{"id":15889,"date":"2026-03-04T10:05:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T01:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/?p=15889"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T02:04:41","slug":"how-to-study-for-paper-one-essays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2026\/03\/04\/how-to-study-for-paper-one-essays\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Study for Paper One Essays<\/br>Question Wheels and Concept-Die<\/font>"},"content":{"rendered":"

228. That’s how many different essay questions there are for Section C. Take the 38 topics in the four contexts and multiply that by 6 concepts. 228 is the answer. How can you prepare for that? Here’s one idea.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Paper 1 essays combine one topic with one concept. The IB has said only the “Area of study” (i.e. topic titles) can be used in formulating the question. That means a nice generic question template is: “In the context of (insert context), discuss the concept of (insert concept) in relation to (insert topic).<\/em><\/p>\n

Using this template will be enough to prepare for the real exam questions. This means we can combine a random question wheel spinner with a concept-die to create essay questions. Here’s how…<\/p>\n

The Concept-Die<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First we need a way of choosing the concept. There are six concepts and dice have six sides – how convenient. If you make a paper die like the one below you can roll this to see which concept gets inserted into the question. (Read more here)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Download the template to make this die HERE<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

An alternative option is to find a wooden block and write the six concepts on the sides. This would be good for teachers to have as class sets because they’ll last longer.<\/p>\n

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You can use any wooden block to make a concept-die. (Image: ChatGPT). An entrepreneurial student could make some of these as merch to sell \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

Alternative – use this online wheel spinner to generate the concept (link<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Question Wheel Spinner<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Now you need the topics. Scroll down and you’ll find a Question Wheel with all topics for each context. Simply roll the die and then spin the wheel to see which topic you need to write about. For example, the wheel below has landed on “Cultural differences in one mental health disorder.” We now combine this with a concept from the die and we have an essay question.<\/p>\n