TOK May 2028 Prescribed Titles: When and How to Prepare

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

The TOK May 2028 prescribed titles have not been published. The IB has released each May session's prescribed titles in the September of the preceding year - so the six titles for May 2028 are expected in September 2027, and this page will be updated when they arrive. If you started the IB Diploma Programme in autumn 2026 and sit exams in May 2028, that means you have roughly a year before you see your actual titles. The good news is that the year before titles drop is exactly when the most useful preparation happens: learning how titles are built, practising on earlier ones, and building a bank of real-world examples across the areas of knowledge.

Key Takeaways

• Titles not yet released: The TOK May 2028 prescribed titles are expected in September 2027; do not trust any source that claims to show them now.
• Essay is externally marked and worth two thirds: The 1,600-word TOK essay is marked by IB examiners and accounts for two thirds of your TOK grade; the exhibition accounts for the remaining third.
• TOK is compulsory: Every IB Diploma Programme student must complete TOK; combined with the extended essay, it contributes up to three bonus diploma points.
• Titles follow recognisable shapes: The IB's specimen titles fall into recurring patterns - both areas of knowledge fixed, one fixed and one open, or a quotation with both open - which you can study now, before the real titles appear.
• The year before matters: Reading past titles, building example banks, and drafting claim-counterclaim skeletons on earlier titles is the most effective preparation you can do before September 2027.
• Ask your school for deadlines: The IB communicates submission dates to schools, which then set their own internal deadlines; check with your TOK teacher for the dates that apply to you.

In This Article

1. What are TOK prescribed titles and why do they matter?
2. When will the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles be released?
3. How the IB builds TOK essay knowledge questions: title shapes explained
4. TOK assessment objectives: what examiners are looking for
5. TOK exhibition and essay: understanding both components together
6. TOK knowledge claims and knowledge questions: the building blocks of any title
7. How to prepare before the September 2027 title release: a step-by-step plan
8. Deadlines and submission: what you need to know
9. What to do next

1. What are TOK prescribed titles and why do they matter?

The TOK May 2028 prescribed titles have not been published; they are expected in September 2027 (see the next section) and will be added here when the IB releases them.

A prescribed title is one of six prompts that the IB issues for each examination session. You choose one and write an essay of up to 1,600 words on it. That essay is marked externally by IB examiners and is worth two thirds of your TOK grade. The other third comes from the exhibition, in which you select three objects and write a commentary on each; your teacher assesses it internally and the IB moderates it externally.

TOK is compulsory for every Diploma Programme student. The grade it produces does not sit in isolation: the IB combines your TOK grade with your extended essay grade for up to three additional diploma points.

Because the essay accounts for the larger share of the TOK grade, the title you select and the knowledge question you build from it have real weight on your final diploma score. Understanding how titles are constructed before September 2027 is the most useful thing you can do right now.

2. When will the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles be released?

The May 2028 TOK prescribed titles have not been published at the time of writing. The IB has released each May session's prescribed titles in the September of the preceding year: the May 2027 titles came out in September 2026, so the May 2028 titles are expected in September 2027. This page will be updated with all six titles once the IB releases them.

Any site that claims to show the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles right now is not a reliable source. The IB does not pre-publish titles publicly, and no legitimate preview exists. Never use a guessed, estimated or paraphrased title as the basis for your essay planning.

Who this affects directly: if you started the Diploma Programme in autumn 2026 and sit your exams in May 2028, the TOK essay falls in your second DP year. That means you have the whole of year one, before September 2027, to build the skills that make choosing and answering a title much more straightforward. That preparation window is what this guide is built around.

3. How the IB builds TOK essay knowledge questions: title shapes explained

Prescribed titles are not random. The IB's own specimen titles follow a small number of recognisable structures. Spotting those structures on specimen titles now means you will not waste the first week after the May 2028 titles appear working out what the question is actually asking.

The TOK subject brief lists six specimen titles. They fall into three shapes.

Shape 1: both areas of knowledge (AOKs) fixed

The title names the AOKs you must use. Your job is to build an argument within those constraints, not to choose your own territory.

• 'Is the division of the natural sciences and mathematics into separate areas of knowledge artificial?'
• 'Are there fewer ethical constraints on the pursuit of knowledge in the arts than in the human sciences?'
• 'When historians and natural scientists say that they have explained something, are they using the word "explain" in the same way?'

Three of the six specimen titles work this way. A fixed pair can feel restrictive, but it removes a major decision and with it the risk of spending your 1,600 words on two weakly chosen fields.

Shape 2: one AOK fixed, one yours to choose

The title names one AOK and leaves the second to you. That choice is itself a decision you need to justify as part of the argument.

