IB Diploma Programme World History

Component-based qualification

Source: official International Baccalaureate specification, verified 2026-09-04. Both tiers modeled in full. Weighting and duration are read directly from the official public subject briefs (first assessments 2017; the Higher Level and Standard Level briefs are published as two separate PDFs, both directly fetched and read this session). Paper 1 (24 marks, both tiers), Paper 2 (30 marks, both tiers) and Paper 3 (45 marks, Higher Level only) mark totals are read directly from the official freely public specimen papers, also directly fetched and read this session. The Internal Assessment (a historical investigation into a topic of the student's own choice, 2,200-word limit, marked against three criteria -- Identification and Evaluation of Sources (6 marks), Investigation (15 marks), Reflection (4 marks), 25 marks total, identical task and criteria at both tiers) was independently corroborated against a current, actively maintained third-party IB revision resource rather than found in either specimen-paper document, since the Internal Assessment is not part of the externally set specimen papers. Higher Level sits an additional Paper 3 essay paper on one of four regional depth-study options (History of Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, or Europe); the 45-mark, 2-hour-30-minute structure is confirmed directly from the official Africa-and-the-Middle-East specimen paper and is stated uniformly across all four regions by the official subject brief's own assessment table, which does not differentiate marks or duration by region.