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Internal Assessment13 min read

IB German A IA Guide: The Individual Oral, Texts and Marks

The IB German A internal assessment explained: the individual oral, Literature vs Language and Literature, choosing German works and extracts, self-taught students, marking and a timeline.

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Quick Answer

The IB German A IA is the individual oral (IO), in both German A: Literature and German A: Language and Literature. You speak in German for 10 minutes on how one global issue is presented in two works you studied, then answer 5 minutes of questions from your teacher. It is marked out of 40 and counts for 30% of your grade at SL and 20% at HL.

What You'll Learn

  • The German A IA is the individual oral: the same task as the English A IO, given entirely in German
  • It counts for 30% at SL and 20% at HL and is marked out of 40 by your teacher, then moderated by the IB
  • Literature pairs a work originally written in German with a work studied in German translation; Language and Literature pairs a literary work with a non-literary body of work
  • School-supported self-taught (SSST) students take German A: Literature at SL, and their IO is set up differently
  • A work used in the IO cannot be used again in Paper 2 or the HL essay

What Is the German A IA?

An internal assessment (IA) is the part of an IB subject that your teacher marks and the IB moderates. In IB German A, the IA is the individual oral (IO). It is the only internally assessed component of both German A courses, at SL and HL, and you give it entirely in German. You choose a global issue and two works from your course, select an extract of up to 40 lines from each, and speak for 10 minutes about how the issue is presented through the content and form of both works. Your teacher then asks you questions for 5 minutes. There is no written report: the recording is what gets marked.

  • Format: a 10-minute prepared response, then 5 minutes of teacher questions, 15 minutes in total
  • Marks: 40, from four criteria worth 10 marks each
  • Weighting: 30% of your final grade at SL, 20% at HL
  • What you take in: clean, unannotated copies of your two extracts and an outline of no more than 10 bullet points
  • Who marks it: your teacher, with a sample of recordings moderated by the IB
  • Other components: Paper 1 (35% at both levels), Paper 2 (35% at SL, 25% at HL) and, at HL only, the HL essay (20%)

Pro Tip

Searching for 'German IA'? If you take German B, the course for students learning German as an additional language, your IA is a different oral with no global issue and a 30-mark rubric. The German B IA guide in the related articles covers it.

German A: Literature or Language and Literature?

German A is offered in both Language A courses, and both use the same IO task, timing, criteria and weighting. What changes is the pair of works you bring together and the kind of texts you study across the course. In May 2026, 751 candidates sat German A: Literature and 1,267 sat German A: Language and Literature, with mean grades of 5.2 to 5.3 in both courses at both levels (IB provisional statistical bulletin). The results give no reason to choose one course for the grade alone, so choose by the texts you want to study.

  • German A: Literature: the IO pairs one work originally written in German with one work you studied in German translation
  • German A: Language and Literature: the IO pairs one literary work, in German or in translation, with one non-literary body of work, such as a series of adverts, speeches, opinion columns or photographs studied as a group
  • Paper 1 follows the same split: unseen literary passages in Literature, unseen non-literary texts in Language and Literature
  • Literature is also the course for school-supported self-taught (SSST) students, at SL only
  • Taking German A alongside English A can lead to the IB bilingual diploma

Self-Taught German A Students: How Your IO Differs

If your school has no German A class, you may take German A as a school-supported self-taught (SSST) student. SSST is only available for Language A: literature at SL. Your IO uses the same prompt as a taught student's: examine how a global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two works you studied, one originally written in German and one in translation, using an extract of up to 40 lines from each and an outline of up to 10 bullet points. The set-up is different:

  • Your school appoints an SSST supervisor, a teacher of a language and literature course, who administers the IO
  • Your school also assigns a tutor who is proficient in German and can give feedback as you prepare
  • The IB's SSST student guide describes the IO as 15 minutes of speaking on the prompt
  • The recording is marked externally by the IB, not by your supervisor
  • Your supervisor assigns the recording date during your first year of study
  • Your booklist is approved by your supervisor against IB requirements, so both IO works must be on it

Watch Out

Confirm the current SSST procedures with your supervisor. The SSST student guide quoted here was published in 2019 for the course first examined in 2021, and administrative details can change between sessions.

