How to ace IB English Paper 2: 6 top tips

1. Know your genres 

Most novels fit into a broad category or ‘genre’. These developed in the 19th and 20th centuries and are now used to categorise most modern novels. Make sure you have an understanding of the basic genres of literature; ask your tutor for examples if you’re not sure.  Gothic literature is spooky and mysterious, with haunted houses, graveyards and vampires. Magical realist literature has a realistic narrative with some surreal or dreamlike elements. A Bildungsroman (character novel) traces a character’s development over their formative (often childhood) years Dystopian fiction deals with a world, often set in the future, where things are bleak (the opposite of a utopia). Other popular genres include Modernist, Fantasy, Romance, Historical, Crime and Thriller.

2. Know your socio-historical and literary movements

Think about context. What was going on at the time, politically and socially? There may be something obvious, like a war. Politically, there could be far-right or far-left movements which have influenced the writer. There are other less obvious movements too: Feminism, Civil Rights (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou), Stalinism and labour camps (In The First Circle, Alexander Solzhenitsyn), South Africa’s Apartheid (Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee) and India’s Emergency (A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry), Fin-de Siecle, the turn of the 19th century, and the Jazz Age (The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald). Anything you can find about what was happening at that time, historically and politically, will be a useful reference point for your text. 

3. Know your styles

Style is an important part of the assessment objectives for IB. Think about the narrative voice, which may be first person (The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger), third person (most novels), or maybe even second person/ over the shoulder narration (Moth Smoke, Mohsin Hamid). 

Secondly, is it written in past tense or present tense? Most novels are past tense but some contemporary novels are written in present tense. Is it “Stream-of-Consciousness”? (To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf). Understanding and being able to explain the narrative voice is important, so please ask your tutor to show you examples of each type. 

4. Plan before you write

Ten minutes of planning time at the beginning of the exam will actually save you time in the end. Once your main ideas are there, in writing, your essay will flow in a way it won’t if you are stopping periodically to decide how to go on. For your outline, think: introduction (what interesting question are you addressing, what factual information will you need for this and what is your main idea that will tackle that question? Next up, main body will be around 4-5 paragraphs so roughly what point will each paragraph address, and what will be your evidence and explanation for this point?)  Finally, what will you include in your conclusion? It will contain your summary and final contextual points, linking back to the main question. 

Make sure you address the question; you are being assessed on your response to it. Remember PEAL as a useful structure: Point, Evidence, Analysis, Link. Make your point, provide your evidence, give a fuller analysis, and then make the link back to the question.

5. Past papers

If you look through some of these, you will be able to draw up a list of the type of questions that appear. At this stage you could even group them into themes and write practice essays on common questions. Some recurring examples include the representation of justice in your chosen works, the impact of setting and the effect of a particular narrative voice.

6. Compare and contrast

You will often be comparing two works, so from the outset you should think about your different texts side by side, looking for points of contrast and similarity. Are they both set in times of political crisis? It could be Stalinism and World War 2, but these themes can be aligned, and they can look broadly at things like power, corruption, violence, man’s will to survive and the human spirit. Or you could have two novels like Mistry’s A Fine Balance (set in 1970s India) and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (set in Regency England) you could look at the status of women in a repressive society, and their limited opportunities in life. Novels that are disparate on the surface may have more in common than you initially think!

How to Ace IB English Paper 2

I hope the above six points have given you some tips for preparing for your IB paper 2. If Owl Tutors can help, don’t hesitate to let us know. We have experienced IB English tutors who can assist either short or long term to help you get the results you want, and can advise on wider contextual issues to help with this specific paper. Good luck!

Related subjects