Quick Answer
In the IB Language A individual oral, the 5 minutes of questions after your 10-minute response come from your teacher, not an external examiner. Your teacher asks them to help you extend and clarify what you said, and your answers are part of the oral your teacher marks. Answer directly, support each answer with a specific reference, link it to your global issue, and rehearse with unseen questions.
What You'll Learn
- Your teacher asks the questions and marks the IO; no examiner is in the room
- The question time is part of the assessed 15 minutes, so good answers can add evidence to your oral
- Most questions ask you to extend, clarify, connect to the whole work or compare the two works
- Two or three precise sentences with a reference to the text beat a long ramble
- In the Language B oral, your teacher's questions drive the discussion and the general conversation
Who Asks the Questions, and Why
The individual oral is an internal assessment. Your own teacher conducts it, asks the questions and marks the recording. No IB examiner is present; if your school's moderation sample includes you, an IB moderator later re-marks the recording, but only by listening to it. The questions probe what you said: your teacher's aim is to help you extend and clarify your ideas, so you can show a fuller understanding of your works and your global issue. They are not designed to catch you out.
- Timing: about 5 minutes, straight after your 10-minute prepared response, for a total of 15 minutes
- Who: your Language A teacher, for example in English A, German A or French A
- What they cover: your response, your extracts, the works as a whole and your global issue
- Assessment: the question time is part of the oral your teacher marks against the four criteria
- Moderation: if your recording is in the IB's sample, the moderator hears the questions and answers too
Pro Tip
If you are a school-supported self-taught (SSST) Language A student, your IO is set up differently: the IB's SSST guide describes 15 minutes of speaking, administered by your SSST supervisor and marked externally by the IB. Ask your supervisor how your session will run.
Types of Questions Teachers Ask
You cannot know the exact questions, but most fall into a few types. Here is what each type is looking for, with an example of how it might be phrased:
- Extend: 'You mentioned the narrator's silence at the end of your first extract. Can you say more about how it presents the issue?' Your teacher has spotted a point you only touched on
- Clarify: 'What do you mean when you say the advert normalises surveillance?' Define your claim and give the evidence behind it
- Whole work: 'Where else in the novel do we see this?' Criterion A rewards knowledge of each work beyond the extract
- Compare: 'How does the second author's approach to the issue differ from the first?' Show that you see differences in method, not just in message
- Alternative reading: 'Could this passage be read differently?' Offer the other reading, then argue for the one you find stronger
- Evaluate: 'How effective is this choice, in your view?' Give a judgement and a reason
- Back to the issue: 'How does this connect to your global issue?' Bring a drifting answer back to your focus
How to Answer: A Four-Step Pattern
A good answer is short, specific and connected to your issue. This pattern keeps you on track under pressure:
- 1Listen to the whole question. If you are unsure what it means, ask your teacher to repeat or rephrase it
- 2Pause briefly to choose your evidence; a moment of silence is better than a rushed answer
- 3Answer directly in your first sentence, then support it with a specific word, image or moment from the text
- 4Link back to your global issue or to the other work, then stop and let your teacher ask the next question
Pro Tip
Two or three precise sentences with evidence usually do more than a long answer. Short, focused answers leave time for more questions, and each question is another chance to show what you know.
If You Do Not Know the Answer
Almost everyone meets a question they did not expect. What matters is how you handle it:
- Think aloud: 'I had not considered that, but looking at the extract again...' and then reason from the text
- Use the clean extract in front of you: find a word or line that lets you answer
- Connect the question to a point you know well, without ignoring what was actually asked
- Give a provisional answer and say why; a reasoned view beats silence
- Do not invent quotations or details; an accurate paraphrase is safer than a misremembered quote
How to Prepare for Questions You Cannot Predict
You cannot rehearse exact answers, but you can make sure you have material ready for every type of question:
- 1After drafting your outline, list the points you developed least: these are the likeliest targets
- 2For each work, prepare two or three moments outside the extract that connect to your issue
- 3Prepare one sentence on how the two authors' methods differ and one on how they are similar
- 4Write ten possible questions across the types above and answer each aloud in under a minute
- 5Run mock IOs in which someone who has not seen your outline asks unseen questions
- 6Record the mocks and check that each answer contains evidence and a link to your issue
Watch Out
Do not memorise answers to questions you have guessed. If your teacher asks something slightly different, a memorised answer sounds off-topic. Prepare material, not scripts.
Teacher Questions in the Language B Oral
In the Language B individual oral, for example in English B or German B, your teacher's questions make up most of the oral. After your 3 to 4 minute presentation comes a 4 to 5 minute follow-up discussion on your stimulus, then a 5 to 6 minute general conversation on the course themes. Here the questions test communication and interaction, not literary analysis.
- Follow-up discussion: the questions build on your presentation, so develop what you said about the image or extract
- General conversation: the questions move to other themes, so prepare opinions and examples for all five
- Criterion C rewards interaction: react to what your teacher says, add your own ideas and ask a question back when it fits
- If you do not understand, ask for clarification in the target language rather than guessing
- Extend each answer with a reason, an example and a consequence
Common Mistakes in the Question Time
These habits waste the 5 minutes:
- Treating the questions as an afterthought because the prepared part is over
- Repeating your prepared points instead of answering the question asked
- Long answers that use up the time without adding evidence
- Answering only about the extract when the question asks about the whole work
- Saying 'I don't know' without trying to reason from the text
- Getting defensive when your teacher suggests another reading, instead of exploring it