Choosing Your Global Issue and German Works

Start from the works, not the issue. List every work your class studied that fits your course's pairing rule, then look for an issue that two of them genuinely argue about. The IB describes a global issue as one that has significance on a wide scale, crosses national borders and has an impact felt in everyday local contexts. The five fields of inquiry can help: culture, identity and community; beliefs, values and education; politics, power and justice; art, creativity and the imagination; and science, technology and the environment. Some illustrative pairings:

  • Literature: Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Der Besuch der alten Dame with Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People read in German as Ein Volksfeind: how economic self-interest leads a community to abandon justice
  • Literature: Max Frisch's Andorra with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird read in German as Wer die Nachtigall stört: how a community defines itself by excluding a scapegoat
  • Literature: Franz Kafka's Die Verwandlung with Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman read in German as Tod eines Handlungsreisenden: how a person's worth is reduced to economic usefulness
  • Language and Literature: Juli Zeh's Corpus Delicti with a body of work such as adverts for fitness and health tracking apps: how health is turned into a civic duty
  • Language and Literature: Bernhard Schlink's Der Vorleser with a body of work such as commemoration speeches given in the German Bundestag: how a society speaks about guilt across generations

Pro Tip

These pairings are illustrations, not recommendations. Use only works your class actually studied, and check with your teacher that the pair meets your course's rule. Phrase your issue as an arguable statement, not a topic like 'Gerechtigkeit'. The global issue guide in the related articles has 30 more examples.

Choosing Extracts and Analysing Them in German

Each extract is up to 40 lines and goes into the room as a clean, unannotated copy. Choose passages where the issue is visible on the page and the author's choices are dense enough to analyse, and which you can connect to the rest of the work. Criterion D rewards clear, accurate and effective language, including precise terminology, so build your German vocabulary of analysis as you prepare:

  • Narrative: Erzählperspektive, Erzählhaltung, erlebte Rede, innerer Monolog, Zeitgestaltung
  • Drama: Regieanweisung, Monolog, Dialogführung, Exposition, Wendepunkt
  • Poetry: lyrisches Ich, Metrum, Reim, Enjambement
  • Language and style: Metapher, Symbol, Leitmotiv, Ironie, Parataxe and Hypotaxe, Register
  • Non-literary texts: Layout, Bild-Text-Verhältnis, Slogan, Zielgruppe, rhetorische Mittel, Kameraperspektive
  • For each term, practise a full sentence that links the choice to its effect and to your issue, so the term does work rather than decoration

Pro Tip

A useful test for every point is choice, effect, issue: name the choice, explain its effect on the reader or viewer, then show how it presents your global issue. The IO structure guide in the related articles works through this method with an example.

How the German A IA Is Marked and Moderated

Your teacher marks the recording against the same four criteria used for every Language A IO, each worth 10 marks: A, knowledge, understanding and interpretation; B, analysis and evaluation; C, focus and organisation; and D, language. Each criterion is marked by best fit to its level descriptors. Then:

  1. 1Your school enters the marks for every student, and the IB selects a sample of students
  2. 2The recordings for that sample are uploaded, and an IB moderator re-marks them
  3. 3If your teacher's marks are consistently higher or lower than the moderator's, the IB adjusts the marks of every student in the group, up or down
  4. 4Your final IO mark is combined with your other components to give your German A grade

Watch Out

Any IO mark you hear before results day is provisional, because moderation can change it.

German A IA Timeline

Your teacher sets the date of the IO, normally towards the end of the first year or at some point in the second year. The IB's deadline for schools to submit IA marks and samples for May exams is 20 April. Working back from your IO date:

  1. 1While you study each work: note the global issues it explores and the passages that show them
  2. 2About two months before: agree with your teacher which works go to the IO, Paper 2 and, at HL, the HL essay
  3. 3Four to six weeks before: fix the issue and the two extracts, and write your line of argument in one German sentence
  4. 4Three to four weeks before: draft your 10-bullet outline in German keywords and talk through each section aloud
  5. 5Final two to three weeks: timed, recorded run-throughs, then full mock IOs with unseen questions
  6. 6Afterwards: your teacher submits marks, and if you are in the sample, the IB moderates your recording

Delivery: Speaking Analytically in German for 10 Minutes

There is no required structure, but a balanced plan works well: about 1 minute of introduction, around 4 minutes on each work (the extract first, then the work as a whole), and about 1 minute of conclusion. Speaking analytically in German under time pressure is a skill of its own, so rehearse the language as well as the ideas.

