KOLEJ MARA BANTING

UNDERSTANDING
TOK ESSAY RUBRICS

ASTRA 2020/2022
TOK ESSAY ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT

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UNDERSTANDING THE TOK ESSAY ASSESSMENT
INSTRUMENT

The assessment of the TOK essay is

underpinned by the driving question:

Does the student

provide a clear, coherent
and critical exploration
of the essay title?

What does it means by clear, coherent and

critical ?
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WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO MEET THE ASSESSMENT
DESCRIPTORS?
Look at the Level 5 descriptor of the assessment criteria on
page 375 of the Oxford book.
Think about these:
• What must you do to make sure that your essay have maintained a clear focus on the title?

• How can you guarantee that you have linked effectively to the AOKs?

• What do 'clear' and 'coherent' mean in relation to arguments? How can you show this?

• What role will arguments play in your essay and how can you most effectively use them?

• What can you do to show awareness and evaluation of different points of view?

• Hodders, 2020

You may use this May 2021 PT as example: 'Accepting

Knowledge always involves an element of trust.'2
Key phrase from the essay Additional guidance or comments
assessment instrument

The TOK essay is an exploration of the chosen title, so

“A sustained focus on the ensuring that the essay is tightly focused on the title is
crucial. If this doesn’t happen, the essay will be seen to lack

title” relevance and will only achieve low marks.

They fail to address the title, or that they begin

well but then deviate from the title. Strong TOK
essays retain a clear focus on the title
throughout.

They focus on one part of the title but completely ignore

another part of the title. Strong TOK essays ensure that
they address all parts of the title, as well as considering
any assumptions that are written into the title.

They fail to consider central terms and concepts

used in the title, or alternatively where they simply
provide lengthy descriptive dictionary definitions of
these terms.
Key phrase from the essay Additional guidance or comments
assessment instrument

The TOK prescribed essay titles may refer to specific areas

Linked effectively to areas of of knowledge or they may ask students to discuss a claim in
relation to two areas of knowledge but leave the choice of

knowledge” areas of knowledge to the student.

it is vital that students make clear and

effective links to areas of knowledge in their
essays.

The term “area of knowledge” refers explicitly to

the five areas of knowledge listed in the TOK guide:
history, natural sciences, human sciences,
mathematics and the arts

Sometimes students may wish to use an example or discipline

that does not fit comfortably into an area of knowledge. This
approach is not recommended as it requires the student to
make the case (justifying) for why that example or discipline
belongs to that particular area of knowledge (this will cause
the essay being descriptive due to lengthy justification).
 Key phrase from the essay Additional guidance or comments
assessment instrument

The TOK essay requires students to undertake a critical

“Arguments are effectively exploration of the chosen title. It is therefore crucial that the
discussion is analytical rather than simply descriptive and

supported by specific examples” that students provide clear and coherent arguments that
are supported by specific examples.

The term “specific examples” means that the

student, for example, makes reference to a particular
artist or artwork or scientist or scientific theory rather
than making a generic reference to “artists” or
“scientists”.

The examples in a TOK essay play an important role in

supporting the argument. This means that it is not only
the examples themselves that are important, but crucially
also how they are used within the essay to support the
arguments that the student is making.

A common weakness seen in TOK essays is where students

use too many examples and/or skip from one example to
another without unpacking their relevance and significance
and without showing how these examples support the
argument being made. This tends to make the essay overly
descriptive rather than analytical.
Key phrase from the essay Additional guidance or comments
assessment instrument

“Clear awareness and evaluation of The TOK essay should be a critical exploration
rather than simply a one-sided statement of the
different points of view” student’s own viewpoint or opinion.

To achieve high marks, students need to not only

show awareness of different points of view but also to
critically evaluate these different points of view.

Although students are required to engage with different points of view,

students should be encouraged to come to their own conclusions.
Students should make a critical appraisal of different points of view and
to be clear what own position is; for example, they might agree with a
claim with reservations.

Within an essay, different points of view might take the form of

claims and counterclaims or arguments and counterarguments.
Students may discuss contrasting examples and different
perspectives from different disciplines or areas of knowledge, or
indeed from within the same discipline or area of knowledge.
THEORYOFKNOWLEDGE.NET

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 IB MASTERY

The Marking Experience

What you should notice first is that if you follow the basic method
structure, your essay is already going to have a clear logical
development. As long as your claims and counter-claims are thought-
out and explained and backed up with evidence you should already be
well on-track to achieving above a 6. The first 6 marks are going to be
pretty easy for any student who develops a clear discussion that is
focussed to the title.
9 (IB Mastery)
 IB MASTERY

The Marking Experience - cont'd

The hard marks are going to be those last four. And I know, for most of you, those are the ones you
want the most. To get those ones you need to make sure you're pushing the envelop a little bit with
your thinking. Your essay cannot read like the 99 other essays your marker is reading. Those last 4
marks take some guts to earn because you need to take some small risks and try to say something
new. And this is not at all to say your writing needs to be confusing.
To the contrary, your writing needs to be as clear as possible. The risks you need to take involve your
choice of claims, counter-claims and evidence. It's extremely tempting to write the obvious
responses to questions --choosing obvious claims and counterclaims and using the most obvious
evidence. And that's why you need to make several drafts of your planning document --so you can
notice all the ways you're preparing to write a very average/boring essay
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and then change your
plan.
 UNDERSTANDING
TOK ESSAY RUBRICS

All the best

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