- What Is the German B IA?
- How the IA Fits Into Your German B Grade
- SL vs HL: What Changes in the Oral
- What the Rubric Rewards: Communication First
- German B IA Timeline: When It Happens and How to Build Up to It
- Prepare Themes and Examples From German-Speaking Countries
- Phrases and Grammar That Carry an Answer
- On the Day: Development and Control
- Is the German B IA Changing?
- Common German B IA Mistakes
Quick Answer
The IB German B IA is the individual oral, a 12 to 15 minute conversation with your teacher in German, marked out of 30 and worth 25% of your grade at SL and HL. At SL you present on a visual stimulus; at HL, on an extract from one of the two literary works in German you studied. Your teacher marks it and the IB moderates a sample.
What You'll Learn
- The German B IA is the individual oral: a presentation, a follow-up discussion and a general conversation in German
- It is worth 25% of your grade at SL and HL and is marked out of 30 against four criteria
- SL uses a visual stimulus linked to a course theme; HL uses an extract from one of two literary works originally written in German
- Language is 12 of the 30 marks; what you say and how you interact earn the other 18
- These rules apply to exams in 2026, 2027 and 2028; a new Language B guide is first assessed in May 2029
What Is the German B IA?
An internal assessment (IA) is the part of an IB subject that your teacher marks and the IB moderates. In IB German B, the IA is the individual oral assessment, a conversation in German with your teacher, and it is the only part of the course that assesses your speaking. In supervised preparation time you choose one of two stimuli and make brief notes. You then present on your stimulus, discuss it with your teacher, and finish with a general conversation on the course themes. Your teacher conducts, records and marks the oral.
- Preparation: 15 minutes at SL or 20 minutes at HL, supervised, with brief working notes of up to 10 bullet points
- Part 1, presentation: 3 to 4 minutes on your chosen stimulus
- Part 2, follow-up discussion: 4 to 5 minutes with your teacher, building on your presentation
- Part 3, general conversation: 5 to 6 minutes on course themes; at SL this includes at least one theme beyond the one in your stimulus
- Total: 12 to 15 minutes, marked out of 30, worth 25% of your final grade at both levels
Pro Tip
German B is a language acquisition course for students with some previous experience of German. If German is your best language and you study literature in it, you are likely to be in German A, whose IA is a different oral built around a global issue. The German A IA guide in the related articles covers it.
How the IA Fits Into Your German B Grade
The assessment outline is the same at SL and HL; what differs is the difficulty of the tasks and texts. The oral is one of three components:
- Paper 1, writing: 25%. One task from a choice of three, 250 to 400 words at SL (1 hour 15 minutes) or 450 to 600 words at HL (1 hour 30 minutes)
- Paper 2, listening and reading: 50%, split equally between the two. 1 hour 45 minutes at SL and 2 hours at HL
- Individual oral, the IA: 25% at both levels
Pro Tip
In May 2026, 18.3% of German B HL candidates and 13% of SL candidates scored a 7 (IB provisional statistical bulletin). A strong oral is one of the most reliable ways to push your grade towards the top, because you can train for it all course long.
SL vs HL: What Changes in the Oral
The three-part structure, the criteria and the 25% weighting are the same at both levels. What changes is the stimulus, the preparation time and the complexity of German your teacher expects.
- SL stimulus: a visual image, such as a photograph or poster, clearly linked to one or more course themes; you choose one of two you have not seen before
- SL focus: describe and interpret the image, connect it to its theme and to German-speaking cultures, and give a justified opinion
- HL stimulus: an extract of up to about 300 words from one of the two literary works you studied; you choose one of two, one from each work
- HL works: both are literary works originally written in German; which works depends on your school
- HL focus: place the extract in the work, explain events, characters and ideas, give your interpretation and link it to course themes
- HL preparation is 20 minutes instead of 15
What the Rubric Rewards: Communication First
Your teacher marks the recording against four criteria. Accuracy matters, but more than half of the marks reward what you say and how you take part in the conversation.
- Criterion A, Language (12 marks): the range and accuracy of your vocabulary and grammar, and the clarity of your pronunciation and intonation
- Criterion B1, Message (6 marks): how relevant and well developed your presentation on the stimulus is
- Criterion B2, Message, conversation (6 marks): how relevant and well developed your answers are in the discussion and the general conversation
- Criterion C, Interactive skills (6 marks): how well you understand your teacher, keep the conversation going and add ideas of your own
- Moderation: your school enters marks for every student, the IB selects a sample, and a moderator re-marks those recordings. If your teacher's marks are consistently out of line, the whole group's marks are adjusted up or down
Pro Tip
A clear answer with a few slips that keeps the conversation moving usually scores better than a short, careful answer that avoids risk. The Language B oral guide in the related articles explains each criterion in more depth.