  • Prepare linking phrases for moving between points and works, such as 'Im Gegensatz dazu', 'Ähnlich wie bei' and 'Dies zeigt sich auch in'
  • Keep a consistent, formal register; Criterion D rewards language that suits an analytical task
  • Keep sentences short enough to control: two clear sentences beat one long sentence that loses its verb
  • Make your evidence precise by quoting a few words or naming the line you mean
  • Rehearse with the exact 10 bullet points you will take in, written as German keywords
  • Expect the 5 minutes of questions to probe the points you developed least

HL Students: The HL Essay Is Not the IA

At HL you also write the HL essay, a 1,200 to 1,500 word essay in German on one work you studied, worth 20% of your grade. It is coursework, so students sometimes call it an IA, but it is externally assessed by IB examiners. A work you use in the IO cannot be used again in the HL essay or in Paper 2, so decide early which works go where and spread your strongest works across the components.

Common German A IA Mistakes

These issues weaken more German A IOs than any gap in knowledge. An IB German A tutor can run practice orals with you on other extracts and show you how to link extracts closely to a global issue.

  • In the Literature course, pairing two works originally written in German, when one must be a work in translation
  • Choosing the global issue first and forcing two works to fit it
  • Retelling the plot instead of analysing how authorial choices present the issue
  • Discussing only the extracts and never the works as a whole
  • Vague analytical language, such as 'der Autor benutzt viele Stilmittel', instead of naming the choice and its effect
  • Using a work in the IO that you needed for Paper 2 or the HL essay
  • Reading full sentences from the outline
  • As a self-taught student, assuming the class IO procedure applies to you without checking with your supervisor

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Frequently Asked Questions

The IA in IB German A is the individual oral (IO). In German, you give a 10-minute prepared response on how one global issue is presented in two works you studied, using an extract of up to 40 lines from each, then answer 5 minutes of questions from your teacher. It is marked out of 40 and counts for 30% at SL and 20% at HL.

The task, timing, criteria and weighting are identical. Only the pairing changes. In German A: Literature you combine a work originally written in German with a work studied in German translation. In German A: Language and Literature you combine a literary work with a non-literary body of work, such as a series of adverts or speeches studied as a group.

Yes. In German A: Literature, one of your two works must be a work you studied in German translation, originally written in another language. In German A: Language and Literature, your literary work can be originally German or translated, and the other half of the pair is a non-literary body of work. In both courses, use only works from your course of study.

School-supported self-taught students take German A: Literature at SL. You use the same prompt, one work originally in German and one in translation, but your SSST supervisor administers the oral, the IB's SSST guide describes it as 15 minutes of speaking, and the IB marks the recording externally. Confirm the current procedure and date with your supervisor.

For taught students, your teacher marks the recording against four criteria worth 10 marks each. The IB then selects a sample from your school and a moderator re-marks it; if your teacher's marks are out of line, the whole group's marks are adjusted. For self-taught students, the IB marks the recording externally.

If German is your Language A, studied as literature or language and literature, your IA is the individual oral on two works and a global issue, marked out of 40. If you take German B, the language acquisition course, your IA is an oral on a visual stimulus (SL) or a literary extract (HL), with no global issue, marked out of 30 and worth 25%.

An IB Doctor German A tutor, who scored 40 or more IB points, can explain what makes a pairing and a global issue work, sharpen your German terminology for analysis, and run online mock IOs with the kind of questions your teacher might ask. This can be especially useful for self-taught students. The IO must stay your own work, so a tutor builds skills, not scripts.

Related Guides

IB German A tutoring
IB English Individual Oral (IO): Structure and Criteria
IB IO Global Issues: 30 Examples and How to Choose
IB IO Teacher Questions: Handling the Final 5 Minutes
IB German B IA Guide: Individual Oral, Marks and Prep
IB English A IA Guide: Individual Oral, Marks, Timeline
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