Most students do not understand how the assessment criteria are applied to their extended essay nor how they can achieve top marks.

The single most important factor in creating a successful extended essay is the research question. It must be a question that leads to a logical development and results in final conclusion(s) at the end. The research question should be answered in the conclusion.

The next single biggest contributing factor is research, research and research! In poor extended essays the most frequent comments are “lack of evidence”, “speculation” and “opinion”. None of these belong in an ITGS Extended esssay. Only solid statements backed-up by fact from either secondary research or primary investigation/research.

The ITGS posting for October in the teacher blogs gives additional guidelines to consider before submitting the ITGS extended essay. It outlines the major pitfalls that constantly re-occur in ITGS extended essays.