Students choose the IB Diploma for good reasons and then, around the middle of the first year, discover what they signed up for. The problem is rarely the difficulty of any single subject. It is that six subjects and three core components all generate deadlines, and they do not coordinate with each other.
Here is what DP1 actually contains, and where the year goes wrong.
What the Diploma is made of
- Six subjects, one from each of the subject groups, with three taken at Higher Level and three at Standard Level. HL subjects carry substantially more teaching hours and more content.
- Theory of Knowledge (TOK) — a course about how knowledge is claimed and justified, assessed by an essay and an exhibition.
- The Extended Essay — an independent 4,000-word research essay in one subject, with a supervisor.
- CAS — creativity, activity and service, run as a portfolio of ongoing commitments rather than a course.
Each subject is scored out of 7, giving 42, and the TOK and Extended Essay combination contributes up to 3 more. The maximum is 45. A diploma is awarded at 24 points, subject to conditions on minimum grades, HL and SL totals, and completion of the core.
The part nobody warns you about: internal assessment
Almost every subject has an internally assessed component — a lab investigation, a mathematical exploration, an oral, a written task. Each one is a real piece of independent work with drafting stages.
Individually they are manageable. Collectively, six of them plus TOK plus the Extended Essay produce a calendar in which something is always due. The students who struggle in DP1 are usually not weak students; they are students who treated each deadline as it arrived instead of mapping them in advance.
A realistic DP1 year
| Term | What is really happening | The pressure point |
|---|---|---|
| Term 1 | New content in six subjects at once; CAS starting | Underestimating HL content load |
| Term 2 | First internal assessments begin; TOK gets going | First clash of two IA drafts in one fortnight |
| Term 3 | Extended Essay subject and question chosen; first exams in some schools | Choosing an EE question that cannot be researched |
| Summer | Extended Essay research and first draft | Arriving in DP2 with nothing written |
Where DP1 goes wrong
- No consolidated deadline map. Every teacher knows their own deadlines. Nobody holds all of them at once except the student. Building one calendar with all six subjects plus core is the highest-value hour of the year.
- HL chosen for the wrong reason. Three HLs is a large commitment, and picking one because a friend did is expensive. HL choices should follow the intended degree, not the timetable.
- CAS left to accumulate. CAS is not graded, so it is postponed, and then it becomes a scramble in DP2 competing with revision. It is designed to run continuously.
- Treating TOK as optional. It is worth points and it takes real writing time.
- The Extended Essay started late. Consistently the most common single error in the whole programme.
What actually works
- One calendar, all deadlines, built in Term 1 and updated as teachers announce dates. Look for the weeks where three things land together and start those early.
- Protect a weekly slot for the core. TOK, CAS and the Extended Essay have no homework rhythm, so they lose to subjects that do unless they are timetabled at home.
- Finish IA drafts before the deadline, not on it. The feedback cycle is where the marks are, and it needs slack.
- Decide what a good outcome looks like early. A student aiming at 34 and a student aiming at 42 should be spending their time differently.
Is the IB harder than A Levels?
It is broader, not uniformly harder. A Level students go deeper into three subjects; IB students cover six plus the core. Students who like breadth and are organised tend to thrive; students who prefer depth in a few subjects often do better on the A Level route. Our comparison of IB and A Level in the UAE sets out the trade-off, and AP and IB covers the American alternative.
Common questions
Can a student change an HL subject to SL?
Usually within a window early in DP1, decided by the school and subject to timetable. After that it becomes difficult, so raise it early rather than hoping.
How many hours a week outside school?
It varies by student and subject mix, but the honest answer is that the Diploma expects substantial independent work, and students who do none outside timetabled lessons do not usually keep up.
Does the school choose the Extended Essay subject?
The student chooses, from their subjects, with a supervisor assigned to support the process.
What happens if a component is not completed?
The core components are conditions of the diploma, not optional extras. Incomplete core work puts the diploma itself at risk regardless of subject grades.
One thing to do this month
If your child is in DP1, sit down together and build the single consolidated deadline calendar. Not a revision plan — just every due date from every subject and the core, on one page. The weeks where three things collide will be visible immediately, and those are the weeks the year turns on.
For subject-level support through DP1, message us on WhatsApp.
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