IB Diploma Programme Geography: Syllabus Guide

This guide covers the full syllabus structure of IB Diploma Programme Geography, first assessment 2019, for both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL) students. It complements the subject overview and the assessment revision notes already on the site by listing what is actually taught – the optional geographic themes, the shared core, and the HL-only extension.

All students study a common core plus a set of optional geographic themes; HL students additionally study an HL extension not seen by SL students at all. Total teaching hours are 150 at SL and 240 at HL.

Geographic themes – seven options (60 hours SL / 90 hours HL)

SL students choose two options; HL students choose three. The seven available options are:

• Freshwater – the distribution, use and management of freshwater resources.
• Oceans and coastal margins – the physical processes and human pressures shaping coastlines and ocean systems.
• Extreme environments – how people live in, and adapt to, hostile physical environments.
• Geophysical hazards – the causes, impacts and management of hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
• Leisure, tourism and sport – the geography of how and where people spend leisure time, and its economic and environmental impact.
• Food and health – the geography of food production, security and its links to health outcomes.
• Urban environments – the growth, structure and challenges of cities.

Because your teacher selects which two (SL) or three (HL) of these seven your class actually studies, always confirm with your teacher which specific options apply to you – revision material for an option your class did not study is wasted effort. Each option combines physical and human geography around one theme, so revising an option well means being able to move between the physical processes at work (for example, wave action in Oceans and coastal margins) and their human and management consequences, rather than treating either half in isolation.

SL and HL core – Geographic perspectives: global change (70 hours, both SL and HL)

• Population distribution – changing population, examining why people are distributed unevenly and how that distribution changes over time.
• Global climate – vulnerability and resilience, examining how different places and communities are affected by, and adapt to, climate change.
• Global resource consumption and security – examining how resource demand and supply are distributed globally, and the tensions this creates.

This core is identical in content and hours for SL and HL students, and is examined in Paper 2.

HL extension only – Geographic perspectives: global interactions (60 hours, HL only)

• Power, places and networks – how power is exercised and contested across geographic scales and networks.
• Human development and diversity – how development is measured and how it varies across and within societies.
• Global risks and resilience – how interconnected global systems create shared risks, and how societies build resilience to them.

This entire component does not exist for SL students. It is examined separately in Paper 3, which SL students do not sit.

Internal assessment – fieldwork (20 hours, both SL and HL)

A single written report based on a fieldwork question of the student’s choosing, drawing on information collection and analysis with evaluation. The report can be based on any suitable syllabus topic – option, core or (at HL) extension. Because the fieldwork question is student-designed rather than set by the IB, it rewards early planning: students who settle on a genuinely testable geographic question and a realistic data-collection method well before the fieldwork trip itself tend to produce stronger reports than those who collect data first and try to fit a question to it afterwards.

How to approach it

Because Paper 1 examines the two (SL) or three (HL) chosen options and Paper 2 examines the shared core, make sure you know which of these two papers is actually testing which content before you start revising – confusing an option topic with the core global-change content is a common and avoidable error, especially since some themes (such as climate-related content) can appear to overlap between an option like Extreme environments and the core’s Global climate content. HL students should treat the HL extension as functionally a fourth, separate subject within geography: it has its own paper (Paper 3), its own three sub-themes, and 60 hours of dedicated teaching time that SL students never encounter, so it cannot be revised as an afterthought to the core and options.

Across every option and core theme, DP Geography questions consistently reward students who can support an argument with named, specific real-world case studies rather than generalised description – a strong answer on Geophysical hazards, for instance, names an actual earthquake or eruption with real dates, magnitudes and management responses, not a generic account of “an earthquake in a developing country”. Building a personal case-study bank as you work through each option and the core – one or two well-researched, specific examples per theme – is one of the highest-value uses of revision time in this subject, because the same case study can often be reused flexibly across Paper 1 option questions and Paper 2 core questions if it is chosen to illustrate more than one theme. For the fieldwork report specifically, revisit your data collection methodology critically before submission: evaluation of your own method’s limitations is assessed as its own skill, separate from simply presenting your results.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and Societies: Geography, first assessment 2019, © 2017.