10 Tips For Success in the IB English IO

The IB English Individual Oral (IO) is a critical component of your English A assessment. Accounting for 30% of the final grade at the Standard Level and 20% at the Higher Level, it can make a great difference in your overall results. In this article the IB teachers and examiners at TutorsPlus offers 10 IB English IO tips to help you navigate the oral exam to get the best score possible.

Read further to find out how to deliver an oral analysis and interpretation worthy of 40 marks. We also provide an exclusive 15-minute video masterclass led by our very own IB English Examiner, Tao. 

10 IB English IO Tips from Our Expert

Clearly, you cannot succeed without thorough preparation. But how you practice is what matters the most. With the following IB English IO tips, you’ll make the most of your time and effort.

Know Your Works

Unlike other oral exams, which require you to work with a previously unseen stimulus, you get to prepare for English IO in advance. In particular, you have an opportunity to choose two texts to work with. They can be anything, as long as they meet IB’s requirements and allow you to conduct a meaningful analysis.

Please keep in mind that if you’re an IB English Literature student, one text must be in English, while the other is a translated work. IB Language and Literature demand one literary and one non-literary text.

Needless to say, you need to know and understand the chosen works. Read and re-read them while paying attention to their themes, characters, literary devices, etc. If you don’t know the nuances of the works, you might struggle during the follow-up Q&A session with your examiner.

But don’t just read your texts. You must choose excerpts of up to 40 lines and bring their copies to the exam. Choose wisely! These excerpts should showcase the texts’ key themes and ideas while simultaneously supporting your points. Most importantly, they must have a clear connection to a global issue.

Choose Your Global Issue Carefully

Speaking of global issues, they are a lens through which you need to analyse your texts. A narrow focus should help you find a deeper meaning in the chosen texts and lead to a more insightful analysis.

The IB suggests five key global issue categories to guide you:

1. Culture, Identity, and Community. It explores how family, race, religion, etc. affect individuals and societies. You are, of course, encouraged to delve deeper into these issues. For example, instead of a broad ‘Community’, you can consider narrow aspects such as migration to colonialism.
2. Beliefs, Values, and Education. Here, you can analyse how beliefs and values influence individuals, communities, and education systems. Consider conflicts between different belief systems or ethical situations.
3. Politics, Power, and Justice. This group examines rights, government structures, power dynamics, wealth distribution, and the pursuit of justice. It can also explore peace and conflict.
4. Art, Creativity, and Imagination. With this category, you can explore the inspiration behind art and its creative process. In particular, you may use it to explain how art shapes our perceptions and impacts societies.
5. Science, Technology, and the Environment. This group deals with the relationship between humans and the environment, the impact of technology and media on society, as well as scientific progress.

You can learn more about these categories as well as other nuances of English A Internal Assessment here.

How do I Choose a Good Global Issue?

The five categories the IBO suggests are just ideas for your creativity. They are not global problems, but rather global areas. You can choose to review, let’s say, a Cultural aspect but it is important to narrow it down to one specific issue common for both texts.

Overall, a category is rather relevant. Your chosen issue can belong to more than one area. It is even possible to come up with a topic that doesn’t fit any of the global areas. The most important is that it meets the following criteria:

• Universality. A good global issue is experienced worldwide. Climate change, poverty, and technological advancements are all great examples.
• Significance. The issue should have a significant impact on people’s lives, such as, for example, access to education or healthcare.
• Everyday Relevance. Choose an issue that touches people’s daily lives. This could be the influence of social media on mental health, the impact of globalisation on local businesses, or challenges related to food security.

Examples of IB English IO Global Issues

Because the selection of global issues is so wide, it might be difficult to choose one. Let us suggest a few good options from each category:

• Culture, Identity, and Community:
  • The impact of social media on cultural identity.
  • The challenges of preserving cultural traditions in a globalised world.
• Beliefs, Values & Education:
  • The clash between traditional values and modern technology.
  • The importance of ethical decision-making in a complex world.
  • The role of education in promoting critical thinking.
•  Politics, Power & Justice:
  • The fight for equality and human rights.
  • The impact of corruption on society.
  • The increasing gap between rich and poor.
• Art, Creativity & Imagination:
  • The power of art to address social issues.
  • The role of censorship in artistic expression.
  • The influence of technology on creativity.
•  Science, Technology & the Environment:
  • The impact of climate change on our planet.
  • The ethical considerations of artificial intelligence.
  • The widening digital divide between developed and developing nations.

