Introducing Individual Oral Exam 2025

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• WO
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

FOCUS: THE GLOBAL ISSUE

Your teacher will receive your extracts and the outline one week prior to your exam. Once you hand in your documents, you are not allowed to make any changes in your preparation / documents. 

IO examiner's notes

The candidate does not use all four elements

The candidate should analyse and reference 4 elements of the task: 1) the extract from the literary work, 2) the literary work, 3) the extract from the non-lit body of work (BOW), and 4) the rest of the non-lit BOW. If the candidate has not referred to all 4 elements, then the task is only partially fulfilled and cannot receive full marks on criteria A, B and C. For example, if 3 of the 4 elements are referred to and analysed, then the task is only ¾ fulfilled and a new ceiling of 7 - 8 marks (7.5) should be used for criteria A, B and C. The 9 - 10 band is no longer achievable for these criteria. Balance (criterion C) is arguably most impacted by this problem. 

IO examiner's notes

The oral goes over or under the 10 - minute mark 

The oral should finish (naturally) between 9:30 and 10:30. If students stop earlier than 9:30, their marks on criteria A - C will be affected negatively. An oral that is too short is self - penalising. It cannot show enough interpretation (criterion A), analysis (criterion B) or coherence (criterion C). An oral that is too long is not organised effectively and should not be awarded the top band of 9 - 10 on Criterion C.

More examples of good global issues

• How social inequality can lead to social strife
  
• How self-hatred can be the result of discrimination
  
• How unrealistic definitions of beauty can lead to low self-esteem
  
• How globalisation has created a struggle for identity
  
• How disinformation sows social unrest

MORE EXAMPLES

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Signposts and sentence starters

Imagine you have already created your IO outline. You've studied the P EE EE L structure recommended in your hand-out. Now it's time to rehearse your IO. A good idea is to record yourself delivering your IO. When listening to your recording, ask yourself if you're using effective language that will guide the listener (your teacher) of your oral. We call language that guides 'signposts'. What does this language sound like? Check out this video explanation. Study the signposts in your hand-out.

The IO outline

Students get to bring an outline of 10 bullet points to the Individual Oral exam. What should that outline look like? How long can a bullet be? These are all great questions. Here's a link to the IB's outline form. Check out this video on what to include in your outline.         

Key takeaways - OUTLINE

• The outline is not a script (though it may be the distillation of a script)
  
• Keep the bullet points manageable for yourself
  
• Watch for repetition. Write the GI at the top of the form.
  
• Include lots of examples, including from from the 'rest of the work'.
  
• Use bold font to organise your bullet points feature by feature (see IO Coherence, focus and balance and worksheet below).  

See: peel worksheet in your hand-out

You cannot use the same VWO 5 extracts or global issue for your VWO 6 exam.