In simple terms
A friendly intro before the formal notes — no formulas yet.
The Director's Commentary: Your EE Reflection
Criterion E isn't about your final essay; it's about your journey getting there. The reflections and the final viva voce are your chance to explain your process, showcase your intellectual curiosity, and demonstrate what you learned along the way.
Think of your Extended Essay as a feature film. The 4,000-word essay is the film itself. The reflections on your RPPF and the viva voce are the 'director's commentary'. This is where you, the director, explain the behind-the-scenes story: the initial idea, the casting (of sources), the on-set challenges, the creative decisions you made, and what you ultimately learned from the experience. It gives the audience (the examiner) a deeper appreciation of your work.
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Understand Criterion E: Know that the 6 marks are for demonstrating your intellectual journey, not just for completing the forms.
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Plan Your Three Reflections: Treat each of the three reflection sessions as a key milestone to capture your thinking at different stages: beginning, middle, and end.
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Document Everything: Keep a research journal. Note down your 'aha!' moments, your frustrations with sources, and your changes in direction. This provides the raw material for your reflections.
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Prepare for the Viva Voce: This is not an exam, but a structured conversation. Prepare to discuss your learning journey, your proudest moments, and your biggest challenges.
Explore the concept
Use the live diagram and synced steps — play it or tap a step card to walk through.
Full topic notes
Formal explanation with the rigour you need for the exam.
Deconstructing Criterion E: Reflection
Criterion E assesses the extent to which you have reflected on your engagement with the research process. It is not an assessment of the quality of your final essay, but of the quality of your thinking about the process. Examiners are looking for evidence of your journey as a researcher, documented across three reflection entries on the Reflections on Planning and Progress Form (RPPF). The total word count for all three entries must not exceed 500 words.
Demonstrates intellectual initiative: You made choices for clear academic reasons.
Shows creative and critical thinking: You thought outside the box or rigorously evaluated your approach.
Highlights perseverance: You identified and overcame specific challenges, rather than having a smooth, unproblematic journey.
Evidence of personal engagement: The reflections show how the process impacted your understanding and skills.
Focus on process, not product: The reflections should be about how you researched and wrote the essay, not a summary of the essay's content.
The Three Mandatory Reflection Sessions
The IB mandates three formal reflection sessions with your supervisor, which form the basis of your RPPF entries. Each session has a distinct focus related to a stage of the EE timeline.
First Reflection Session: This initial meeting is about planning. You should discuss your preliminary research, your choice of subject and topic, and the formulation of your research question. Your RPPF entry should capture your initial thoughts, motivations, and any early decisions or concerns.
Second Reflection Session: This interim session occurs once you are deep into the research and writing process. It is a chance to discuss your progress, the development of your argument, and any obstacles you have encountered. Your reflection should focus on a specific problem or decision and how you managed it.
Third Reflection Session (The Viva Voce): This is a concluding 10-15 minute interview after you have submitted your final essay. It is a conversation to help you synthesise your thoughts on the entire process. The insights from this conversation will form the basis of your final RPPF entry, which provides a holistic overview of your journey and learning.
Writing Powerful Reflections: From Descriptive to Reflective
The key to a high-scoring RPPF is moving beyond description to genuine reflection. Description states what happened; reflection explores why it happened, what you thought about it, and what you learned from it. Use a 'What? So what? Now what?' framework. What happened? (The event/challenge). So what? (Why was it significant? What was the impact?). Now what? (What did you learn? How will this affect your future work?).
Use the first person: Write 'I thought', 'I decided', 'I learned'. The reflection is personal.
Be specific: Don't say 'I had trouble with sources'. Say 'I struggled to reconcile the conflicting casualty figures in primary source A and secondary source B, which led me to investigate the historiography of the event'.
Connect challenges to skills: Frame problems as learning opportunities. 'Struggling with my time management taught me to use a Gantt chart, a project management skill I will use in the future.'
Show, don't just tell: Instead of saying 'I was intellectually engaged', provide an example that demonstrates your engagement, like the worked example above.
The 500-word limit for the RPPF is strict. Do not waste words on summarising your essay's topic or findings. Every sentence should be focused on reflecting on your planning, process, and growth as a researcher. Write your reflections in a separate document to edit them carefully before pasting them into the official form.
