IB Diploma Programme Language B – Experiences 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 Experiences, the second of the five prescribed themes of IB Diploma Programme Language B, at SL and HL. It follows the IB Language B subject brief for first assessment 2020, which remains the examined course until the new syllabus is first assessed in May 2029, so it applies to the 2026, 2027 and 2028 sessions. The passages are in English; repeat each task on a target-language text with your teacher.

Learn the theme first with the Experiences study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language B hub · printable checklist.

Questions

1. State the two possible questions the subject brief gives for Experiences, and name the optional recommended topic that best fits a text about an eighteenth-birthday ceremony. [3]

Passage A — blog post (original text written for Marlbridge)

The suitcase in the hall

Every family has an object that tells its story. Ours is a brown suitcase that has stood in my grandfather’s hall for as long as I can remember. He arrived with it in 1968, aged nineteen, after three days on trains and a night on a ferry.

For the first year he worked nights in a bakery. He used to practise new words by reading the labels on flour sacks. “I could say ‘wholemeal’ before I could say ‘good morning’,” he told me last week, laughing.

Today he owns the bakery. When I asked him why he keeps the suitcase, he said it reminds him that every life begins somewhere else. I am leaving for university in September, and I have already asked if I can borrow it.

2. Answer briefly, using Passage A.

(a) How old was the grandfather when he arrived? [1] (b) How did he learn new words in his first year? [1] (c) What does the writer plan to do with the suitcase? [1]

3. Decide whether each statement is true or false, and justify your answer with a short quotation from Passage A.

(a) The grandfather travelled only by train. [2] (b) The grandfather now owns the business where he first worked. [2]

4. Explain how the writer uses the suitcase to connect the past, the present and the future. Use quotations. [4]

Passage B — magazine article about a fictional town (original text written for Marlbridge)

Lanterns on the river

On the last evening of summer, the river town of Lindenmere goes dark. The street lights are switched off, and everyone who has turned eighteen that year walks to the old stone bridge with a paper lantern they have made. Each lantern holds a folded note: one promise to the town and one to themselves.

“My grandmother walked the bridge, and so did I,” says Maria Oduya, 61, who runs the lantern workshop. “The paint has changed, but the silence when the lanterns touch the water has not.”

Not everyone is convinced. Some teenagers call the ceremony old-fashioned, and last year a group of parents asked whether the lanterns harm the river. The council now collects every lantern downstream the next morning. Sam Keller, 18, walked the bridge last week. “I rolled my eyes for months,” he admits. “Then I stood there with everyone I had grown up with, and I understood.”

5. Using Passage B, name three things that happen on the evening of the ceremony. [3]

6. Passage B presents different attitudes to the custom. Identify two different attitudes and support each with a quotation. [4]

7. Explain how the council’s decision shows a tradition being both changed and kept. [3]

Passage C — radio transcript (original text written for Marlbridge)

Have someone read this aloud once; answer without looking.

PRESENTER: This week, Leila tells us how a rained-off holiday gave her a new hobby.

LEILA: We’d planned a week of hiking in the mountains. On the first morning a storm came in, and the guesthouse owner said the paths would be closed for days. My brother was furious. Then the owner’s daughter brought out an old chessboard. I hadn’t played since I was eight. By the third day I’d lost forty games and won two.

PRESENTER: And now?

LEILA: Now I play every Tuesday at a club near my flat. I’ve never been back to the mountains. But every Sunday I still post a move to the owner’s daughter. We’ve been playing the same game for eleven months.

8. Answer briefly, using Passage C.

(a) Why could Leila’s family not go hiking? [1] (b) How many games had Leila won by the third day? [1] (c) How does Leila keep in contact with the owner’s daughter? [1]

9. Leila’s account moves from the past to the present. Identify two language features that mark this movement and explain the effect of each. [4]

10. Paper 1-style writing task. Choose one of these three tasks, linked to Passage B. Write a plan and the opening paragraph.

• A diary entry the night after you walked the Lindenmere bridge.
• A local newspaper article on this year’s ceremony and the debate around it.
• A speech encouraging next year’s eighteen-year-olds to take part.

[10]

11. Individual oral preparation (SL). Your stimulus is a photograph of an airport arrivals hall: an older woman is hugging a young man with a large backpack, while a child holds a handwritten “Welcome home” sign. Plan the presentation you would give, linked to Experiences. [6]

Answers

1. “How does our past shape our present and our future?” [1] “How and why do different cultures mark important moments in life?” [1] The topic is rites of passage (customs and traditions is also acceptable if linked to the ceremony as a shared practice). [1] Examiner insight: A close paraphrase of a possible question shows you know it; giving an optional topic instead of a question earns nothing.

2. (a) Nineteen. [1] (b) By reading the labels on flour sacks. [1] (c) Borrow it when he or she leaves for university (in September). [1] Examiner insight: Give only the detail asked for; copying a whole sentence makes it unclear which part is your answer.