• 'How important are the opinions of experts in the search for knowledge? Answer with reference to the arts and one other area of knowledge.'
• 'How do our expectations impact our interpretations? Discuss with reference to history and one other area of knowledge.'

Pick the second AOK for the strength of your examples, not for its apparent fit with the first; the pairing you choose is itself a claim that needs defending.

Shape 3: a quotation, with both AOKs left open

A named source provides a claim, and the title leaves both AOKs to you, so you have to select two areas and justify the selection as well as assess the claim.

• 'To what extent do you agree with the claim that "knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice" (Anton Chekhov)? Answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.'

With quotation titles, the first move is interrogating the quote itself before you build a position. What does "value" mean? Value to whom? Students who skip straight to agreeing or disagreeing tend to produce thin essays because they never question the terms embedded in the claim.

The practical takeaway: before the September 2027 title release, practise identifying which shape any given title belongs to and write out the constraint it imposes. That habit transfers directly to whichever titles the IB publishes for May 2028.

4. TOK assessment objectives: what examiners are looking for

The IB TOK subject brief lists seven assessment objectives. Every title you write on, including whatever form the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles take, is assessed with these in mind, and the TOK essay criteria are built on them. Understanding them before you see the titles tells you what the essay must do.

• Critical examination of knowledge questions. Don't describe a question - probe it. If a title asks whether doubt is central to knowledge, ask first what "central" could mean, and whether the claim holds differently in, say, mathematics versus history. Surface the assumption before you answer it.

• Linking knowledge questions to the world around us. Abstract arguments need a real-world anchor: a claim about the reliability of expert opinion means more when it refers to a concrete event, not "science in general".
• Linking knowledge questions to areas of knowledge. The second anchor is a named area of knowledge, so the argument shows how the question plays out in, say, the natural sciences rather than in knowledge at large.

• Relevant, clear and coherent arguments. Every paragraph should connect directly back to the title. An interesting digression that doesn't serve the central question works against this objective, however well written.

• Effective examples and evidence. One precise, specific example outweighs three vague ones. A well-chosen real-world case that you analyse in detail carries more weight than a list of passing references.

• Awareness and evaluation of different points of view. A counterclaim is not optional decoration - evaluating different points of view is one of the seven assessment objectives. Build it properly and show why it doesn't simply defeat your argument.

• Considering implications. End by asking: if your argument is correct, what follows? If it is wrong, what changes? This is where an essay moves from description to genuine philosophical weight.

5. TOK exhibition and essay: understanding both components together

TOK has two distinct components, and they are assessed and weighted differently.

The exhibition requires you to select three real-world objects and write a commentary connecting each one to a single IA prompt. Per the IB TOK subject brief, it is assessed by your teacher and externally moderated by the IB, and it counts for one third of your TOK grade.

The essay is up to 1,600 words, written on one of the six prescribed titles the IB issues for each examination session. It is marked by IB examiners and worth two thirds of your TOK grade.

The exhibition uses its own set of 35 IA prompts, which are entirely separate from the prescribed titles. You do not choose a prescribed title for the exhibition, and the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles have no bearing on it.

Many schools run the exhibition in the first year of the DP and the essay in the second; if yours does, that sequence is worth using deliberately. Choosing an object and explaining how it connects to a knowledge question is the same move you will need to make when constructing examples for your essay. Practising that connection early, with the lower-stakes exhibition, builds exactly the habit IB examiners reward in the written component.

6. TOK knowledge claims and knowledge questions: the building blocks of any title

Every prescribed title is built around a knowledge question: a contestable, open question about how knowledge works rather than about facts in the world. A knowledge question might ask whether shared assumptions between researchers strengthen or weaken knowledge, or whether experts deserve special authority in a given area. These questions have no single correct answer, which is exactly why they make good essay material.

A knowledge claim is different. It is a statement offered as true that can be examined and challenged. "Peer review makes scientific knowledge more reliable" is a knowledge claim. It has a direction, and it can be tested against examples, then countered.

Answering a prescribed title means making claims, examining them honestly, and then forming counterclaims that expose their limits.

Worked example, using one of the IB's specimen titles:

> Specimen title: "How important are the opinions of experts in the search for knowledge? Answer with reference to the arts and one other area of knowledge." (IB specimen title, TOK subject brief)

• Extracted knowledge question: Under what conditions does expert opinion improve the reliability of knowledge?
• Claim (natural sciences, as the "one other" area): In the natural sciences, peer-reviewed expert consensus narrows uncertainty and coordinates knowledge-building. A full essay would need a matching claim about the arts, which this title makes compulsory.
• Counterclaim: Expert consensus can entrench orthodoxy, slowing the revision of established frameworks.