As we said, your issue doesn’t have to belong to any of these global areas. ‘The global economic crisis and its effects on individuals’, ‘The importance of mental health awareness in society’, ‘The rise of populism and its impact on democracy’ – these are examples of great issues that don’t fall into the suggested categories. Nevertheless, they can help show your analytical skills and the ability to think critically about the world around you.

Draw the Connection Between Form and Content

When scrutinising the chosen texts, it’s vital to consider not just what is being said (the content), but how it’s being said (the form).

The type of text can have a great impact on how its author presents the global issue. For example, a newspaper article might offer a factual and objective perspective, while a poem tends to gravitate to symbolism and imagery to achieve an emotional response. Your task here is to consider why the author chose this particular form to address the global issue.

On top of that, your observations of the form and content can help you find deep meanings within the text. A persuasive article, for instance, might use rhetorical devices to manipulate the reader’s perspective on the matter in focus. Note these meanings in your essay if possible.

Dig Deep and Deconstruct

It is not enough to simply identify a global issue in your chosen texts. For a meaningful literary analysis, you should consider how your texts talk about this issue. In other words, you need to deconstruct specific moments in your excerpts and explore why authors made such choices.

This is how you can do it:

• Identify specific stylistic features in your excerpts: word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and so on.
• Ask yourself, “Why did the author choose this particular element?” Consider the effect it has on the overall meaning and how it resonates with the selected global issue.
• How do these stylistic choices influence your perception of the global issue? Do they evoke specific emotions or encourage you to see the issue from a new perspective?

Pull out and Position

Remember, your IB English IO won’t focus entirely on the chosen excerpts. Instead, the examiner expects a comprehensive understanding of both source texts.

For this reason, it is important to connect your excerpts to other key elements within the works. Make sure to explain how these excerpts contribute to the overall plot, character development, or thematic exploration. You need to also specify to which genres the literary works belong. For non-literary texts, consider how the excerpt fits within the author’s overall message or the campaign’s goals.

If possible, explore connections between your chosen texts and other works by the same author or consider real-world examples or events that resonate with your excerpt (in the case of non-literature works).

Choose a Structure that Works for You

One of the most important IB English IO tips is a clear structure of your oral presentation. Not only can a well-organised approach guide you, but also help the examiner easily track your thoughts. In addition, it will maximise your score in the Focus and Organisation marking criteria.

While Individual Oral isn’t a comparative analysis like Paper 2, you may still borrow some useful structural elements from it. For instance, it is a good idea to start with a thesis, i.e. your main argument. It should briefly but efficiently connect your chosen sources, the global issue, and the specific device used by each author to address it.

Next, you need to elaborate on your point and explain how it relates to the global issue and the stylistic devices. It is important to support your ideas with evidence. This could be specific quotes, imagery, or narrative techniques from your excerpts and, if needed, the entire texts.

Next, you need to talk about authors’ choices – what are their meanings, purpose, and how do they influence the reader’s understanding of both the text and the global issue?

Finally, your oral presentation should have a conclusion. Here, you need to go back to your thesis statement and provide a concise summary of the key points you’ve explored.

Know the Marking Criteria

The IB English IO assesses your skills across four key areas with an equal contribution to your final grade (each provides 10 marks). Without understanding these criteria, you won’t be able to make a winning presentation.

So, let’s take a look at each of these criteria:

1. Knowledge, Understanding, and Interpretation:

This criterion assesses your understanding of the texts you’ve chosen. In particular, it requires you to demonstrate a grasp of their content and themes. Besides, you need to effectively connect your texts to the broader global issue.

2. Analysis and Evaluation:

Your ability to critically analyse the texts and their stylistic devices is what this criterion is all about. To be more exact, it checks if you can identify and explain the author’s use of language, literary devices, or visual elements (for non-literary texts). In addition, you must be able to analyse how these stylistic choices contribute to the overall meaning and impact of the texts. Lastly, it is important to back up your claims with evidence from the excerpts and the texts as a whole.

