100+ Free IB English Lit HL Practice Questions

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Which psychoanalytic concept did Freud describe as the unsettling effect when something familiar returns in a strange form?

The sublime

The mirror stage

The death drive

The uncanny (das Unheimliche)

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IB Chemistry SL

Practice Questions100 questions

2026 Statistics

Key Facts: IB English Lit HL Exam

1-7

IB grading scale (4 typically a pass)

IBO Assessment principles

20%

HL Essay weighting

IB Literature subject brief

13 works

Literary works studied at HL

IB Literature subject guide

240 hours

Recommended teaching time at HL

IB Diploma Programme

100

Free practice questions here

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IB Lit HL (new guide first exams 2026) is assessed via Paper 1 guided literary analysis on TWO passages (35%), Paper 2 comparative essay (25%), HL Essay 1200-1500 words (20%), and the Individual Oral (20%). HL students study 13 literary works across Readers/Writers/Texts, Time and Space, and Intertextuality. Grades 1-7.

Sample IB English Lit HL Practice Questions

Try these sample questions to test your IB English Lit HL exam readiness. Each question includes a detailed explanation. Start the interactive quiz above for the full 100+ question experience with AI tutoring.

1In Russian Formalism, what does Viktor Shklovsky call the technique by which art makes the familiar strange to renew perception?

A.Defamiliarisation (ostranenie)

B.Catharsis

C.Mimesis

D.Hegemony

Explanation: Shklovsky's 1917 essay 'Art as Technique' argues that the function of art is to make the familiar strange — defamiliarisation, or ostranenie — slowing perception and renewing experience.

2Which critical approach prioritises the autonomous text and the close reading of paradox, irony and ambiguity?

A.New Criticism

B.New Historicism

C.Reader-response

D.Deconstruction

Explanation: New Criticism, led by Brooks, Wimsatt and Ransom, treated the literary text as a self-sufficient verbal artefact whose meaning is unlocked through close reading of paradox, tension and irony, dismissing the intentional and affective fallacies.

3In Saussurean structuralism, what is the relationship between signifier and signified within the linguistic sign?

A.Arbitrary

B.Iconic

C.Natural

D.Necessary

Explanation: Saussure argued in his Course in General Linguistics that the linguistic sign joins a sound-image (signifier) to a concept (signified) and that this bond is arbitrary — no inherent reason links the word 'tree' to the concept of a tree.

4Which pair of terms does Saussure use to distinguish the abstract language system from individual speech acts?

A.Langue and parole

B.Diachronic and synchronic

C.Syntagm and paradigm

D.Signifier and signified

Explanation: Saussure separates langue — the shared, abstract system of language — from parole, the individual instances of speech or writing that draw on that system. Linguistics, he argued, should study langue.

5Which philosopher coined the term 'deconstruction' and is associated with destabilising binary oppositions in texts?

A.Jacques Derrida

B.Michel Foucault

C.Roland Barthes

D.Louis Althusser

Explanation: Derrida's Of Grammatology (1967) introduced deconstruction, a reading practice that exposes how the hierarchical binaries structuring Western thought (speech/writing, presence/absence) collapse under close textual pressure.

6Which French feminist coined the term ecriture feminine to describe a writing rooted in the female body?

A.Helene Cixous

B.Simone de Beauvoir

C.Mary Wollstonecraft

D.Elaine Showalter

Explanation: In 'The Laugh of the Medusa' (1975), Helene Cixous called for ecriture feminine, a writing that breaks phallogocentric language and inscribes the female body and unconscious onto the page.

7What term did Elaine Showalter coin for the critical study of women as writers?

A.Gynocriticism

B.Ecriture feminine

C.Phallogocentrism

D.Performativity

Explanation: In 'Towards a Feminist Poetics' (1979), Showalter named 'gynocriticism' as the study of women as producers of textual meaning — their history, themes, genres and structures — distinct from feminist critique of male texts.

8In Marxist literary theory, which pair of terms describes the economic foundation and the cultural forms (including literature) that rise from it?

A.Base and superstructure

B.Hegemony and ideology

C.Use-value and exchange-value

D.Bourgeoisie and proletariat

Explanation: Marx's base/superstructure model holds that the economic base — modes and relations of production — conditions the superstructure of law, politics, religion and art. Marxist critics such as Eagleton read literature as superstructural.

9Which Marxist critic, author of Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983), made critical theory accessible to a generation of students?

A.Terry Eagleton

B.Raymond Williams

C.Fredric Jameson

D.Pierre Macherey

Explanation: Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983) became the most widely taught survey of twentieth-century criticism and articulated his own Marxist position that all reading is political.

10Whose 1978 book Orientalism is foundational to post-colonial criticism?