3. (a) False [1] — “three days on trains and a night on a ferry”. [1] (b) True [1] — “For the first year he worked nights in a bakery” and “Today he owns the bakery”. [1] Examiner insight: The justification must be the exact words that prove the answer; a quotation that is correct but does not prove the point (e.g. “He arrived with it in 1968”) does not justify it.

4. The suitcase is a symbol of the family’s story: “an object that tells its story”. [1] Past: the grandfather “arrived with it in 1968” as a young migrant. [1] Present: it reminds him that “every life begins somewhere else”, giving the past a present meaning. [1] Future: the writer will borrow it for university, so a new departure repeats the first and the past shapes the future. [1] Examiner insight: Strong answers explain what each quotation shows about time and change; weak answers drop quotations in and retell the story.

5. Any three of: the street lights are switched off; people who have turned eighteen walk to the bridge with lanterns they have made; each lantern holds a note with two promises; the lanterns are placed on the water. First correct point [1], second [1], third [1]. Examiner insight: Each point must be a separate event; “they walk to the bridge” and “they carry lanterns to the bridge” count as one point, not two.

6. Attitude 1: respect or attachment to the custom [1], e.g. “My grandmother walked the bridge, and so did I”. [1] Attitude 2: scepticism or concern [1], e.g. teenagers “call the ceremony old-fashioned” or parents “asked whether the lanterns harm the river”. [1] (Sam’s change of mind is also acceptable.) Examiner insight: Name the attitude in your own words first, then quote; a quotation with no stated attitude leaves the examiner to do the interpreting.

7. Changed: the council now “collects every lantern downstream the next morning” after parents’ concerns. [1] Kept: the lanterns still go on the river, so the ceremony continues. [1] The custom adapts to present values (care for the river) in order to survive. [1] Examiner insight: “Explain” needs the link between the two sides; stating only that the council collects the lanterns describes, but does not explain.

8. (a) A storm; the paths would be closed for days. [1] (b) Two. [1] (c) She posts a move every Sunday (they are playing one game by post). [1] Examiner insight: Numbers are easy to mishear: “forty” is games lost, so it is wrong for (b) even though it was in the text.

9. Feature 1: the pluperfect “We’d planned” or “I hadn’t played since I was eight” [1] sets events further back than the storm, so the change of plan stands out. [1] Feature 2: the marker “Now” with the present “I play every Tuesday”, or the present perfect continuous “We’ve been playing the same game for eleven months” [1], shows the hobby began in the past and continues, so one rained-off week has shaped her present. [1] Examiner insight: Naming a tense is not enough; the effect mark goes to the answer that explains what the tense shows about time in this account.

10. The real Paper 1 is marked holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. These points are indicative; any valid equivalent earns the point.

Model plan for the diary entry:

Date line; first person; informal, reflective register
1. Tonight: the silence on the bridge, my lantern on the water
2. Before: months of doubt (background past forms)
3. Sequence: workshop, two promises, the walk (time markers)
4. The debate: the river concern and the new collection
5. Now and next: what my promise means for the year ahead

Model opening: “Saturday, 11 p.m. I still can’t sleep. Three hours ago the whole town went dark, and for the first time I understood why my mother talks about this night every year.”

Indicative points: text type conventions (date, headline or greeting) [1]; register fits the audience [1]; clear purpose [1]; clear time sequence [1]; completed and background past controlled [1]; evaluative language [1]; another perspective acknowledged [1]; bridge to present or future [1]; answers a possible question [1]; vivid, specific opening [1]. Examiner insight: Strong responses keep the text type’s conventions throughout; a diary that turns into a report halfway loses its sense of audience.

11. Indicative points (the real oral is assessed holistically against criteria your teacher will share): a brief description — who, where, the sign [1]; a link to Experiences, e.g. migration or travel [1]; the past behind the image — where he has been and why [1]; the present and future — what this return will change [1]; a possible question as a lens, e.g. how cultures mark arrivals [1]; a specific cultural comparison from the target-language culture [1]. Examiner insight: Strong orals describe briefly and interpret at length; listing everything in the photograph is description, not discussion.

Where marks are usually lost

• Giving true/false with a justification that does not prove the point.
• Crediting the narrator with a view that belongs to someone quoted.
• Retelling a passage instead of explaining the effect of a feature or quotation.
• Naming a tense or technique without saying what it shows about time and change.
• In writing, ignoring the conventions of the chosen text type or losing them halfway.
• Ending an Experiences text in the past, with no link to the present or future.

Next steps

• Experiences revision notes
• Experiences study guide
• Language B course hub
• Printable Language B checklist
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language B, first assessment 2020 (2018). Possible questions and component details are taken from its content outline and assessment model.