IB MYP Individuals and Societies: Discipline Options and eAssessment Subjects -- Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, modelling the source- evaluation and extended-writing skills IB MYP Individuals and Societies’s eAssessment actually tests. They are not reproduced IB material – the IB holds copyright in its own sample questions and exemplars. Use these alongside official sample assessments available through your school.

Related: Discipline Options study guide and revision notes.

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Section A

1. Name the three subjects the on-screen eAssessment is actually available in. [3]

2. State which task carries the largest share of marks, and how many marks it is worth. [2]

3. Name two disciplines a school might choose to teach under this subject group besides history and geography. [2]

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Section B

4. A student’s school teaches “individuals and societies” through an economics-focused course. The student assumes their eAssessment subject will automatically be economics.

(a) Explain why this assumption may be incorrect. [2] (b) Describe what the student should do to avoid being under-prepared. [2]

5. Below is a short original source extract and a sample question modelled on the investigating task.

Source: A 2019 opinion column written by a former protest organiser, published in a national newspaper, arguing that social media coordination was the single most important factor in a protest movement’s rapid growth.

(a) State one value of this source for a student researching how protest movements grow. [2] (b) State one limitation of this source for the same research purpose. [2]

6. A student answering a thinking-critically extended-writing question writes a purely descriptive account of what happened during a historical protest movement, with no stated position and no reference to alternative viewpoints.

(a) Explain why this response is unlikely to score well despite being factually accurate. [2] (b) Describe what the response would need to include instead. [3]

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Section C

7. “To what extent do you agree that economic hardship is the most important factor in causing large-scale social protest?” Using this sample thinking-critically question, explain what a strong extended-writing response would need to do, structurally, to access top marks – beyond simply presenting accurate information about causes of protest. [6]

8. Explain why the three eAssessment subjects (history, geography, integrated humanities) can draw on genuinely overlapping sample topics, using two of the official sample topics to illustrate the overlap. [5]

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Worked answers

1. History, geography, and integrated humanities. [3]

2. Thinking critically, worth 36 of the 80 total marks. [2]

3. Any two of: economics, philosophy, sociology/anthropology, business management, psychology, world religions, integrated humanities. [2]

4. (a) The on-screen eAssessment is available in only three subjects – history, geography, and integrated humanities – so “economics” is not itself an eAssessment option regardless of what a school’s individuals and societies course is called or focused on; the school must direct students toward one of the three actual eAssessment subjects, which may or may not closely match the course’s own disciplinary focus. [2] (b) The student should confirm directly with their teacher or school which of the three actual eAssessment subjects (history, geography, integrated humanities) they will be examined in, rather than assuming it matches the course’s disciplinary label, and adjust their revision focus accordingly, particularly if the eAssessment subject differs meaningfully from the course’s day-to-day content. [2]

5. (a) The source is valuable because it comes from a former protest organiser with direct, firsthand involvement in the events being researched, giving it a perspective grounded in genuine participation rather than external observation alone – useful for understanding how coordination actually happened from an insider’s point of view. [2] (b) The source is limited because it is a single individual’s opinion column, published with a specific argumentative purpose (to argue social media was “the single most important factor”), so it may overstate or oversimplify one factor’s importance and does not represent a neutral or comprehensive account of all the factors that contributed to the movement’s growth. [2]

6. (a) The thinking-critically task specifically credits taking a position, weighing it against alternatives, and reaching a reasoned judgement – a purely descriptive account of events, however accurate, does not demonstrate this critical-thinking skill at all, since it neither states nor defends any judgement about the question asked. [2] (b) The response would need to state a clear position on the question asked, explicitly consider at least one alternative viewpoint or interpretation, evaluate the relative strength of the position against that alternative using evidence, and reach a reasoned, substantiated conclusion – structured as an argument rather than a narrative of events. [3]

7. A strong response would first state a clear position on the extent to which economic hardship is the most important factor – for example, agreeing partially, or arguing it is significant but not solely determinant. It would then present evidence and reasoning supporting that position, explicitly compare economic hardship against at least one alternative factor (such as political repression, a specific triggering event, or effective organisational coordination), and reach a substantiated judgement about which factor or combination of factors the evidence best supports as most important. Simply presenting accurate information about several possible causes of protest, without taking or defending a position on their relative importance, does not demonstrate the extent-based judgement this question type specifically requires – the “to what extent” framing signals that a structured, weighed argument, not a balanced list of causes, is what earns top marks. [6]

8. The official sample topics span multiple disciplines by design: for example, “settlement and urban morphology” could be studied through a geography lens (spatial patterns, land use) but also connects to historical urban development and social/economic factors integrated humanities would cover; “rights and social protest” could be studied through a history lens (specific past protest movements and their causes) but also connects to broader social-science themes of political participation and rights that both geography (spatial and demographic patterns of protest) and integrated humanities could address. Because these topics are written broadly enough to be approached from more than one disciplinary angle, all three eAssessment subjects can draw on genuinely overlapping sample content even though a student’s own taught discipline may have emphasised only one specific angle on it. [5]

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Middle Years Programme Subject Brief – Individuals and Societies, from 2014, (c) 2021 – the same source cited by the study guide and revision notes. Verified 2026-09-06.