Practising this extraction process on specimen and past titles now matters more than waiting for the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles. The skill being built is structural recognition, and it applies to whichever six titles the IB eventually issues.

7. How to prepare before the September 2027 title release: a step-by-step plan

The May 2028 prescribed titles are not expected until September 2027, which gives students who started the Diploma Programme in autumn 2026 roughly a full year to build the skills that make a title answerable. The risk of waiting is real: if you pick up the six titles cold, with no practice reading them, it is easy to choose the one that sounds most familiar rather than the one that suits your strongest examples.

Step 1 - Read the May 2027 titles as live practice

The May 2027 titles were released in September 2026, and our TOK May 2027 prescribed titles guide explains all six. Treat each of them as if it were your actual title. Practise identifying the title shape (fixed AOKs, open AOKs, quotation format), underlining the epistemic verb, and noting what a knowledge question extracted from it would look like. This is low-stakes repetition that makes September 2027 feel manageable rather than alarming.

Step 2 - Build an example bank per area of knowledge

Before you know which AOKs your title will require, collect two or three specific, real-world examples for each of the five areas of knowledge in the current TOK course: history, the human sciences, the natural sciences, the arts and mathematics. Specificity matters. "A physics experiment" is not an example. "The replication crisis in social psychology" is.

Step 3 - Draft a claim-counterclaim skeleton on a specimen title

Pick any specimen title from the IB TOK subject brief and write a short outline: one knowledge question, two claims, one counterclaim per claim, and a sentence on implications. The habit it builds transfers directly to whichever May 2028 title you eventually choose.

Step 4 - First week after September 2027 release

Read all six titles before touching a planning document. Underline key terms in each. Identify the title shape. Note which AOKs are fixed and which are free. Only then decide which title to answer. Rushing this choice is a common mistake.

8. Deadlines and submission: what you need to know

The IB sets a submission date for TOK components and communicates it to schools, which then set their own internal deadlines in line with it. Ask your TOK teacher or IB coordinator for the internal deadline that applies to your school - do not rely on any date you find online.

Internal school deadlines are typically earlier than the IB's own date, sometimes by several weeks. If you treat the IB's external date as your working deadline, you risk missing your school's actual cutoff.

On results, the IB releases May session diploma results from 12:00 GMT on 6 July, per the IB assessment FAQ. Results show subject grades, total points and the bonus points from TOK and the extended essay; component marks are not shown. The TOK grade combines with the extended essay grade to contribute up to three additional points to your diploma total, and TOK and EE grade boundaries explains how that matrix works.

9. What to do next

The most useful thing you can do before September 2027 costs nothing and takes about an hour. Open the May 2027 prescribed titles, pick one that interests you, and write a one-page claim-counterclaim skeleton: one claim per area of knowledge, one counterclaim per claim, and a note on the real-world example you would attach to each. That single exercise will show you more about how titles work than any amount of passive reading.

When you next speak to your TOK teacher, ask for your school's internal TOK submission deadline. Schools set their own dates ahead of the IB's window, and that internal date is the one that matters for you.

Bookmark this page. When the IB releases the May 2028 prescribed titles, expected in September 2027, it will be updated with all six.

FAQ

When will the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles be released?

The May 2028 prescribed titles are expected in September 2027; the IB follows a pattern of releasing May session titles in the September of the preceding year, as it did for the May 2027 session.

What are the TOK May 2028 prescribed titles?

The May 2028 prescribed titles have not been published at the time of writing; any source claiming to show them now is unreliable, and this page will be updated with the six official titles when the IB releases them, expected in September 2027.

How many prescribed titles does the IB issue for each TOK session?

The IB issues six prescribed titles for each examination session; students choose one and write a 1,600-word essay externally marked by IB examiners.

Is TOK compulsory for IB Diploma students?

Yes - TOK is mandatory for every IB Diploma Programme student; the TOK grade combines with the extended essay grade to contribute up to three bonus diploma points.

What is the difference between the TOK essay and the TOK exhibition?

The TOK essay is a 1,600-word externally marked piece worth two thirds of the TOK grade, while the exhibition requires three objects with commentaries, is internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IB, and is worth one third.

What should IB students do to prepare for the TOK essay before the titles are released?

Students can practise on the May 2027 titles, build a bank of real-world examples across each area of knowledge, and draft claim-counterclaim skeletons on specimen titles to develop the skills needed before September 2027.

References

• Theory of knowledge - International Baccalaureate - https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/dp-core/theory-of-knowledge/
• Diploma Programme Subject Brief - Theory of knowledge, first assessment 2022 (International Baccalaureate Organization) - https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/programmes/dp/pdfs/tok-sb-english.pdf
• Assessment FAQ - International Baccalaureate (getting results) - https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/assessment-and-exams/getting-results/assessment-faq/