thesis, Pound for his PhD), though he writes compellingly about the visual arts as well. Around half of Geography ’s essays are about, or at least significantly involve, poets: Poe, Whitman, Stevens, Moore, Olson, Zukofsky, and others more obscure (a fascinating essay on the lesser-known Ronald Johnson is one of the collection’s best). In general, he is more content to root around in the text—if it is complex enough, he will find food for thought. His essays often have no fixed thesis or argument to speak of, and some of his sprawling close readings are more convincing than others: While his dissection of Olson’s famously opaque “The Kingfishers” is genuinely illuminating, his theory of Ulysses as based, chapter by chapter, on an ancient Celtic alphabet is perhaps more technically impressive than it is useful. He has many touchstones, or hobby horses, that he returns to again and again: Leonardo da Vinci (one of the first books Davenport read as a child was the artist’s biography, an obsession that seems to have molded him for a lifetime), prehistoric cave painting, Dogon theology, the ancient Greeks, Fourier, Wittgenstein, and above all, those demigods of the earlier 20th century—Picasso, Joyce, and Pound.

If “imagination” is the key to Davenport’s thinking on culture, he did not mean it in the way that it is often invoked today: a disruptive idea that strikes like a bolt from the blue. Tradition was indispensable, even inescapable, in the act of creation, he believed. In one of the collection’s most famous essays, “The Symbol of the Archaic,” Davenport provides another axiom of his thought: namely, that modernism needed to look backward, deep into the past, to advance. “What is most modern in our time frequently turns out to be the most archaic,” Davenport writes. “The sculpture of Brancusi belongs to the art of the Cyclades in the ninth century B.C. Corbusier’s buildings in their Cubist phase look like the white clay houses of Anatolia and Malta.” If The Geography of the Imagination asks us to think spatially or cross-culturally, Davenport here asserts the power of the “midden” of history, what he sees as the 20th century’s reabsorption of the past to create new, more vital work: “Archaic art, then, was springtime art in any culture.”

This attitude is itself characteristically high modernist, and Davenport saw his own style as a kind of primitivism, perhaps more in the “naïve” spirit of self-taught artists like Balthus and Henri Rousseau—the claim is debatable, but perhaps can be chalked up to Davenport’s modesty. This insight, or tension, lies at the heart of Davenport’s peculiar aesthetic: Returning to the archaic is a source of art’s freshness, but it simultaneously requires a huge scholarly apparatus to fully unwind the connections. In effect, his role as one of modernism’s great interpreters came with a downside: Davenport’s own archaic impulse, his desire to make art visceral, was always at risk of being overwhelmed by his learning.

Davenport was, of course, more than an essayist. His large body of fiction—mostly stories—has its champions, such as Sullivan. It also has its moments, but to my ears his essayistic experiments in fiction lack the grace of his “nonfiction” voice. Given that he had no real skill with character or plot, Davenport’s layerings can feel overworked, top-heavy with the relay of information in baroque language. And his conceits (Kafka, again, at the air show, or Robert Walser’s early career as a butler), which summon the hero worship that is central to his thinking, feel more at home in the realm of criticism. In “The Critic as Artist,” an essay collected elsewhere that perhaps best articulates Davenport’s own strengths, he concludes with a rather surprising cliché by his standards: “Literature does not ever say anything. It shows. It makes us feel. It is, in the world’s language, as inarticulate as music and painting. It is critics who can tell us what they think it means.” Perhaps Davenport was simply too articulate to re-create the absorption that he believed was literature’s highest achievement. His essays, which show more of his personality (though he is ultimately not a “personal essayist”), accomplish far more.

As Sullivan puts it in his breezy, pleasingly personal introduction, Davenport saw himself as “somebody who was working at the end of a civilization or tradition.” For him, “Modernism had been a cultural summit, like the Athenian Golden Age,” and now we were living “in the radioactive ash-lands of whatever that involved.” Of course, emphasizing that you stand on the shoulders of giants can tend toward diminishment—because of his density and his allusions, it’s easy to think of Davenport as a “writer’s writer.” Nostalgia can bring out the crank in him, although the stance is characteristically charming. His greatest contemporary antipathy was for the automobile, which Davenport blamed for the ravaging of American cities and culture, a quite defensible and prescient position.

