IB History Historical Investigation: The IA for 2028

By Michael Thompson · Education Specialist; 10 years teaching the IB at Bromsgrove School · Published 4 October 2026 · Updated 6 October 2026

The IB history historical investigation is the internally assessed component of the Diploma Programme history course, worth 24 marks and accounting for 30% of the final grade at SL and 20% at HL. For students beginning the course in August 2026 and sitting first assessments in May 2028, the IA has been restructured: the reflection section is gone, a maximum of seven sources applies, and there is greater emphasis on explaining how your inquiry question developed and why you selected each source. The new IA has three sections - historical inquiry question, sources and perspectives, and synthesis and evaluation - each assessed on distinct historical inquiry skills. This guide explains what each section asks of you, how to plan your investigation, and what has changed from the current course.

Key Takeaways

In This Article

  1. What the IB History Historical Investigation Is
  2. Note for Students Finishing in 2027
  3. The Three Sections of the Historical Investigation
  4. Developing Your IB History Investigation Research Question
  5. Choosing and Justifying Your Sources
  6. Planning Timeline and Self-Check Lists
  7. What Has Changed from the Current IA
  8. What to Do Next

1. What the IB History Historical Investigation Is

The IB History historical investigation is a piece of independent historical research chosen by the student, internally assessed by the teacher, and externally moderated by the IB. It is worth 24 marks and carries significant assessment weight: 30% of the final grade at SL and 20% at HL. Both SL and HL students are allocated 20 hours of teaching time to complete it, out of total course hours of 150 (SL) and 240 (HL).

Which cohort does this guide cover? The restructured IA described throughout this article applies to students first taught from August 2026 and sitting first assessments in May 2028. If you are sitting May or November 2027, you are on the current course, which still includes the reflection section. Section 2 of this guide covers that cohort separately.

For students on the new course, the IB has removed the reflection section and restructured the IA into three sections:

The new IA places greater emphasis on explaining how the inquiry question developed and why particular sources were selected, with a maximum of seven sources permitted.

The historical investigation is one of four inquiry contexts that make up the course structure. The IB History subject brief names these as the focused study, thematic study, regional study, and historical investigation. The IB's updates page uses different names for the first three: paired case studies, global themes, and regional in-depth topics. All four components are tied to four specified historical concepts: cause and consequence, continuity and change, perspectives, and significance.

One non-obvious point worth knowing early: because the IA is externally moderated rather than externally marked, your teacher's assessment is the primary judgement, but the IB moderates a sample of the school's work and can adjust the school's marks as a result. A strong investigation needs to be legible to a moderator who has no knowledge of your school or your teacher's conversations with you, which makes clear written explanation of your question and source choices more important than it might initially appear.

2. Note for Students Finishing in 2027

If you are sitting your IB History exams in May or November 2027, you are on the current (outgoing) course. That course includes a reflection section in the IA - a requirement that has been removed entirely for the 2028 course onwards, per the IB's history updates page.

Two other features described throughout this article are exclusive to the 2028 course: the seven-source cap on the historical investigation, and the increased emphasis on explaining how the inquiry question developed and why each source was selected. The outgoing course has different expectations on both points.

One practical point worth flagging: which course you follow depends on your examination session, not on which guide is newest. If you are sitting in 2027, the current guide applies even though the new one has been published. If there is any doubt about which version your school is using, ask your teacher directly - that conversation is worth having before you write a single word of your IA.

This article covers the 2028 course throughout. Students finishing in 2027 should cross-reference their own subject guide rather than rely on the sections that follow.

3. The Three Sections of the Historical Investigation

The IB History historical investigation for first assessment 2028 has three sections. The reflection section from the previous course has been removed. What remains is leaner and more explicitly focused on historical thinking: formulating a question, selecting and justifying sources, and building an argued response.

Full criterion names and mark allocations per section are in the subject guide on the IB Programme Resource Centre (PRC), which your teacher can access through the school's IB account.

Section 1 - Historical inquiry question

This section is assessed on how well you formulate an appropriate inquiry question. A strong question is focused, genuinely debatable, and answerable using credible sources.

