*This article is part of the TOK Roadmap — a visual, all-in-one guide I created to help you ace Theory of Knowledge. [View the full roadmap here.]

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In this article, I show you

• How TOK score is calculated
• How TOK letter grade is determined
• How IB awards 3 bonus points with TOK and EE

How is your total TOK score calculated?

TOK has two major assessments:

• TOK Exhibition (1/3 of your grade), score out of 10
• TOK Essay (2/3 of your grade), score out of 10

So, your final score is TOK Exhibition + 2 * TOK Essay = Your score/30

For example, let’s say you got 7/10 for exhibition and 6/10 for the essay. Your total score is 7 + 2*6 = 19 out of 30.

How is TOK letter grade determined?

TOK letter grades are A, B, C, D, and E*

A: 22~30 points

B: 16-21 points

C: 10-15 points

D: 4-9 points

E: 0-3 points

*The grade boundaries can change slightly each year, usually by 1 point.

Let’s think of a scenario. Let’s say you got 5/10 for exhibition. Following this boundary you can still get A by scoring 9/10 for the TOK essay!

How are the 3 points awarded for final IB score?

Your IB Diploma is a total of 45 points. 42 points are from your normal IB courses. The remaining 3 points are determined by your TOK and Extended Essay (EE) grade.

To get an A, you’d need either A/A, A/B, or B/A.

So, even if you get a B in EE, you can still get 3 points by getting an A in TOK. Is your EE not looking good? There are still many scenarios where you can get a B.

In Year 2, deadlines for EE and TOK essay often overlap (not to mention other Internal Assessments and school exams!), so I recommend that you manage your time wisely and start early if you can.

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