IB English Paper 1 is one of those nerve-wracking experiences that everyone has to endure. It's especially scary because you have no idea what you'll end up writing for your final exam–and your grades depend on it! The best preparation you can do is be acutely aware of the exam structure and proven strategies that have worked for past IB7 graduates. If you want to fully wrap your head around the IB English Paper 1 guided analysis, then this quick guide is for you.
Welcome to LitLearn 👋 Head instructor 20/20 Paper 1Meet your instructor Jackson Huang, Founder of LitLearn. His mission is to make IB English as pain-free as possible with fun, practical lessons. Jackson scored an IB45 and was accepted to Harvard, Amherst, Williams Colleges, and full scholarships to University of Melbourne & Queensland.
In a Paper 1 exam, you are given two mysterious, unseen texts. Each text is between 1-2 pages in length.
For SL students, you're in luck! Your task is to write a guided analysis on just one of the two texts. Total marks: 20. You have 1 hour and 15 minutes. For HL students, you're in less luck… Your task is to write two guided analysis essays–one on each of the texts. Total marks: 40. You have 2 hours and 15 minutes.
For IB English Language and Literature, your text types could be… really… anything. Be prepared to be surprised. Typically, at least one of the text types will include some visual element like an image, photo, or cartoon. Here's the (non-exhaustive) list of Lang Lit text types:
Even though you're technically allowed to choose your own focus and ignore the default guiding question, it's highly recommended that you go along with what's given… unless you really don't know how to answer it, or you're super confident in your Paper 1 skills.
Now, what are we supposed to do with the guiding question?
Guiding questions always ask you to explain how and why certain language or visual choices are used to build one or more central ideas.
And so the vague instruction "Answer the guiding question" actually translates to something very specific:
Explain how and why the writer uses specific language to build their central idea(s).
This sentence pretty much sums up not just IB English Paper 1, but the gist of analysis and IB English overall.
If you want to get a high score on Paper 1 (and every IB English assessment in general), you must know how to write deep, insightful analysis. After helping numerous IB English students at LitLearn, we've found that weak analysis is the #1 reason students struggle in IB English.
The diagram below shows the difference between surface-level meaning, deep analysis, and deeper analysis.
If you're unsure about how to write strong analysis for IB English, or you're not confident in what to look for in your texts, then you should watch this free 7-minute video lesson from Learn Analysis: Analysis Foundations.
The 3 Laws of Analysis (7 min)No sign up or credit card required.
There's a bunch more, but these 7 categories make a great starting point. The first step is to learn their names and definitions, and flashcards are an excellent way to do this.
45 Technique FlashcardsNo sign up or credit card required.
Of course, memorizing isn't enough. We also need to know the common effects and purposes behind each of these core techniques, so that we can build a mental library of the most common ways to deeply analyze each technique. If you don't study each technique in detail, it's much harder to invent deep analysis on-the-spot during an exam.
We go deep into each of the techniques in Learn Analysis. Here are just a couple of them to get you started.
Level 1 Techniques
How to Analyze DictionNo sign up or credit card required.
Level 1 Techniques
How to Analyze Modality & ImperativesNo sign up or credit card required.
These two points are helpful as a basis for understanding, but they won't help you get concrete words onto the exam page. What we need now is a practical guide to writing an actual essay:
The thesis or subject statement is a single sentence in the introduction of the guided analysis that states how the writer achieves their overall purpose. This is also the main argument that you are trying to prove in your essay, and it's typicallyrelated to the guiding question. The examiner can usually judge the strength of your analytical skills JUST from your subject statement alone, so it needs to be well-written!
How to Write a Bullet-proof Paper 1 Thesis No sign up or credit card required.Criterion C for IB English Paper 1 is Organisation. It's worth a whole 5/20 marks, so it's definitely in your best interest to choose the most appropriate structure for your essay.
Pro Tip: I recommend students to stay away from the Big 5. Sure, it's useful as a memory device to tell you what elements to look for in a text, but it's not a good essay structure for analysis.
Why? Because analysis is about examining the causal interplay between techniques, stylistic choices, audience, tone, and themes. The Big 5 and SPECSLIMS artificially silo these components in your discussion. Heed my advice or pay the price! (notice that rhyme?)
So in my opinion, there are only two types of structure that are most conducive (yep, another new vocab, omnomnom) to getting a 7. Ideas/themes and Sections. Take this as a hot tip and run with it. If your teacher is forcing you to use other structures, then you'll need to know why this is recommended.
We go into much more depth and explain it all inside Learn Analysis.
Choosing an optimal essay structurePro members only
Obviously, this is a quick summary of how to write a high-quality body paragraph. We dive deeper into the specific details of how to structure a body paragraph in the guided analysis.
How to Structure a PointPro members only
Ironically, the most important part of IB English Paper 1 is not the analysis itself (well it is, but not really). The part you have to get right the first time is the plan. Most students do not know how to plan effectively, or get flustered in the exam and don't plan, or don't even try to plan because they think they're above it. Big mistake! Before you even begin writing, you should plan out your essay in sufficient detail. You will lose track of time, thought and sanity if you do not have a clear road map of every part of your essay before you begin writing. You can learn how to annotate and plan quickly & efficiently using the flowchart method, which we demonstrate inside Learn Analysis and Paper 1. In the Pro lesson below, we go into detail on exactly how to plan a Paper 1 essay effectively and efficiently under exam conditions.