Analytical framings tend to work better than descriptive ones. Compare these two shapes (written for this guide, not taken from IB material):

Phrasings such as "to what extent," "how significant," and "which factor was more important" signal to your marker that your question demands evaluation, not summary.

Crucially, the new course places greater emphasis on explaining how the inquiry question developed. The public material does not say exactly how this is marked, but you should expect to show the thinking behind the question, not just present it finished. Being able to explain how and why you refined it is part of what makes the question strong.

The four specified historical concepts running through the course (cause and consequence, continuity and change, perspectives, and significance) are a practical frame here. A question built around one of them tends to produce naturally analytical rather than narrative answers.

Section 2 - Sources and perspectives

This section is assessed on your analysis of chosen sources. A maximum of seven sources applies. That cap matters: selecting fewer, better-justified sources is the point. Padding to seven does not help.

For each source, you must explain why it was chosen and what perspective it provides. The updated course places greater emphasis on explaining your source selection, not simply describing what the sources say. The distinction is worth sitting with: a source that confirms your conclusion and a source that complicates it are both useful, but the second often does more analytical work.

The concept of perspectives (one of the four specified concepts) is directly relevant here. A set of sources that all share the same political, national, or temporal perspective will limit what Section 3 can do.

Section 3 - Synthesis and evaluation

This section is assessed on synthesising evidence from your sources to produce a response to the inquiry question. This is where the argument is built. The perspectives identified in Section 2 become the raw material for a defended conclusion.

A common structural mistake is treating Section 3 as a second round of source-by-source analysis. By this point, each source has been analysed in Section 2. Section 3 asks you to synthesise and evaluate them together: what they collectively tell you, how far they agree, how much weight each can bear, and what conclusion that evidence supports.

The practical takeaway: plan Section 3 before you finalise your source selection. If your question and sources do not yet point toward a defensible answer, that is a sign to revise the question, not push on to the write-up.

4. Developing Your IB History Investigation Research Question

The inquiry question is the structural core of the whole investigation. A poorly scoped question creates problems that compound through every subsequent section, so getting it right early is worth genuine effort.

What makes a question strong

A strong IB history investigation research question has four identifiable qualities:

Framings that weaken a question

Avoid opening with 'What happened during...?', 'How did X occur?', or 'What were the events of...?' These framings invite narration. A question that can be answered by retelling events in order will not satisfy the synthesis and evaluation section, whatever the content.

How question development is now assessed

The 2028 subject brief confirms that formulating an appropriate inquiry question is explicitly assessed, with greater emphasis on students explaining how their question developed. That means the refinements matter: document the sources that shifted your thinking, note why you narrowed from a broader topic, and be specific about what you changed and why.

Topic choice

The historical investigation is a free choice. It does not need to connect to your focused study, thematic study, or regional study, though those topics can be a useful starting point. Within the rules in the subject guide, which your teacher will confirm, any period or region you can genuinely research is open to you.

Practical step: Write two or three candidate questions at different levels of scope, then test each one against the four tests above. The question that survives all four tests is the one worth developing.

5. Choosing and Justifying Your Sources

The new IB History historical investigation caps sources at seven. That number is a deliberate design constraint, not a generous allowance. Treat it as a forcing function: if you are considering an eighth source, you have either not focused your inquiry question tightly enough or you are selecting for coverage rather than argument.

Each source earns its place by doing specific analytical work. When you write up Section 2, the IB's emphasis is on explaining why you chose a source, not merely summarising what it contains. A government memorandum matters because it reflects official justification at a particular moment; a historian's revisionist account matters because it challenges that justification from a distance of decades. Those are different analytical functions, and your selection should make that visible.

Where your question allows it, balance primary and secondary material. Primary sources such as contemporary speeches, official records, photographs, and diplomatic correspondence give you direct access to perspectives from the period. Secondary sources such as scholarly histories and peer-reviewed articles show you how historians have interpreted and contested those perspectives. Neither category is inherently stronger; the balance depends on what your inquiry question actually requires.

A note on OPCVL: per Pearson's summary of the new course, the OPCVL question has been removed from Paper 1 formal assessment. How source evaluation is handled within the IA itself is governed by the subject guide and the IB Programme Resource Centre materials. Ask your teacher how the subject guide wants source evaluation handled in Section 2 before you write anything up.

