IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature – The HL Essay Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This practice set covers the HL essay in IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature, aligned to the IB subject brief Language A: literature, and draws on all three areas of exploration: Readers, writers and texts; Time and space; and Intertextuality: connecting texts. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021). HL only. The HL essay is coursework, not a timed paper, so these questions train the skills behind it.

Learn the unit first with the HL essay study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language A: Literature hub · printable checklist.

Questions

Passage A – Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” (1894) (public domain; (…) marks cuts)

Louise Mallard has just been told that her husband has been killed in a railroad disaster.

She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. (…)

And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! (…)

She arose at length and opened the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. (…)

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease — of the joy that kills.

Passage B – a student’s draft paragraph (original text written for Marlbridge)

“The Story of an Hour” is about a woman called Louise Mallard whose husband dies in a train crash. Her sister Josephine tells her the news and she cries and goes upstairs. Chopin uses a lot of imagery in this part of the story. “There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.” Louise then says “free, free, free” and realises she will have “no one to live for” in the future. The story is really about how marriage in the 1890s was a prison for women.

1. State three facts the IB subject brief gives about the HL essay. [3]

2. Which is the strongest line of inquiry for an HL essay on this story? Justify your choice. (i) Is “The Story of an Hour” a feminist story? (ii) What happens to Louise Mallard? (iii) How does Chopin set Louise’s private thoughts against the doctors’ public verdict to make the reader question who understands her heart? (iv) Imagery in “The Story of an Hour”. [3]

3. Analyse how the sentences “And yet she had loved him — sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!” present Louise’s feelings. [3]

4. Explain how Chopin presents Louise’s future in the first paragraph of Passage A. Refer to precise words. [4]

5. Explain the effect of the phrase “like a goddess of Victory”, and why discussing it counts as intertextuality in an essay on one work. [3]

6. Write a Time and space line of inquiry based on the sentence beginning “There would be no powerful will”, and explain what context it needs. [3]

7. Identify four weaknesses in Passage B. [4]

8. (a) Correct the two misquotations in Passage B. [2] (b) Rewrite the imagery sentence and its quotation as one analytical sentence with a short, embedded quotation. [2]

9. A student plans an introduction of 180 words, four body sections of 340 words and a conclusion of 170 words.

(a) Find the total and say how far it is from the limit. [2] (b) Revise the plan so it fits, and justify the change. [2]

10. Using Passage A and your knowledge of the whole story, write a line of inquiry, a thesis, a three-section plan with a claim and evidence for each section, a word budget, and the first two sentences of section 1. State how you will reference the story. [10]

Answers

1. It is a 1,200–1,500 word essay [1]. It is written on one work studied [1]. It is worth 20% of the final grade at HL [1]. (Also accept: it is written coursework, listed under external assessment.) [3] Examiner insight: Only state what the brief says; claims about criteria or drafting rules you have not been given by your teacher cannot be credited as facts.

2. (iii) is strongest [1]. It names the method (private thoughts set against a public verdict) and an effect to argue about (the reader questions the doctors) [1]. (i) invites a yes/no label, (ii) invites plot summary and (iv) is a topic with nothing to prove [1]. [3] Examiner insight: A strong justification explains why the rejected options fail, not only why the chosen one works.

3. The short sentences and the dash show Louise correcting herself: “sometimes” shrinks the love that “she had loved him” seemed to affirm [1]. “Often she had not” is shorter and plainer, so the truth needs fewer words once admitted [1]. The exclamation “What did it matter!” is a dismissal, not a question; the narration voices Louise’s own thought, so the reader follows her reasoning from inside [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Weaker answers label “short sentences” and stop; stronger ones say what each sentence does to the one before it.

4. “A long procession of years” turns time into a slow, ceremonial approach towards her [1]. “Belong to her absolutely” reverses the language of possession: she will own her years rather than be owned [1]. She “opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome”, so her body embraces the future [1]. This contrasts with his “kind, tender hands folded in death”: his hands are closed, hers open, so grief is acknowledged but outweighed [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Precise single words (“absolutely”, “folded”) analysed closely earn more than a long quotation paraphrased.