German B IA Timeline: When It Happens and How to Build Up to It
Your school sets the date, usually in the second year. The general conversation can draw on any of the five themes and, at HL, the extract can come from either literary work, so both need to be taught first. The IB's deadline for schools to submit IA marks and samples for May exams is 20 April, so the oral always comes before your written exams. A course-long plan:
- 1First year: as you study each theme, keep a notebook of vocabulary, opinions and examples from German-speaking countries
- 2HL, as you read: for each literary work, keep a timeline of key events, a character map and three or four ideas you can discuss in German
- 3Two to three months before: start timed practice with unseen images (SL) or passages chosen at random from your works (HL)
- 4Final month: weekly mock orals with someone acting as your teacher, recorded and reviewed for repeated errors
- 5On the day: 15 or 20 minutes of supervised preparation, then the 12 to 15 minute oral
- 6Afterwards: your teacher submits marks, and if you are in the sample, the IB moderates your recording
Prepare Themes and Examples From German-Speaking Countries
You cannot know your stimulus in advance, so prepare material you can adapt, organised by the five prescribed themes. Specific examples from Germany, Austria and Switzerland make your cultural links concrete. Some starting points, to research in German:
- Identities: Switzerland's four national languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh) and what living with several languages means for identity; dialect and standard German
- Experiences: German reunification in 1990 and how families remember life in the GDR
- Human ingenuity: the Bauhaus, the design school founded in Weimar in 1919, and its influence on everyday objects
- Social organisation: the dual vocational training system (duale Ausbildung) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; direct democracy and referendums in Switzerland
- Sharing the planet: the deposit system on bottles (Pfand), waste separation (Mülltrennung) and Germany's energy transition (Energiewende)
Pro Tip
For each example, prepare three things in German: what it is, one fact or detail, and your opinion with a reason. That is enough to turn a single example into a developed answer.
Phrases and Grammar That Carry an Answer
A small set of phrases you can use without thinking frees your attention for ideas. Learn these as whole chunks and practise them in full answers:
- Describing an image: 'Auf dem Bild sieht man ...', 'Im Vordergrund ...', 'Im Hintergrund ...', 'Das Bild wirkt auf mich ...'
- Giving and weighing opinions: 'Meiner Meinung nach ...', 'Ich bin der Ansicht, dass ...', 'Einerseits ..., andererseits ...'
- Comparing cultures: 'Im Vergleich zu ...', 'Während man in Deutschland ..., ist es bei uns ...'
- Speculating with Konjunktiv II: 'Wenn ich Bürgermeisterin wäre, würde ich ...', 'Es wäre besser, wenn ...'
- Buying thinking time: 'Das ist eine interessante Frage ...', 'Moment, ich überlege kurz ...'
- Asking for clarification: 'Könnten Sie die Frage bitte wiederholen?'
- Word order: the verb comes second in a main clause and goes to the end after weil, dass, obwohl and wenn; after deshalb or trotzdem, the verb comes straight after the connector
- Tenses: use the Perfekt for past experiences in conversation, with the Präteritum of sein, haben and the modal verbs
On the Day: Development and Control
A strong German B answer starts with a clear point, develops it and keeps going even when a word is missing. These habits help in every part of the oral:
- 1Listen to the whole question, and ask for clarification in German if you need it
- 2Begin with a clear response: one sentence that answers the question
- 3Develop it with a reason, an example from a German-speaking country, then a consequence or comparison
- 4Use connectors such as außerdem, deshalb and trotzdem to hold the answer together
- 5If you lose a word, describe it in German and carry on; never switch to English
Is the German B IA Changing?
A new Language B guide starts teaching in August 2027 and is first assessed in May 2029. The IB's subject brief for it keeps the individual oral at 25%, with a visual stimulus at SL, a literary extract at HL, a student-teacher discussion and a conversation that includes at least one additional course theme. If you sit German B exams in 2026, 2027 or 2028, the current rules on this page apply. The IB says the oral keeps its format and weighting under the new guide; only the wording of the descriptors for criteria B2 and C is revised. The full guide is due in February 2027.
Common German B IA Mistakes
These habits pull more German B orals down than any single grammar gap. Speaking regularly with an IB German B tutor builds the fluency and range of vocabulary examiners reward.
- Memorising a presentation in advance and forcing it onto whichever stimulus appears
- Describing the image without interpreting it or linking it to a theme
- At SL, making no link to German-speaking cultures, or only ever mentioning Germany
- At HL, retelling the plot instead of discussing characters, ideas and the work as a whole
- Short answers with no reason or example
- Translating long English sentences in your head and losing the verb at the end
- Freezing over an adjective ending instead of finishing the sentence
- Switching to English when a word is missing