How DP Global Politics Is Assessed: Revision Notes

Condensed for quick recall of how the course is assessed. For the full subject overview, use the IB DP Global Politics subject overview, and for a paper-by-paper exam-day plan see the exam preparation guide.

How Global Politics fits into the wider Diploma

Global Politics sits within the individuals-and-societies subject group alongside options such as History, Economics and Geography, and shares that group’s general assessment philosophy of combining external written papers with an internally assessed, individually graded component. What sets it apart within that group is the explicit requirement for direct, real-world engagement with a political issue rather than desk-based research alone – a design choice that reflects the subject’s aim of connecting political theory directly to lived political reality, not just to documented case studies.

SL vs HL weightings

Component	SL	HL
Paper 1 (four structured questions, core topics)	30%	20%
Paper 2 (extended-response, thematic studies)	40%	30%
Paper 3 (HL only: global political challenges extension)	—	30%
Engagement project	30%	20%

The core topic and three thematic studies (every student, every level)

Core topic: understanding power and global politics (power, sovereignty, legitimacy, interdependence). Three compulsory thematic studies: rights and justice · development and sustainability · peace and conflict.

The engagement project

• Students investigate a political issue of genuine personal interest through direct engagement, not desk research alone.
• Complemented with theoretical perspectives from research.
• Submitted as a written report of up to 2,000 words at SL or 2,400 words at HL. HL students additionally carry out further research and formulate a recommendation addressing the identified political issue, within that HL report and assessed by an extra criterion (F: Recommendation); SL students do not complete this task.

The engagement project in more depth

The engagement project is graded against criteria covering: explanation and justification of the political issue and engagement activities; the research and engagement process; analysis and synthesis of the political issue and stakeholder perspectives; evaluation and reflection on the project as a learning experience; and communication. At HL, a further criterion assesses the quality of the recommendation. A common weakness is an engagement project that stays descriptive – recounting what was done and observed – without enough critical connection back to core political concepts (power, legitimacy, sovereignty, and so on) covered elsewhere in the course; the strongest reports treat the direct engagement as evidence to be analysed through a political-science lens, not simply reported.

Command terms across the papers

Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 draw on global politics’ own command-term glossary, published in the subject guide’s appendix and tied to the course’s three assessment objectives. As a study device, it can be grouped into three rough tiers: define, identify, list, outline and describe at the lower (AO1) end; analyse, distinguish, explain and suggest in the middle (AO2); and compare, contrast, discuss, evaluate, examine, justify, recommend and to what extent at the top (AO3), where a reasoned judgement weighing multiple perspectives, actors or pieces of evidence is required. This tiering is a revision aid, not a shared cross-subject classification – each IB guide, including this one, publishes its own command-term list. Because Global Politics is explicitly built around contested political concepts and competing perspectives, “evaluate” and “discuss” responses in this subject are expected to engage with more than one viewpoint or theoretical framework before reaching a conclusion – a one-sided answer, however well argued, typically loses marks against these top-tier command terms.

Why the core topics and thematic studies recur across every paper

Because the core topic (understanding power and global politics) and the three compulsory thematic studies – rights and justice; development and sustainability; and peace and conflict – are examined at every level, Papers 1 and 2 are built to draw questions from across all of them rather than allowing a student to specialise in only one or two – a revision plan that concentrates disproportionately on a favourite area while under-preparing another risks a significant gap on exam day. Because HL students additionally sit Paper 3 on the global political challenges extension – independent student research into self-selected cases connected to eight named HL topic areas (borders, environment, equality, health, identity, poverty, security, technology) – HL revision should treat the core topics, thematic studies and case-study content as complementary rather than substitutable – strong understanding of the core topics and thematic studies underpins strong case-study analysis, since the case studies are examined through the same core concepts.

How this compares to a related individuals-and-societies subject

Like other individuals-and-societies DP subjects, Global Politics combines external written examination with an internally assessed, individually graded component – but its engagement project is distinctive in requiring genuine first-hand engagement with a real political issue, rather than a desk-research essay or a fieldwork-based investigation as in some sibling subjects. This hands-on requirement reflects the course’s own stated aim of connecting political theory to lived political reality, and is worth planning for well in advance, since arranging a genuine engagement opportunity (an interview, an observation, participation in a campaign or organisation) often takes longer to organise than a purely library-based research task.

Exam traps

• Preparing Paper 1 and Paper 2 around only one or two of the core topics and thematic studies, when all of them are examinable.
• Treating the engagement project as a research essay, missing the required direct-engagement component.
• HL students underestimating Paper 3’s case-study demands, since it’s a distinct paper from Papers 1-2 – and forgetting that HL’s engagement project report must also include a well-supported recommendation, assessed by a criterion SL does not have.

Self-test

1. Name the core topic and the three thematic studies common to every DP Global Politics student.
2. What distinguishes the engagement project from a standard research essay?
3. What is Paper 3, and who sits it?
4. What are Paper 1 and Paper 2 weighted at, at SL?
5. Name one criterion the engagement project is graded against, beyond the quality of the direct engagement itself.
6. Why do “evaluate” and “discuss” answers in this subject need to engage with more than one viewpoint?

Answers: 1. Core topic: understanding power and global politics; thematic studies: rights and justice, development and sustainability, peace and conflict. 2. It requires direct engagement with a real political issue, not desk research alone, complemented afterward with theoretical perspectives; HL students additionally formulate a recommendation. 3. A stimulus-based paper on the HL-only global political challenges extension, sat only by HL students. 4. Paper 1: 30%, Paper 2: 40%. 5. Any of: the research and engagement process, analysis and synthesis of the political issue, evaluation and reflection, or communication. 6. Because Global Politics is built around contested concepts and competing perspectives, so a one-sided answer at the top command-term tier typically loses marks against those criteria.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and Societies: Global Politics, first assessment 2026, published 2023 – the same source cited by the full syllabus guide and the subject overview.