Although Davenport is undoubtedly encyclopedic in many ways, it’s also worth noting what he omits—the most noticeable absence is any trace of pop culture. So many essayists today who claim a unique style (particularly those who aspire to “creative” or “literary” nonfiction) often seem duty-bound to rope in contemporary culture—Taylor Swift, say, or the latest Internet ephemera. Today, the poptimism wars are over (or, to put it differently, the “unpacking” of cultural ephemera as seen in Barthes’s Mythologies simply became the dominant form of cultural analysis), and pop won. Writers, fearing their irrelevance, feel they must insist that they belong to the “now.” Not so for Davenport: He stays firmly entrenched in his books, looking for deeper and deeper symbols in his masters. Although Davenport’s era is long past, there’s something appealing, almost romantic, in how little he fears irrelevance. Instead, he asks you to give things time: You may not understand everything in a difficult text, but that is itself the extended pleasure of reading. There will always be something further to encounter, if you choose to go on.

Davenport’s imagination always returns to Pound, that ever-troublesome modernist founding father, and a paragon of the ambiguity and density that Davenport valued. Pound is mentioned in or the subject of 26 of the 40 essays in Geography . His extreme eclecticism is perhaps the master key to Davenport’s imagination, as Pound’s best-known work, The Cantos , operates by extensive, almost uncontrollable, analogy. Incredibly disparate references are juxtaposed—Dante and Woodrow Wilson, Confucius and Odysseus—attempting to force the reader into thinking about what their relationship might be. Davenport is Pound’s ideal reader, able to grasp the threads of connection where those less booked-up might simply throw up their hands in bewilderment (and maybe for good reason). Davenport is not particularly forthcoming on Pound’s antisemitism or fascism, eliding it as madness. A political reticence, or at least mildness, is obvious. Rarely does Davenport acknowledge the perils of over-reading a text—the conspiratorial germ in Pound, for instance, is neutralized by ignoring how it might spill over into life. Complexity can be its own kind of safety, too.

As a supercharged reader, Davenport always tries to make the most of the texts he loves. Another of Geography ’s best essays is a fascinating but far-fetched dive into the work of Eudora Welty, reading her fiction largely through the myth of Persephone. The intention is to situate Welty as a major modernist in the mold of Pound or Joyce, giving deep symbolic readings of her major novels and stories. Davenport recounts elsewhere, somewhat bashfully, that Welty wrote him once to say that his interpretation did not at all conform with her own sense of her work. “Death of the author” pending, Davenport’s humility at recounting this exchange breathes warmth into the analysis. And perhaps there’s something to be grasped from this ever-deeper excavation: the unconscious patterns in art and literature that hum in the air around any enduring work.

In the literary theorist Anna Kornbluh’s recent book Immediacy , Kornbluh writes about the dominance of a contemporary style that pretends to have no style at all: autofiction, streaming television, the low-friction churn of memes and social-media posts. In our hurry to move through the flow of stuff , we have become subject to a kind of art that feeds us “effortlessness” while depleting art’s essential power to make us stop and reflect. Davenport, in his labyrinths, his constraints, his obscure references, is the model of an artist who believes in dwelling with artworks. There is a density to his writing, a willingness to embrace the uncertain and to make us work a little harder to capture the meaning or the beauty of an image.

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His work feels salutary exactly because such ambitions are increasingly rare—modernism and its ambitions are receding from our culture, warts and all. At the same time, we experience a massive crush of information every day, a circumstance that more than ever requires a mind capable of describing, or inventing, relationships between the disparate works of art that populate the feed. Davenport asks us to practice invention in our associations, to not just settle for the catch-alls of “everything” and “all the time.”

Through the effort of thinking through those connections, even when they’re perplexing, a critic—or an artist—manages to make something from the information “midden” that might otherwise have been lost. As Davenport observes in “Finding,” one of the few purely autobiographical essays in the collection, “I learned from a whole childhood of looking in fields how the purpose of things ought perhaps to remain invisible, no more than half known. People who know exactly what they are doing seem to me to miss the vital part of any doing.” To take up Davenport, we should make haste slowly. Unhurriedness, distance, the eye unfocused at first: Through these patient arts, something rare might emerge.

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