IB History Extended Essay

The criteria on this page are the ones for exams from May 2027, when the Extended Essay is marked out of 30. See what changed. If you sit your exams in November 2026, the older 34-mark criteria are summarised after them.

The IB History Extended Essay is a 4,000-word investigation of a historical question of your choice, and one of the most popular EE subjects. It is also one of the most commonly misjudged. Many students treat it as a long descriptive project about a period they enjoy, when examiners are actually rewarding something quite different: a focused argument built on evaluated evidence, and an awareness of how historians disagree. This guide explains how the five EE assessment criteria play out in History specifically, which research questions succeed and which fail, what examiners expect from your sources and method, and the mistakes that most often pull History essays out of the top band.

How the History EE differs from the History IA

The History IA is a short, three-part investigation with a prescribed structure: an evaluation of two sources, the investigation itself, and a reflection on method. The Extended Essay is roughly twice the scale, is written as one continuous argument, and is marked against the generic EE criteria rather than the IA's section-by-section markbands. In practice the EE demands more of you in two areas. First, you must sustain a single line of argument across 4,000 words without drifting into narrative. Second, you must engage with historiography, the ongoing debate among historians, rather than simply using sources as raw evidence. If you have already written the IA (see our IB History IA guide), think of the EE as the same skills stretched over a bigger canvas, with the source-evaluation habit applied throughout instead of quarantined in one section.

Choosing a research question for a History EE

The research question determines most of your ceiling before you write a word. A strong History EE question has four characteristics:

Argumentative: It invites a judgement, "to what extent", "how significant", "how far", not a description of what happened.
Bounded: It fixes the period, the place, and the actors, so the essay has edges.
Debatable: Historians (or plausible interpretations) disagree about the answer, giving you something to weigh.
Researchable: Primary and secondary sources exist, are accessible to you, and are in a language you can read.

One more constraint depends on your session. If you sit your exams in November 2026, the Extended Essay guide says essays that focus on events of the past 10 years are not acceptable, as these are regarded as current affairs, not history, and such an essay will be compromised across all of the criteria. The guide for May 2027 onward sets no fixed cut-off, but the subject rewards engagement with a body of historical writing, and recent events rarely have one. Choose something old enough that historians have already argued about it, and confirm the topic with your supervisor before committing.

Examples of strong History EE research questions

To what extent did economic pressures, rather than the moral campaign of reformers, drive the abolition of serfdom in Russia in 1861? Why it works: it names two competing causal factors, fixes a single dated event, and forces you to weigh interpretations against each other.
How significant was propaganda in sustaining British civilian support for the war effort between 1914 and 1916? Why it works: the period and country are tightly bounded, a defined source base exists, and "how significant" demands a judgement against other factors rather than a description.
To what extent was the Marshall Plan motivated by humanitarian concern rather than strategic self-interest? Why it works: it sits on a genuine historiographical fault line, so engaging with rival schools of interpretation is built into answering it.

Weak research questions, and why they fail

What caused the Second World War? Why it fails: this is a book-length survey topic. It cannot be answered with one focused argument in 4,000 words, so the essay collapses into a chronological summary of textbook causes.
Was Napoleon a good leader? Why it fails: "good" is not a historical category. The question invites moral opinion instead of analysis of evidence, and gives the examiner no criteria to see tested.

How the five EE criteria play out in History

From May 2027, every Extended Essay is marked out of 30 on the same five criteria. Here is what each one rewards in a History essay:

Criterion A: Framework for the essay (6 marks). A sharply stated research question that the essay actually answers, a method that can answer it, and a structure that serves the argument. In History, method means your source strategy: which primary material you examined, which historians you read, and why that selection can support an answer.
Criterion B: Knowledge and understanding (6 marks). Accurate contextual knowledge and correct use of historical concepts such as causation, continuity and change, and significance. The examiner should see that you understand the period well enough to locate your question inside it.
Criterion C: Analysis and line of argument (6 marks). Evidence analysed rather than stacked, with findings that stay relevant to the question and one coherent argument running through the essay. Narrative essays lose marks here first.
Criterion D: Discussion and evaluation (8 marks). The highest-weighted criterion. It rewards a balanced discussion of what your findings mean, with rival interpretations weighed and supported by evidence, and an evaluation of the essay itself: what your sources and method could and could not establish.
Criterion E: Reflection (4 marks). Marked on the reflective statement in your RPF, not on the essay. It rewards evaluative reflection, with specific examples, on how the research changed you as a learner, such as how a source that overturned your first answer changed the way you read evidence.