Source selection checklist (written for this guide):

If a source fails any of the first three tests, cut it or swap it for one that does more work.

6. Planning Timeline and Self-Check Lists

These timelines are written for this guide. Your school's internal deadlines will almost certainly fall earlier than any IB deadline, so treat the week counts below as a relative sequence, not fixed calendar dates. Confirm your supervisor's submission windows at the start of the process.

Planning timeline

WeeksTask
1-2Explore a broad topic area and narrow it to a focused, debatable question. Record how the question changed as you researched - the new IA puts greater emphasis on explaining how the inquiry question developed, so this thinking is evidence, not just preparation.
3-5Identify and gather sources. Select a maximum of seven and make notes justifying each choice: what it offers, why it is relevant, what perspective it carries.
6-8Draft Section 2. Analyse each source's contribution and the perspective it provides, not just what it says.
9-11Draft Section 3. Build your argument from the perspectives identified in Section 2 and arrive at a defended conclusion.
12-14Revise all three sections. Confirm Section 1 explains your question's development clearly, then submit a draft to your teacher for formative feedback before final submission.

One non-obvious point: students often treat Weeks 1-2 as admin. They are not. The IB's emphasis on explaining how the inquiry question developed means a question arrived at through visible, documented thinking is stronger than an identical question that appeared from nowhere. Keep a short log.

Self-check lists

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

7. What Has Changed from the Current IA

This section is for students already familiar with the current IA who want to understand what the 2028 course changes. If you are sitting May or November 2027, you follow the current course rules, including the reflection section that is no longer part of the new design.

The reflection section is gone. The current IA includes a dedicated reflection section; the new course removes it entirely. The three remaining sections are historical inquiry question, sources and perspectives, and synthesis and evaluation.

A seven-source cap is now explicit. The new IA limits students to a maximum of seven sources. This is a structural constraint, not a stylistic suggestion. More sources do not earn more marks, and exceeding the cap creates an immediate compliance problem.

Process gets more weight. The IB says the new IA places greater emphasis on explaining how your inquiry question developed and why you selected each source. The current course already asks you to explain why your sources are relevant, but under the new design that reasoning carries more weight and should be visible throughout, particularly in sections one and two.

The counter-intuitive consequence: a tightly argued investigation using fewer sources, where every choice is justified, will outperform a wider-ranging one where source selection looks automatic.

8. What to Do Next

One detail many students miss: which IA structure applies to you is set by your examination session. May or November 2027 means the current course with its reflection section; May 2028 onwards means the new three-section structure.

This week, pull up the IB History subject brief for first assessment 2028 and take it to your teacher. Ask them directly: which examination session am I entered for, and does my IA need a reflection section? If you are sitting in 2027, you are on the current course. If you are sitting in May 2028 or later, the three-section structure described in this guide applies to you.

Check the subject brief now, then confirm your guide version with your teacher before your school sets its first IA checkpoint deadline.

FAQ

How does the IB history historical investigation work?

The IA is a three-section historical investigation - historical inquiry question, sources and perspectives, and synthesis and evaluation - worth 24 marks, internally assessed by the teacher, and externally moderated by the IB, with 20 hours of allocated teaching time.

Will the IB history historical investigation change for 2028?

Yes: for first assessments in May 2028, the reflection section has been removed, a maximum of seven sources applies, and greater emphasis is placed on explaining how the inquiry question developed and why sources were chosen.

Are IB history historical investigations hard?

The IA rewards sustained focus on a single, well-framed question rather than broad knowledge; the main difficulty is narrowing a topic to a genuinely debatable, researchable inquiry question and selecting sources that each offer a distinct perspective.

What is the word count for the IB history internal assessment?

The public IB subject brief does not state a word limit for the historical investigation; the full word count rule is in the subject guide available to registered schools on the IB Programme Resource Centre.

How many sources can you use in the IB history IA?

For students on the new course (first assessment May 2028), the IA allows a maximum of seven sources; students should select each source because it offers a specific, justified perspective on their inquiry question.

Does the IB history internal assessment still include a reflection section?

Not for students on the 2028 course: the reflection section has been removed; students sitting May or November 2027 are on the current course, which still includes a reflection section.

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