Understanding Paper 2: Comparative Essay (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

This section is designed to help you understand the structure and expectations of the Comparative Essay on Paper 2 of your IB Diploma English A: Language and Literature (HL) course. It consists of:

• How the Comparative Essay is assessed

• Core skills assessed in the Comparative Essay

• Choosing your texts for the Comparative Essay

How the Comparative Essay is assessed

Paper 2 is the second of the two timed examinations taken at the end of your IB Diploma English A: Language and Literature (HL) course. It is externally assessed and completed under exam conditions. 

Overview:

• Paper 2 is completed at the end of the second year of your Diploma course

• It is worth 25% of the overall grade for Higher Level (HL) students

• You have 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete the exam

• The exam includes four general literature questions:

  • You must choose one question to answer

• Unlike Paper 1, which involves analysing unseen texts, Paper 2 requires you to write about works studied during your course

• You must use two studied works to answer your chosen question

• You may select any two works studied during the course, except:

  • The work(s) used for your Individual Oral

• The work chosen for your HL essay

• Paper 2 is a closed-book exam:

  • This means you will not have access to your texts or notes

• You are expected to make detailed reference to your works in your answer:

  • However, you are not expected to include quotations

Core skills assessed in the Comparative Essay

When preparing for Paper 2, you will build many of the same skills you developed for Paper 1. These include:

• Reading carefully and critically

• Understanding texts in depth

• Making inferences and drawing clear conclusions

• Using subject-specific literary terminology accurately

• Organising and structuring ideas effectively in an essay

However, Paper 2 is a comparative essay, so you will also need to demonstrate comparative skills. For example: 

• Identifying similarities and differences between works

• Analysing how and why writers present ideas in different ways

• Building a clear comparative argument

There are four assessment criteria.

Criterion B1 focuses on the analysis of authorial craft (what, how and why), while Criterion B2 focuses on evaluating the comparison of similarities and/or differences between your two literary works. This criterion allows for a focus on similarities, differences or a mixture of both rather than requiring a strict balance.

Time management 

Effective time management is essential in Paper 2. You have 1 hour and 45 minutes, so using your time wisely will help you produce a focused and well-structured comparative essay.

Here is a guide to planning your time in the exam:

Choosing your texts for the Comparative Essay

During your course you will study six literary texts. As you are not allowed to reuse the texts from your Individual Oral (IO) or your HL Essay, you will usually have only three or four texts to choose from for Paper 2. This means it is especially important to study your texts in depth.

It is also important that you prepare the texts you are going to use in the exam in advance:

• If one of your texts has not been studied in enough detail, you may find that your choices in the exam are very limited:

  • This could mean that you are forced to use a text pairing that does not suit any of the Paper 2 questions which will impact your final mark

• Even though your choice of texts is relatively limited, you still won’t have much time in the exam to decide which texts to use

The IB recommends selecting three texts in advance to focus on for Paper 2 preparation. The more texts you study, the less likely you are to know them in-depth and the more difficult the decision will be when taking the actual exam. It is therefore important to choose texts that share meaningful connections while also offering clear and interesting differences.

Choosing the right texts for Paper 2 is one of the most important parts of your exam preparation. This table outlines key factors to consider when selecting your texts.

The best combination of works for paper 2 will provide opportunities for a wide range of connections to be made. These could be thematic, conceptual, contextual, stylistic or formal.

While it may be tempting to choose texts with the most obvious similarities, try to select works that may initially seem like an unusual pairing. Choosing a less obvious combination encourages you to think more critically about deeper links, such as shared concepts, contrasting perspectives or different contextual influences. This approach can lead to a more original, perceptive and sophisticated comparative analysis, which is what examiners reward in Paper 2.