Equipment and Room Rules
Both Paper 1 and Paper 2 are handwritten in standard IB answer booklets. Examiners read scanned copies of your script, so your stationery choices directly affect legibility. The room rules below are general IB exam practice, not part of the subject guide: your school’s IB Diploma Programme coordinator will confirm them before the session.
- Pens: Bring at least three dark blue or black ballpoint or gel pens that do not bleed through paper. Do not use erasable pens: their ink can fade or rub off before your script is scanned.
- Highlighters and coloured pens: Allowed, once reading time is over, for annotating the Paper 1 stimulus passages and the Paper 2 question paper, and for colour-coding your plans on rough paper. Never use highlighters or coloured ink inside the actual essay pages of your answer booklet.
- Pencils: Use only for rough planning or underlining on the question paper. Everything you want marked must be in dark blue or black ink.
- Correction fluid and tape: Strictly forbidden in IB exams. To fix a mistake, draw a single neat horizontal line through the word or sentence and write the correction above or beside it.
- Water: Allowed in a clear, label-free plastic bottle.
- Forbidden items: Smartwatches, mobile phones, and notes must be handed in or left outside. Paper 2 is strictly closed-book.
The 5-Minute Reading Time
IB written papers begin with 5 minutes of silent reading time before the main timer starts. During these 5 minutes you may not write, make notes or highlight. Use this window to make your high-stakes choices so you can start annotating at minute 0.
Paper 1 Reading-Time Protocol
- Read both guiding questions first (30 seconds). Notice the exact technical or formal aspect each question names (e.g., interplay of image and text, shifts in tone, use of personal anecdote).
- Read Text A and Text B in full (3 minutes 30 seconds), including the provenance note at the top or bottom of each passage (author, date, source, text type).
- Make your selection or ordering decision (1 minute):
- SL candidates (choose 1 of 2): Pick the passage where you can see how the choices create meaning, not just the topic you find more interesting. A multimodal charity appeal with a clear visual layout and emotional shift is usually safer than a dense opinion column where you agree with the writer’s view but can only spot two rhetorical questions.
- HL candidates (write on both): Decide which text you will tackle first. Start with the passage whose purpose and structure are immediately clear to you; bank those marks while your focus is fresh, and let your subconscious process the harder text.