How much is too much?: Analyzing the Extended Essay and other IB deadlines

By: Karina Hanson

As the school year is quickly moving along, the class of 2016 is trying to spot the light at the end of the tunnel. This is seemingly impossible, though, due to all of the upcoming deadlines. The consensus from seniors seems to be that the Extended Essay, or “EE”, is the most daunting of them all.

The EE is one of many assessments needed to achieve the IB Diploma. Students are allowed a decent amount of leeway when it comes to creating their essay in the sense that it is based on a subject matter of their choosing, and it may not exceed 4,000 words.

With the first draft due to Mr. Keating on October 15^th, Diploma Candidates are asking, “Why so soon?!” On top of the EE, students are dealing with the additional stress of college applications, CAS reflections, and other assorted Internal Assessments. In order to provide some insight on the matter for Diploma Candidates, I spoke to Mystic Valley’s IB coordinator, Mr. Keating.

“The schedule [for due dates] was built back in April,” Mr. Keating said, after hearing of the seniors’ concerns. “[But,] those writing the Extended Essay were able to meet with their Advisors starting in February.”

As the EE is designed to be an “independent, student driven” assignment, students are allotted a total of 3-5 hours with their assigned advisor. As a result, they are forced to hold themselves accountable in terms of making progress on the lengthy essay. Mr. Keating added that students could have (and should have) made some headway over the summer, so the due date is not really unreasonable. However, since the assignment is intended to be student driven, they ultimately had the choice to work on it as they pleased.

Mr. Keating brought up a good point that “having a draft of the EE by October confirms [for colleges] that students are on track to receive the diploma.” By the time the IB scores are released in the summer of 2016, colleges won’t necessarily know whether or not the candidate earned the diploma. As disappointing as it would be to not receive the diploma, Mr. Keating admitted that while earning it has some value, most colleges value candidacy even more at that point in time.

He concluded by saying that students should rest assured because the EE and TOK are worth a combined 3 points toward the diploma. In the grand scheme of things, the EE is essentially worth 1.5 points out of a possible total of 45 (with every other course contributing a maximum of 7 points).

This is not to say that Extended Essay writers should be submitting 200 word documents, but that the EE shouldn’t be something to lose sleep over (unless you plan to pull an all-nighter the day before it’s due)!