*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.]

In this post, I introduce two major assessments in TOK

• TOK Exhibition
• TOK Essay
• How does TOK class come into play?

These two assessments (essays) determine your final TOK IB grade.

TOK Exhibition

This is 1/3 of your final TOK grade, usually completed in DP Year 1.

It’s a short 950-word essay where you choose three real-world objects and explain how each one answers a knowledge question — like “What counts as good evidence for a claim?” IB gives you 35 questions to choose from. It’s an Internal Assessment (IA), meaning your TOK teacher grades it.

Your job is to justify why each object belongs in your exhibition, and how it helps explore the question.

I’ll explain it in detail in subsequent posts.

TOK Essay

This is the remaining 2/3 of your final TOK grade, completed in DP Year 2.

It’s a longer and more traditional 1,600-word essay where you choose one prompt (IB gives 6 each year) and answer it using two Areas of Knowledge — which are natural sciences, human sciences, history, math, and the arts. You’re expected to make clear arguments, backed by real examples.

It’s more similar to an argumentative essay with intro, claims, evidence, and conclusion, with a few important twists which I will explain later.

How does TOK class come into play?

The fact that final TOK grade is given based on just two big essays doesn’t mean TOK class and classwork don’t matter!

1) TOK Exhibition is graded by your teacher. Yes, it’s moderated by IB, but it’s important to pay attention to your teacher’s demands and style.

2) When grading, teachers consider your overall participation and how your writing develops/improves over time.

I made this roadmap to help you stay on track regardless of what kind of TOK experience you have, but I hope you enjoy your TOK class as well, if you can.

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