IB History HL
Flashcards

The two courses assess the same skills and are structurally very similar, but Higher Level History demands more content coverage. Specifically, HL History students complete an in-depth study of a world region, typically chosen by the school or teacher, and write an extra assessment paper focused on that region (Paper 3). The four regional options for Paper 3 are Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, and Europe.

IB History HL has three major externally assessed components and one internally assessed component. Paper 1 is a source-based assessment focused on one of the five Prescribed Subjects for the course (e.g., Rights and Protest). It includes three short-answer, source-based questions, and one extended response question. Paper 2 requires the completion of two extended response questions that assess knowledge of two of the twelve World History Topics for the course (e.g., topic 10, Authoritarian states). Finally, Paper 3 demands three extended response questions that focus on three sections of the selected Regional Option. The internal assessment for history is a historical investigation carried out independently by the student based on a topic and research question of their choosing.

Revision Village’s IB History product currently provides two resources to support students during their time in the Diploma Programme: 1) the Questionbank provides focused short answer questions, some of which require the use of historical sources to help students revise targeted topics and 2) Essay Question Practice uses a curated set of sources along with scaffolded short-answer questions to help students work up to answering a bigger “Guiding Question.” The guiding questions are developed in the style of the extended response questions found on Papers 1, 2, and 3 of the Higher Level IB History Exam. New features and more topics will be published gradually.