A.Edward Said

B.Homi Bhabha

C.Gayatri Spivak

D.Frantz Fanon

Explanation: Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) argues that Western scholarship constructed 'the Orient' as an exotic, irrational Other to justify imperial domination, founding the field of post-colonial studies.

About the IB English Lit HL Exam

IB Language A: Literature HL is a Group 1 Diploma Programme course that develops advanced critical and analytical engagement with literary texts. HL students study 13 literary works (4 in translation, 5 originally in English, 4 free choice) across the three areas of exploration. Assessment combines two external papers, an externally assessed HL Essay of 1200-1500 words, and an internally assessed Individual Oral exploring a global issue.

Questions

100 scored questions

Time Limit

Paper 1: 2h 15min; Paper 2: 1h 45min; HL Essay coursework; IO: 15 minutes

Passing Score

Grade 4 is widely treated as a pass; minimum 24 total points required for the IB Diploma

Exam Fee

Subject fee bundled into IB Diploma registration (typically USD 119 per subject plus USD 172 registration) (International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO))

IB English Lit HL Exam Content Outline

~30%

Literary Techniques and Critical Theory

Figurative devices and prosody plus HL-level theoretical frameworks: Russian Formalism, New Criticism, structuralism, deconstruction, feminist, Marxist, post-colonial, psychoanalytic, reader-response, New Historicism, eco-criticism, and queer theory.

~25%

Genre and Form (Sophisticated Analysis)

Sonnet sequences, metaphysical conceits, Romantic ode, epic, classical to modern tragedy, comedy of manners, closet drama, pastoral and gothic modes, bildungsroman, kunstlerroman, epistolary, postmodern fragmented narrative, and magical realism.

~30%

Studied Works

Major HL works commonly studied: Shakespeare's tragedies, Dante, Milton, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Ibsen, Beckett, Joyce, Woolf, Eliot, Camus, Sartre, Achebe, Morrison, Garcia Marquez, Atwood, Coetzee, Ishiguro, Carson, Plath, Hughes, Heaney, Darwish, Soyinka, Mishima, and Pinter.

~15%

Critical Writing Technique at HL

Sustained argument across long essays, sophisticated thesis construction, integration of multiple theoretical frameworks, comparative argument for Paper 2, focused HL Essay inquiry, and IB criteria A understanding, B analysis, C focus, D language.

How to Pass the IB English Lit HL Exam

What You Need to Know

Passing score: Grade 4 is widely treated as a pass; minimum 24 total points required for the IB Diploma
Exam length: 100 questions
Time limit: Paper 1: 2h 15min; Paper 2: 1h 45min; HL Essay coursework; IO: 15 minutes
Exam fee: Subject fee bundled into IB Diploma registration (typically USD 119 per subject plus USD 172 registration)

Keys to Passing

Complete 500+ practice questions
Score 80%+ consistently before scheduling
Focus on highest-weighted sections
Use our AI tutor for tough concepts

IB English Lit HL Study Tips from Top Performers

1Practise unseen analysis on prose AND poetry — at HL you must write commentaries on BOTH Paper 1 passages, so build pacing for ~67 minutes per passage

2Build a quotation bank for each of your 13 works organised by theme, character, technique, and theoretical lens to power Paper 2 comparisons

3Draft the HL Essay early; the strongest essays sustain a single focused line of inquiry rather than surveying a whole work

4Practise applying at least two critical frameworks (e.g. feminist + post-colonial) to one work so you can deploy theory with control

5Memorise IB assessment criteria A-D and self-mark practice essays against the official HL descriptors

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between IB Literature SL and HL?

SL students study 9 literary works in 150 teaching hours; HL students study 13 works in 240 hours and complete an additional HL Essay of 1,200-1,500 words worth 20%. HL Paper 1 also requires analyses of BOTH unseen passages rather than just one.

How is IB Literature HL assessed?

Assessment is Paper 1 guided literary analysis (35%), Paper 2 comparative essay (25%), HL Essay 1200-1500 words (20%), and the internally assessed Individual Oral (20%). All grades are reported on the IB 1-7 scale.

How many works does an HL Literature student study?

HL students study 13 literary works: at least 4 in translation, at least 5 originally written in the language of study (English), and up to 4 free-choice works. Works must span at least three literary forms, three periods, and three continents.

What is the HL Essay?

The HL Essay is a 1,200-1,500 word formal essay developed from a student-chosen line of inquiry into one literary work or body of work studied. It is externally assessed and accounts for 20% of the HL grade.

What are the three areas of exploration?

Readers, Writers and Texts focuses on text-level analysis and authorial craft. Time and Space examines context and culture. Intertextuality: Connecting Texts explores conventions and connections across literary works.

100+ Free IB English Lit HL Practice Questions

IB Language A: Literature HL