What should a good Chemistry Extended Essay have?
- IB Chemistry Clinic
- Jul 9, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 22, 2024
Students may be considering doing a 4000-word Extended Essay (EE) in Chemistry. It is only advisable to do your Extended Essay in Chemistry if Chemistry is one of your Higher Level subjects (although this rule is not compulsory). A teacher who is competent in Chemistry and willing to supervise your EE will be in charge of doing so. However, the teacher will not feed you information or particular topics you should do. They will give you guidance and proofread your draft, pointing out logical inconsistencies in the essay.
What the EE actually is
Students are reminded that they need to stick to the 4000-word limit – they will be penalised if they exceed this limit. The examiner will not read beyond the 4000 words or consider anything beyond the limit. This could compromise the assessment of the EE across all the criteria. Furthermore, the essay must be their own work (they should not be plagiarising or faking their data) and students need to consult a variety of sources to develop a reasoned argument (with claims and counterclaims) to reach a conclusion. At the end of the EE, students will need to undergo a reflection throughout and after the research process.
What NOT to do in your Chemistry Extended Essay (EE)
The EE is not an extended laboratory report – it is not simply a longer IA. Students will do badly for their EE if they write it addressing the IA criteria. An EE involves more research – although many students still perform their own experiments to obtain their primary data. However, the difference is that in the EE, the student needs to research what others have done in the same academic field and put their work into context. The Extended Essay is also not a PhD thesis – the knowledge obtained from the EE will not be entirely new to mankind.
What you are responsible for
Students should understand how the EE is assessed and prepare for their 3 compulsory reflection sessions. They should then choose a subject and topic for their supervisor’s approval. Next, they should do a literature review to see what the existing literature says on the topic. Students should then finalise the structure of their EE before writing it. After writing, students need to check for errors and inconsistencies before submitting, paying special attention to the citations and referencing to avoid academic dishonesty/plagiarism.
How to choose a topic
Your school will have different procedures as to how students should choose a topic. Students who choose a topic need to be fully committed to it. Students should look at past students’ essays to see how they could go about crafting a topic. Students should conduct their EE experiments based on what is possible in a high school Chemistry lab. If you are aware of what career path you would like to take, you can tailor your EE to match your application to a future course in university, such as medicine or veterinary science.
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As the name suggests, the IB Chemistry Clinic does not only fix a student’s grades - it helps students with critical components of the IB Programme, namely the Internal Assessment (IA) which is worth at least 20% of a student’s grade and their Extended Essay (EE) in Chemistry. The IA and EE are a non-negotiable part of the Chemistry curriculum - without them, students will not be able to graduate with an IB Diploma. However, there are many difficulties associated with conducting experiments for the IA and EE - many replications are required and the standard for the final deliverable - the research report - is high. Students need to undertake statistical testing and present their final results coherently and concisely.
Although the IB school provides mentors for the EE and teachers at school can guide students through their IA, attention to each student is often limited in a classroom setting and many students are left to figure things out by themselves. This results in difficulty completing internal deadlines on time, especially when a student needs to juggle all their 6 subjects and the additional components of the IB, along with their CCAs and other commitments.
The IB Chemistry Clinic is here to answer all your questions - whether it is about content knowledge or fixing errors in your experimental setup as you undertake your IA journey, our skilled tutors with a strong background in Chemistry research and 30 years of experience teaching Chemistry are here to help!
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Frequently Asked Questions
How to study for IB Chemistry?
Firstly, knowing the syllabus for IB Chemistry (either HL or SL) will help the student revise. Next, try practising with past year IB papers to get used to the exam format. If there are questions students do not know how to answer, they can revise the concepts regarding the question to help them answer them or clarify with a tutor or teacher.
What do you do in IB Chemistry?
IB Chemistry consists of exams at the end of the IB programme and an Internal Assessment where the student needs to perform independent research and experimentation and write a report regarding their methodology and findings.
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