Level 5 IB

Students are required to sit for two written examinations – Paper One (Unseen Analysis) and Paper Two (Comparative Analysis). In addition, they have to plan and present an Individual Oral (IO), and fulfil any other requirements set by their school to make up their Internal Assessment component. Students may also choose to do their Extended Essay on either Langlit or Literature.

Unseen Analysis:

Academia aims to arm each student with a thorough understanding and familiarity of how every tested text type functions. Students will learn the technical features, and compare the best contemporary as well as classical examples of each text type, ensuring that they are prepared to tackle any unseen text they encounter in the exam.

The following are all of the literary forms tested in IB Langlit Paper 1:

Visual-based forms

1. images

2. magazine covers

3. print ads

4. political cartoons

5. comics

6. graphic novels

7. street art

Text-based forms

1. speeches

2. news articles

3. blogs

4. prose

5. playscripts

6. poems

Comparative Analysis:

All the different set texts covered by the IB schools are delved into and discussed in depth and detail against the context of past year IB Paper Two exam questions. Essay writing skills are worked on, with focus on a different marking criterion every session, to elevate students’s individual abilities.

The following are the 2026 set text selection for both local and international IB schools (selection varies by school):

1. Dearly, Margaret Atwood

2. Map, Szymborska

3. The Tempest, William Shakespeare

4. Medea, Euripides

5. The House of Bernarda Alba, Federico Garcia Lorca

6. The Birthday Party, Harold Pinter

7. The Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin

8. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

9. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Acebe

10. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

11. Persepolis, Marjane Sartrapi

12. A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

13. Murals, artwork, sculpture by Banksy

14. Uzumaki (spiral), Ito Junji

15. Catskull, Myle Yan Tan

16. Photographs by Gordon Parks

17. Line Click, Li Haoling

18. The Host, Bong Joon-ho

19. Music videos by Yorushika

20. Speeches by Jacinda Arden

Individual Oral:

Learn to identify and phrase current global issues relevant to individual interests and passions. Critically deconstruct, analyse and compare chosen texts, including the use of language and literary elements. Individual consultations and practice sessions help to fine tune public speaking skills for coherence and impact.

Global Issues:

Students will gain an understanding and awareness of global issues beyond their application to individual oral assessment. Through a diverse range of scholarly articles, video interviews, and multi-modal texts, issues on the following topics are covered in depth and detail (as prescribed by the IB coursebook):

1. Femininity

2. Masculinity

3. Beauty

4. Racism

5. Colonialism

6. Immigration

7. War

8. Protest

9. Politics

Skills Your Child Will Gain

Critical Thinking:

The ability to assess, analyse, and synthesise information.

Effective Communication:

Mastering the art of conveying thoughts in both written and spoken forms.

Time Management:

Learn to organise thoughts quickly for academic and professional success.

Cultural Awareness:

Exposure to diverse narratives fosters empathy and perspective-taking.

The Academia Advantage

Technical expertise:

Academia’s IB curriculum is crafted by teachers with decades of experience and background in reading both English Language and Literature at university and post-graduate level.

Literary Immersion:

Students are immersed in a high-culture, high literary value environment that enables them to engage and produce a wide range of texts serving a variety of high-value functions. Texts are intentionally architected to expose students to a stream of global diverse texts with high sociocultural and corporate value, endowing them with real-world skills.

Self-Aware Performance:

A competitive training culture managed in a structured and psychologically safe manner under the auspices of a 360 coaching approach ensures that students are able to manage their own performance with self-awareness and understanding.

Critical Literacy:

Students are well-equipped to successfully critically analyse texts, including their inferred meanings, textual effects and use of language at the highest examination levels.

Metacognition:

Students possess awareness of texts, their abilities, and learning objectives in various objectives, endowed with the skills and strategies to allocate their time, energy and resources efficiently throughout the year.

Optimised Flow:

Students successfully enter psychologically optimised flow states at peak performance, enjoying high-functioning mental states in all conditions.

Conclusion

At Academia, our IB curriculum is designed to be a transformative two-year journey. In Year 1, we establish the foundational skills crucial for analysing the diversity of examinable text types, and cover all global issues as laid out in the IB coursebook. As students transition to Year 2, the curriculum advances to further challenge their analytical and critical thinking skills, as well as fine-tune their writing skills under exam conditions. We increase the emphasis on independent textual analysis, rhetorical evaluation, and the application of these skills to real-world contexts, all while aligning with IB examination requirements. Our comprehensive approach ensures that students are well-equipped with a diverse skill set that serves them not just academically, but in the broader world as well.

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