The Extended Essay is Changing - Here’s What We Know So Far

As you may know, the IB is rolling out the newest updates to the Extended Essay this month.

So, this week, I thought I’d share my take on how the IB Extended Essay is evolving, with some significant updates coming in September 2025.

If you are an IB Coordinator, an Extended Essay Coordinator, or an Extended Essay Supervisor—these changes will directly impact how students conduct research, how essays are assessed, and how we support them throughout the process.

The good news is that the core principles of independent research and formal academic writing are still the foundation of the Extended Essay, but the structure, assessment criteria and support materials are getting an overhaul.

While we don’t have every detail yet, here’s what we do know so far.

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Two Research Pathways: More Flexibility for Students

This is pretty cool.

One of the biggest shifts in the new Extended Essay framework is the introduction of two distinct research pathways.

• The Interdisciplinary Pathway – This option allows students to combine knowledge and methods from multiple IB subjects to explore global issues.
• The Subject-Focused Pathway – This is the traditional approach, where students research within a single subject area, much like they have in the past.

For students who have interests that don’t fit neatly into one subject, this new structure makes the Extended Essay more accessible and encourages a broader, more connected approach to research.

This reminds me a lot of the World Studies Extended Essay, where students already work across disciplines.

Now, this kind of approach will be built into the standard Extended Essay framework.

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An Adjusted Mark Scheme

A definite improvement.

With the 2025 update, the Extended Essay’s mark scheme is getting restructured. The five criteria we’re used to—A, B, C, D, and E—are still there, but they’ve been reorganized and refined for clarity and consistency.

Here’s how it’s going to look:

• Criterion A: Framework for the Essay (6 marks) – Covers the research question, research methods, and structure of the essay. This absorbs the old Presentation criterion, which is now gone.
• Criterion B: Knowledge and Understanding (6 marks) – Evaluates subject-specific knowledge and how well students embed their subject learning into their research.
• Criterion C: Analysis and Line of Argument (6 marks) – Focuses on critical thinking and how students build a strong argument.
• Criterion D: Discussion and Evaluation (8 marks) – Assesses findings and evaluation of the research process.
• Criterion E: Reflection (4 marks) – Encourages students to reflect on their personal and academic growth through the research process.

Two major changes that stand out:

1. Criterion C (Analysis) and Criterion D (Evaluation) are now separate. This should help students and supervisors differentiate between constructing an argument and critically evaluating findings.
2. Criterion D (Presentation) has been removed. Formatting and structure are now part of Criterion A (Framework for the Essay).

Overall, these changes should help students focus on what actually matters in their essay and reduce some of the confusion around Criterion C in the current system.

In summary, I like all of these changes.

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A Clearer Role for Reflection

Happily, reflection is still an important part of the Extended Essay, but the 2025 update refines its role.

While it has been reduced from 6 marks to 4, Criterion E (Reflection) places a stronger emphasis on:

• Skills students have developed
• Engagement in the research process
• How they navigated challenges and made adjustments

This means that students’ reflections remain evaluative—less about summarizing what they did and more about analyzing how they grew throughout the process.

For us as Supervisors, this means guiding students toward deeper reflection—helping them focus on evaluating their own research journey rather than just describing what they did.

I like these changes. A lot.

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Improved Support Materials (hopefully and finally?)

One of the most promising updates from the IB is that they are updating and expanding Extended Essay support materials to help both students and supervisors.

• More targeted essay examples – Covering both interdisciplinary and subject-specific pathways.
• Self-paced learning tools for supervisors – Hopefully, this means clearer expectations for our role in supporting students.
• Better guidance on structuring an argument – Helping students with analysis and evaluation, which have historically been weak points.

Another key shift is how the subject-specific guidance is being restructured.

Instead of each subject having its own rigid set of guidelines, the IB is moving toward broader "subject group-specific guidance".

For example, instead of Economics having its own Extended Essay guide, there may be one guide for all subjects within Individuals & Societies.

This could mean more flexibility for students in choosing their research direction, though we’ll have to wait and see exactly how this plays out.

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The Best Fit Approach Continues

The "best-fit" approach to marking the Extended Essay, something that’s been used in other IB assessments for years, continues.

Thankfully!

This means that instead of examiners checking off a rigid list of requirements, they’ll evaluate the essay holistically. The idea is to reduce inconsistencies in how essays are assessed and focus more on intellectual engagement, argument quality, and research depth rather than just technical checklist-style grading.

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What Does This Mean for Us?

We’ll see.

But the 2025 Extended Essay changes do seem to reflect the IB’s commitment to making the process clearer, more structured, and more student-friendly.

• Students will have more flexibility in their research.
• Assessment expectations should be more transparent and focused.
• Reflection will be more intentional and skills-based.
• Supervisors and coordinators will hopefully get better support materials and training.

For those of us who guide students through this process, now is the time to get familiar with the changes and start thinking about how this will impact our Extended Essay processes.

If you want to see what the IB has released so far, these two documents may interest you: Extended Essay Report to Educators and the new Extended Essay Subject Brief.

I love working with students on the Extended Essay—it’s one of my favorite parts of the IB experience.

And I think these changes are going to make the process more accessible, more engaging, and more meaningful for both students and us.

I hope this breakdown helps and I’ll keep sharing updates as more details come out.

Sending you my best.

See you next week.

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