Sample Questions from previous IB A1 SL exams.
Drama
Compare the means by which atmosphere is created in two or three works you have studied. In each case, discuss how the atmosphere presented contributes to your appreciation and understanding of the play as a whole.
Or
Through an analysis of some of the characters in two or three works you have studied, compare the ways in which the struggle between internal and external forces is presented.
Or
The final scene of a play can serve many purposes. Compare the ways playwrights in your study conclude their plays, showing how similar or different purposes are served, such as the satisfaction of the audience.
Or
Important characters are usually multi-dimensional. Discuss to what extent this statement is true of important characters in plays you have studied and comment on the techniques of characterization used by the playwrights.
Novel/Short story
Compare and contrast the use made of dreams, hopes or aspirations in two or three novels you have studied.
Or
Compare the ways in which writers of two or three novels you have studied have used moral issues to develop their works.
Or
“Setting is a powerful vehicle of thematic concerns; in fact, it is one of the most powerful.”
How far has setting served to carry or underscore thematic concerns in fiction you have studied.
Or
Conversations are one of the tools most commonly used by writers of fiction to develop their characters. Compare how writers in your study of novels or short stories have employed particular conversations as a means of characterization.
General Questions on Literature
1) Explore the ways in which “chance” or “coincidence” is used in works of literature you’ve studied.
2) In what ways have writers shown that things are not always what they seem? Illustrate with reference to works of lit. you’ve studied.
3) Compare/contrast the treatment of different, new or alien cultures in works of literature you’ve studied.
4) How successfully have writers been able to portray the opposite sex?
5) Evil not only fascinates people in general, but writers as well. In what ways and with what effects has “evil” been treated by writers you have studied?
6) “It is possible for a good writer to write about commonplace things with immense, even startling power.”
How far and in what ways have writers in your study persuaded you to agree with this view?