3. Focus and Organisation:

This criterion evaluates the structure and coherence of your presentation. To earn 10 marks, you should have a strong thesis that guides your analysis and connects the texts, the global issue, and authorial choices. Also, examiners wish to hear a well-organised presentation with clear transitions between ideas.

4. Language:

Language is also an important part of your presentation. It is critical to communicate your ideas clearly with an appropriate vocabulary and grammar. Apart from this, you need to maintain a formal register while expressing your ideas confidently and engagingly.

Use the 10 Bullet Points Wisely

To help you structure your IO presentation, your school will provide a specific form. Your goal is to add up to 10 bullet points to it. You can rely on them to make your oral smooth and effective but you are not allowed to read them like a script.

Make sure to avoid lengthy sentences or full paragraphs. Instead, use short phrases or keywords. The things you need to prioritise are analytical ideas. At the same time, it is better to memorise things such as authors, genres, and other basic information.

We recommend that you have bullets for:

• your thesis statement;
• the key theme in Text A and specific stylistic device;
• specific examples from Text A to support your claim;
• connection between Text A’s stylistic devices and the global issue;
• the same three bullet points for text B;
• a brief conclusion.

And here are some IB English io bullet points examples:

• Through contrasting narrative styles, both Text A and Text B explore the global issue of social inequality;
• Text A explores the theme of isolation through the use of symbolism;
• The recurring motif of the locked door symbolises the character’s entrapment within social structures;
• This use of symbolism reflects the limited social mobility faced by many individuals in today’s world.

Practise, Practise, Practise

It’s likely that you don’t give oral presentations every day. That’s why it might be hard to choose the best pace and structure. However with the IO, with sufficient practice, it is possible to deliver a confident performance. So, in the case of this exam especially, it is worth putting in the effort to reach the top scores. Preparation can really make a big difference, perhaps more than you would imagine.

We recommend that you practice your presentation with a friend, classmate, or even an English tutor. They can then give feedback on how you can improve yourself: Was everything clear and well-structured? Do you need to work more on your overall flow?

As you practice your presentation, record yourself. Self-assessment of your pace, voice tone, emphasis, etc. will give you an idea of the areas you should improve.

One mistake that students tend to make is rushing through their presentations. They cover all the points too quickly and then don’t know what else to say in the remaining time. The clock won’t stop if you finish early.

If you start mumbling at the end, you will simply ruin a positive impression of your presentation. Hence it is important to meticulously check your timing. Thanks to practice, you will learn how to cover all key points within 10 minutes without rushing or leaving gaps.

Be Confident

Our final IB English IO tip is simple – take it easy.

It might be difficult to calm down in anticipation of your exam. But don’t think of it as a nerve-wracking experience. It should be your time to shine.

You’ve spent so much time and effort analysing your texts and connecting them to global issues. You should be proud of the knowledge you’ve received and the connections you’ve made. Why not use exams as an opportunity to showcase your expertise?

So, don’t be afraid to share your perspective and interpretations in a way that’s personal and meaningful to you.

How to Prepare for the IB Individual English Oral Exam

Watch Tao talk you through these IB English IO tips. As an IB English examiner, she knows best how to help you get the best score possible.

How else can you get a high mark in your English A Individual Oral? Consider hiring a qualified IB English tutor from TutorsPlus. Tao or one of our amazing English tutors are at your disposal to help you excel in the IO. They can provide targeted guidance on every aspect of the exam, from deepening your analysis and structuring your presentation to improving your delivery.

With our help, you can approach your exams confidently and reach your highest goals. Just contact us at 022 731 8148 or and we’ll connect you with a perfect tutor to meet your academic needs.

By Tao McCarthy

Tao is a highly experienced English teacher, passionate about language and literature. She has been an IB English Examiner for over fourteen years. Unquestionably, she believes in the importance of critical thinking and creativity in education. First, she worked in schools in the UK, then Portugal and Greece both as a classroom teacher and a Head of Department. Importantly, she created an engaging pre-IB secondary English Language and Literature programme. Above all, Tao is committed to her students. Also, she is an expert at preparing them for the IB Diploma English exams and IB Oral Commentary.

So, if you would like to book a lesson with Tao, or one of our IB English team click here.

To find out more about the IB, click here.

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