TOK essay and exhibition
TOK uses two criteria for the essay (understanding knowledge questions and analysis of perspectives) and two for the exhibition (justification and communication).
IB assessment criteria define what examiners look for in every subject and core component. From MYP subject groups to DP courses, TOK, the Extended Essay and CAS, each criterion breaks down the skills and understanding students must demonstrate. This guide explains how criteria work, how they differ across programmes, and how tutoring helps students align their work with examiner expectations.
IB criteria are the detailed descriptors that examiners and teachers use to judge student work. They replace simple right-or-wrong marking with levels of achievement tied to specific skills such as analysis, evaluation, communication and application.
In both the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP), every subject has its own set of criteria. The core components — Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay (EE) and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) — also have distinct criteria that contribute to the diploma.
Understanding these criteria lets students see exactly what is required for each mark band, plan their work accordingly and use teacher feedback more effectively.
Every MYP subject group uses four criteria labelled A, B, C and D. Each criterion has eight achievement levels grouped into four bands.
In Sciences the criteria cover knowing and understanding, inquiring and designing, processing and evaluating, and reflecting on the impacts of science.
In Language and Literature they address analysing, organising, producing text and using language.
The Personal Project is assessed against its own criteria: planning, applying skills, and reflecting. Students document their process in a report marked using these criteria.
By October students should be refining their Product or Outcome using Success Criteria and preparing for supervisor discussions, while November often brings drafting of the Personal Project Report alongside cumulative revision.
TOK uses two criteria for the essay (understanding knowledge questions and analysis of perspectives) and two for the exhibition (justification and communication).
The EE is assessed against five criteria: focus and method, knowledge and understanding, critical thinking, presentation, and engagement.
CAS is not graded but requires students to meet seven learning outcomes through a portfolio of experiences and reflections.
Success in the core contributes up to three bonus points toward the diploma. Understanding the distinct language of each criterion helps students target their effort where it counts most.
Each core component uses unique descriptor language. Reading the full descriptor, not just the headline, avoids confusion between adjacent bands.
Students can turn criteria into a revision checklist by breaking each descriptor into concrete actions. For instance, if a criterion rewards "evaluating implications," the student plans practice paragraphs that explicitly weigh strengths and limitations of a claim.
Feedback from teachers should be mapped to criterion strands. When a comment says "more analysis needed," the student identifies which criterion strand that maps to and revises that specific skill.
A criteria-focused study plan schedules practice on the weakest strands first, uses past papers or exemplar work to see what top-band responses look like, and tracks progress against the descriptor language.
By October MYP5 students need to move beyond reproducing content to applying, analysing and evaluating — exactly the higher-order strands that criteria describe.
A frequent confusion is mixing up criteria with command terms. Command terms (such as "analyse," "evaluate," "compare") tell students what to do in a question; criteria describe the quality of the response. Another misunderstanding is assuming all subjects weight criteria equally — each subject defines its own weighting, and the core components have entirely separate frameworks.
Students sometimes overlook the nuance within a single descriptor. For example, "adequate analysis" and "thorough analysis" sit in adjacent bands but require visibly different depth. Reading the full descriptor, not just the headline, avoids this trap.
The consultation process matches students with tutors who specialise in criterion-based preparation for their specific subjects and programme level (MYP or DP).
Families share recent reports, teacher feedback and upcoming assessment dates so the tutor can identify which criteria need the most attention.
From there, a plan is built around the student's calendar — targeting the criteria that will be assessed in upcoming summatives, IAs, the Personal Project report, TOK essay, Extended Essay or exam papers.
The goal is to make criterion language a practical tool the student uses independently.
Every MYP subject group uses four criteria (A, B, C, D), each with eight achievement levels.
No. Grade descriptors summarise typical performance at each 1–7 grade across the whole subject, while criteria are the specific mark bands used for individual components such as internal assessments.
The Extended Essay is assessed against five criteria: focus and method, knowledge and understanding, critical thinking, presentation, and engagement.
CAS is not graded with numbered criteria. Students must meet seven learning outcomes documented in a portfolio of experiences and reflections.
Task instructions and subject guides indicate which criteria are assessed. Teachers also provide criterion-referenced rubrics for summative tasks and internal assessments.
Yes. Tutors clarify the difference between command terms (what a question asks you to do) and criteria (how the quality of your response is judged), and they practice both in context.
Book a consultation to match with a tutor who specialises in your subjects and level. We'll review your reports, identify the criteria that matter most for your upcoming assessments, and build a plan that turns descriptor language into