For other articles on the Extended Essay on Intense Cogitation, please see our helpful articles on The Extended Essay Outline and Sample sources for an Extended Essay – The American Civil War. Please also check out my extended essay exemplar about the American Civil War.
The 50 Excellent Extended Essays collection is, as the name suggests, 50 extended essays which rank as outstanding in the IB world for a multitude of reasons, like depth of research, originality, quality of analysis, academic perspective, etc.
Some IB coordinators do have access to this resource, so you should try asking them for printed copies whenever you do your EE.
I haven’t been able to find a resource with all 50 extended essays, but I have found this school website [link checked on 17 March 2012] that has some helpful extended essay rubrics and sample extended essays. This school website [link checked on 17 March 2012] also has some more extended essays.
When you read these exemplars, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Why did the IB choose this as an exemplar? What qualities make it distinct?
- How can I apply these qualities to my own extended essay?
- How would these essays score on the EE rubric?
- What are the strengths of these essays?
- What is (or will be) the strength of my own essay?
- What are the weaknesses of these essays?
- What is (or will be) the weaknesses of my own essay?
- How is the essay presented? Does it look professional? Does it follow academic standards in citations and works cited?
- How can I make my essay follow these standards better?
- How long are the exemplars? Did they manage to cover everything they needed to? Was their argument sound?
- If not, how can I fix that problem? How does this apply to my own essay?
Hopefully those questions will give you some assistance in analysing those essays.
If you need some EE assistance, just leave a comment and I’ll try to get back to you. 
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Lucy: I can’t really help you much there, you’ll have to ask your supervisor about it. There may be all-nighters involved if you’re close to the deadline.
Ziyad: Not really familiar with IB Physics, sorry
Hey Jessica,
It’s really hard for me to give you topics. It’s really something you need to think of because you need to be able to have the perseverance and motivation to write about it.
hey Quick q:
i wanted to ask you if my question was specific enough or still to broad? Thanks for your input. How would you rate my question?
“What are the effects of alcohol consumption during pregancy to the central nervous systemof the fetus during its development?” or
“What are the effects of alchol consumptuion to a fetus during its devlopment in the fetus?”
- anyone else who sees this please do not steal my topi Q!
-thanks laura
Hi, I really want to know if i should do my extended essay in English..?? My teacher is kind of moody and I am not sure if I should. Is it hard to do a good EE in english…?? Do you often get a 7…??
Hi. The link that goes to the 50 exemplary essays is not working.
It says that I have to gain access to it and asks for username and password.
Thank you!
Brian,
I am unable to access the website because it requires a username and password to login. I tried searching for a possible way to contact administration and explain that I am not a student at the school, but that I’d like to view the E.E.s. Can you help?
Laura, the central nervous system one seems a bit better. Try writing it first and see where it goes — you might decide to make it even more specific once you start writing it. For example, my EE was on just one specific battle in the Civil War, rather than the entire civil war.
Avani, as long as you have a passion in the subject, it doesn’t matter what the stats are for getting 7′s.
Mitchell & Steph, please try the links now. Should be fixed for now.
Hey, i’m having a bit of trouble formulating a good EE question. Ive decided to do Economics and i want to do something on charity; mainly in Peru but not really sure.. i was thinking something like “to what extent can a charitable organisation effect a national economy”, however im not sure whether thats too broad and am wondering whether you have any pointers on how to narrow the question down?
Plz i want to ask weather consumption of alcohol is good to the body.cause from what had from the view of other people was,taling it is good as long as u dn,t have it with excess.so i wnt to know the fact,cause for me taking it is bad to health especially when it comes to my religion,here it’s forbiden.
Brian,
I’m doing an EE on Economics and am thinking what sort of question, so far i thought “To what extent can a charity influence a national economy” however im not sure whether this is too broad or how to improve upon it… any tips?
I was simply looking for extra advice for my topic. If the topic is good enough, I was also looking for some insight on which IB EE “topic category” my EE would fall under.
My topic is on the effect of bioterrorism (anthrax attacks, specifically) on western politics(paranoia, different laws and policies against the Middle East)
I’ve done more research on the political end of it all than the biological aspects of the anthrax strain itself, but I do have an understanding of both.
What category is would my EE fall under? Is my topic strong on specific enough?
Thanks,
Jake
Chris – Try picking a specific charity in a specific time period. I’m not sure if you’re going to find much evidence for it, unless you find a country where foreign aid is an extremely large component of the national economy…
Sadiq – If your school or local university has access to a private academic database like PubMed, I would recommend looking up health pros/cons on there
Jake – You might want to add a specific time to it. I’m not sure what it would fall under — Political Science (if there’s such a category?)? Peace and Conflict Studies? To be honest, I’m not too sure.
Here’s a general resource for the IB: http://production-app2.ibo.org/publication/19/part/3/chapter/1
Peace and conflict studies: http://production-app2.ibo.org/publication/19/part/4/chapter/19
Hello!
I’m having my EE in chemistry and was thinking about different types of fabrics(satin silk) of my national costume and dating it back to its original time (as they are passed on costumes). This is just the area of my EE, so I’m quite unsure about the actual topic and research question. Do you have any ideas on where I can start?
Hey Roza:
Your experimental design seems a bit unclear. How exactly do you plan on dating the fabrics with reagents and resources available in the average high school laboratory? Is there a scientific method or reason behind your decision?
I was wondering, should i do my EE in maths or physics?? (i take HL both)
my maths topic (i believe) is better, but i hear that one in maths is hard and it would get graded harshly anyways.. is it worth the trouble? i hear physics EEs are difficult as well :/
Hey rakel,
Maths/Science EEs are pretty hard in general. Only one person did a science EE in my year; everyone else did English or History. Choose the topic that you are most comfortable with.