Preparing for the Viva Voce
The viva voce is not an oral examination or a defence. It is a celebration of your work and a structured conversation designed to help you reflect. Your supervisor will guide the conversation with open-ended questions. Your role is to respond thoughtfully, providing specific examples from your research journey. It is your final opportunity to demonstrate your personal and intellectual ownership of the project.
Re-read your essay and research journal: Remind yourself of the key moments in your process.
Anticipate questions: Think about potential questions such as: 'What was the most rewarding part of this process?', 'What skills have you developed?', 'If you had more time, what would you have done differently?', 'How did your thinking about the topic change over time?'.
Prepare your own questions: Asking your supervisor a question shows engagement. For example, 'Having seen my whole process, what do you think was the most significant development in my skills?'.
Be honest: It is perfectly acceptable, and even commendable, to discuss things that went wrong or aspects you are still unsure about. This demonstrates authentic reflection.
Worked examples
See the formulas applied — reveal one step at a time, like the exam.
Sample RPPF Entry (Second Reflection): Based on your interim reflection session, comment on a significant challenge you faced in developing your argument.
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Initially, my history essay on the impact of the Suez Crisis on British foreign policy was becoming too descriptive. My supervisor noted that I was narrating events rather than analysing their consequences. The main challenge was shifting my mindset from 'what happened' to 'why it mattered'. To overcome this, I created a new outline where each paragraph had to start with an analytical claim, not a historical fact. For example, instead of 'Eden authorised military action', I began with 'The decision to use force revealed a fundamental miscalculation of Britain's post-war geopolitical influence'. This forced me to subordinate my evidence to my argument. This shift was crucial; it taught me the difference between a report and an academic argument and fundamentally improved the analytical depth of my essay.
During your viva voce, your supervisor asks: 'What was the most significant decision you made during your research, and what was its impact on your final essay?'
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A model spoken response: 'I think the most significant decision was choosing to narrow my research question. Initially, for my Biology EE, I wanted to investigate the general effect of acid rain on an entire ecosystem. It was far too broad. After my first reflection session and some preliminary reading, I realised I couldn't possibly collect meaningful data. The key decision was to focus specifically on the effect of simulated acid rain, at varying pH levels, on the germination rate of a single species, Lepidium sativum. This decision was pivotal. It made my experiment manageable and my data precise. It meant my essay could have a much deeper, more focused analysis of a specific mechanism, rather than a superficial overview of a complex system. It taught me that in scientific research, a narrow scope often leads to more powerful conclusions.'
How it all connects
The big idea sits in the middle — tap a linked idea to explore the link.
Tap a linked idea to see how it connects back to the main topic — that connection is what examiners reward.
Glossary
Try to recall each definition before you reveal it.
Quick check
Answer in your head first — then tap to check. No pressure.
Revision flashcards
Flip the card. Test yourself before the exam.
Viva Voce
A short, concluding interview between the student and the supervisor. It is a conversation to reflect on the entire EE process and helps the student formulate their final reflection. It also serves to confirm the authenticity of the student's work.
Key takeaways
Review these before you close the topic — retrieval beats re-reading.
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Demonstrates intellectual initiative: You made choices for clear academic reasons.
- ✓
Shows creative and critical thinking: You thought outside the box or rigorously evaluated your approach.
- ✓
Highlights perseverance: You identified and overcame specific challenges, rather than having a smooth, unproblematic journey.
- ✓
Evidence of personal engagement: The reflections show how the process impacted your understanding and skills.
- ✓
Focus on process, not product: The reflections should be about how you researched and wrote the essay, not a summary of the essay's content.
Practice — then mark it
The whole point: a real Cambridge question, marked mark-by-mark.
Test Your Understanding of Criterion E
Test Your Understanding of Criterion E
Extra simulations & links
PhET, GeoGebra and other curated tools — open in a new tab.
Frequently asked
Checkpoint
One marked question is worth ten re-reads — close the loop before you move on.
Reading it isn’t knowing it — prove it.
Before you move on: do Test Your Understanding of Criterion E on paper, snap a photo, and get examiner-style feedback on exactly where you win and lose marks.