Three essays. Three honest grades.
We wrote three demo essays on the same TOK-style title at deliberately different quality levels and ran each through IBLens, which marks TOK holistically against the official 2022 instrument — one global-impression score out of 10, exactly as IB examiners do. The analyses are real, unedited grader output: the weak essay scored 2/10, the developing one 4/10, the strong one 5/10 — each in a different official band (Rudimentary, Basic, Satisfactory).
What a weak essay looks like — 2/10 (band 1-2)
How we wrote it: Opinion-based claims, anecdotes instead of examples, no genuine counterclaims, key terms never defined.
Excerpt: “Can we ever be certain about anything in science and math? This is a really interesting question that many people have thought about. In my opinion, certainty is possible in math but not really in science, and I will explain why I think this. First of all, math is certain…”
Holistic assessment — global impression — 2/10: Placed in the Rudimentary band (1-2). The essay is weakly connected to the epistemological demands of the prescribed title. Arguments are largely descriptive and rest on unsupported assertions rather than reasoned analysis. Examples cited (flat earth, Pluto, s…
What a developing essay looks like — 4/10 (band 3-4)
How we wrote it: Clear structure and standard examples, but descriptive analysis and thin counterclaims.
Excerpt: “To what extent is certainty attainable in the natural sciences and mathematics? In this essay I will define certainty as knowledge that cannot be doubted, and I will look at mathematics first and then the natural sciences. In mathematics, knowledge comes from proofs. Once something is proven, it stays proven.…”
Holistic assessment — global impression — 4/10: The essay falls within the Basic band (3–4). It is connected to the title and the two areas of knowledge (mathematics and natural sciences) are identifiable, but the treatment is largely descriptive. Arguments are stated rather than developed: for instance, th…
What a solid essay looks like — 5/10 (band 5-6)
How we wrote it: Precise conditional claims, working examples, a genuine counterclaim — concise but coherent.
Excerpt: “To what extent is certainty attainable in the natural sciences and mathematics? This essay argues that certainty operates differently across these two areas of knowledge. In mathematics, certainty appears attainable through deductive proof. Once the Pythagorean theorem is proven within Euclidean axioms, it holds with complete certainty inside that system.…”
Holistic assessment — global impression — 5/10: Placed in the Satisfactory band (5–6). The essay is focused on the title and makes recognizable links to mathematics and natural sciences as AOKs. Arguments are offered and examples are cited (Gödel's incompleteness theorems, Popper's falsificationism, Newtoni…
Why the spread matters
Feedback is only useful if the grade moves when quality moves. IBLens applies the official holistic instrument strictly — if it says band 5–6, that is where the essay reads.
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