5. It alludes to the classical goddess of victory (Nike in Greek, Victoria in Roman tradition) [1]. It raises a private moment at a bedroom door to the scale of a public triumph, and “unwittingly” shows Louise does not know she is performing it [1]. It is intertextuality because the story draws on another tradition; within one work, it also makes the ending’s reversal steeper, since the “Victory” lasts only until the front door opens [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Naming the allusion is not enough; the credit comes from explaining what it does in this work’s argument.

6. Model: How does Chopin present the “powerful will” of marriage as a burden imposed by “men and women” alike, and how might readers in 1894 and today judge Louise’s wish to “live for herself” differently? [1]. Context needed: how limited a married woman’s legal and economic independence was in the 1890s [1]. It changes the reading: in 1894 her wish may sound like a claim to something the law did not give her; today it may sound ordinary, which makes the ending harder to accept [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Context earns credit only when it is tied to how a specific phrase is read.

7. Any four: the paragraph opens with plot summary, not a claim [1]; it misreads the plot, since the husband is reported dead but is alive [1]; “a lot of imagery” names a technique without any effect [1]; the long quotation is dropped in as its own sentence and never analysed [1]. (Also accept: misquotations; a sweeping claim about the 1890s with no evidence or credit.) [4] Examiner insight: Diagnosing a weak paragraph precisely is the skill you need when revising your own draft.

8. (a) “free, free, free!” needs its exclamation mark [1]. The text reads “no one to live for her”; dropping “her” reverses the meaning [1]. (b) Model: The “patches of blue sky” breaking through the clouds give Louise glimpses of an open future before she can name it [1], so the weather prepares the reader for the word “free” [1]. [4] Examiner insight: A short embedded quotation followed by analysis in the same sentence is stronger than a long quotation with no comment.

9. (a) 180 + 4 × 340 + 170 = 1,710 words [1], which is 210 words over the 1,500 maximum [1]. (b) Cut one body section: 180 + 3 × 340 + 170 = 1,370 words [1]. This keeps the analysis in each remaining section and leaves room for revision, provided the cut section’s point overlapped with another [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Trimming every section equally usually cuts analysis; removing the weakest section keeps the argument’s depth.

10. Indicative model plan:

• Line of inquiry: How does Chopin turn Louise’s “heart trouble” into a judgement on marriage, and how far does the final sentence ask us to reject the doctors’ reading? [1]
• Thesis: the heart weakens under marriage and quickens at the thought of freedom; “the joy that kills” is dramatic irony, because the reader knows loss of freedom killed her [1].
• Section 1, confinement: “afflicted with a heart trouble” and “pressed down by a physical exhaustion” [1].
• Section 2, awakening: “free, free, free!” and arms “spread … in welcome” [1].
• Section 3, the verdict: “like a goddess of Victory” set against “of the joy that kills” [1].
• A deliberate lens, for example Time and space: how a reader in 1894 might hear “live for herself” [1].
• Budget: 150 + 3 × 370 + 140 = 1,400 words, inside 1,200–1,500 [1].
• Opening of section 1: Chopin introduces Louise through a diagnosis, not a description: she is “afflicted with a heart trouble”. [1] The medical word “afflicted” makes her fragile before she has spoken, which is exactly the reading the story will overturn. [1]
• Referencing: page numbers from the class edition in the school’s style, and a works cited list including the story [1]. [10]

The real essay is marked holistically against the IB assessment criteria your teacher will share, not point by point; these points show what a strong plan contains. Examiner insight: The strongest plans make every section answer the line of inquiry; weaker ones list three themes that sit side by side.

Where marks are usually lost

• Writing on a topic instead of a question, so the essay describes rather than argues.
• Spending the opening on plot the reader already knows.
• Naming “imagery” or “repetition” without analysing the particular words.
• Dropping long quotations in as separate sentences.
• Misquoting: a missing word such as “her” or a lost exclamation mark can change the meaning.
• Using context that never returns to a specific line.
• Explaining an allusion without saying what it does in the work.
• Planning over 1,500 words and cutting analysis at the end.

Next steps

• HL essay revision notes
• HL essay study guide
• Language A: Literature hub
• Printable checklist
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019).