IB essay advice: what to write in the final paragraph
By Tim Williams
The examiner marking your IB exams will read dozens of others and they will have a limited amount of time to do so. Therefore, your IB essays need to grab their attention and hold on to it all the way to the final paragraph. And, it’s the last paragraph that makes or breaks you. If you want to give yourself the best shot at earning the marks you deserve, you will do well to ensure that the final paragraph includes these must-haves and avoids the common mistakes highlighted below.
The three things you must do in the final paragraph
Above all, actually, explicitly, answer the question you were asked.
This is what the whole essay was building up to, no? Even better – use some of the words from the question in your answer. This unconsciously reassures the examiner. If the question was ’Was the Treaty of Versailles the major cause of WW2 ?‘ then you write ‘Certainly the Treaty was a factor, but not the major cause, in that...’
Point out how that answer is connected to, or justified or proven by, the points you made in the essay.
No examiner can be bothered to reconstruct your argument in their mind, so just quickly point out the connections. As in ‘I have argued that reparations really were crippling; that economic collapse was global; that investment capacity was lost; and so we can conclude that economics rather than political failure was...’
Check what you wrote.
This paragraph is going to be the last thing in the examiner’s mind. A mistake in the language or dates or facts or figures is going to leave the examiner thinking about your failings – that’s not doog.
What examiners hate about final paragraphs
There are many things you can do wrong in the final paragraph of an essay. Here are three of the most common ways to make an examiner sharply revise your grade. Downwards.
Write a summary of what you just wrote in the essay.
As if you think the examiner was too stupid to understand the first time. Or you thought you needed to make the essay look longer. Or your teacher told you to do this.
Just stop writing.
You know when somebody tells you a story and they don’t quite finish it? That’s what the examiner feels. They turn over the pages, or look for a missing page, or have to re-read the last page to check you really did just stop. They won’t like it.
Get personal.
This is usually when the student writes something like ‘Oh, and if I had more time there’s so much more I could say about this’. Sometimes it’s, ‘Of course this is just my opinion and I guess other people see it differently’. Once every session there’s someone who writes, ’Anyway, I just want to say I really really need a good grade to get into my chosen college, please, please.’ No, really, it’s true they do this.
Getting yourself IB exam ready
You’ve read this article and hopefully you have found some useful tips that you can use in your IB exams. But, don’t wait until then to start using them. Every time you write a practice essay from now until your IB exams practice writing your final paragraph. The actual exam is not the place to perfect your art. Treat this as a skill and develop it so that when your IB exams come around you’re a pro at concluding your essays.
There are a lot of skills you will need to hone to be successful in your IB exams. If you’re looking for more advice on everything from essay writing to managing exam stress, visit our study skills subject page for more helpful articles and tools to help you with your IB revision.