If you sit your exams in November 2026, the essay is marked out of 34 instead: Focus and method (6), Knowledge and understanding (6), Critical thinking (12), Presentation (4) and Engagement (6, marked on the three RPPF reflections). The advice above carries over, because research, analysis, and discussion and evaluation together make up Critical thinking.

Sources, method and historiography

Examiners expect a History EE to work with both primary and secondary sources, and to treat neither as neutral. For primary sources, evaluation means asking who produced the document, when, and for what purpose, and what that origin and purpose do to its value and limitations for your specific question. A propaganda poster is not a weak source; it is a strong source about intentions and a weak source about outcomes. Showing that you know the difference is the kind of analysis Criterion C rewards.

Secondary sources need the same discipline. Historians are interpreters, not repositories of fact, and a top-band essay sets interpretations against each other instead of quoting whichever historian happens to agree with the thesis. Debates such as the orthodox, revisionist and post-revisionist readings of the early Cold War show the pattern: the disagreement itself becomes evidence you can analyse. You do not need dozens of sources: a small set of primary documents examined closely, plus historians who take genuinely different positions, beats a long bibliography used superficially. Avoid leaning on encyclopedias and revision websites as load-bearing sources; they flatten exactly the disagreements your essay is supposed to explore.

Common mark-losing mistakes in History EEs

Narrative instead of argument: retelling events in chronological order and attaching a judgement only in the conclusion. This caps Criterion C and leaves Criterion D nothing to discuss.
No historiography: an essay that never engages with what historians have argued reads as a school report, however accurate it is.
Sources treated as neutral: quoting documents and historians without ever evaluating origin, purpose, value or limitation.
A question without edges: whole wars, whole revolutions, whole centuries. Broad questions force shallow coverage.
A one-sided case: ignoring the strongest evidence against your thesis. Examiners reward essays that weigh counter-evidence and still land on a judgement.
Untraceable claims: vague or missing citations. Evidence nobody can trace carries no weight in the analysis and discussion the highest criteria reward.

Frequently asked questions

Can I write my History EE on a recent event?

It depends on your session. For November 2026 the Extended Essay guide says essays that focus on events of the past 10 years are not acceptable, as current affairs rather than history. The guide for May 2027 onward sets no fixed cut-off, but the History EE rewards engagement with historiography, and recent events rarely have an established body of historical writing. Choose a topic old enough that historians have debated it, and confirm your choice with your supervisor.

How many sources does a History EE need?

There is no official number. Strong essays typically combine a small set of primary sources analysed in depth with a range of secondary works representing different interpretations. Depth of evaluation matters far more than the length of the bibliography.

Is History a hard subject for the Extended Essay?

History EEs are marked against the same five criteria as every other subject, but Criteria C and D reward argument and the evaluation of interpretations rather than narrative. Students who retell events tend to score in the middle bands; students who argue a focused case can score highly.

Grade your History EE before you submit

IBLens analyses Extended Essays against the published criteria for your exam session and shows you, criterion by criterion, where marks are being lost, including the most common History problem: an essay that narrates where it should argue. Paste a draft into the Extended Essay grader, where the first preview is free, to see where your History EE stands, and read the complete IB Extended Essay guide for the full process from topic choice to final reflection.

An AI check is outside help on your EE, so ask your supervisor before you use IBLens or any other tool, and tell them if you do.

Grade your History EE with IBLens