extended essay reflections on planning and progress form

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EE Tips for Completing the Reflections (RPPF Form)

Travis Dixon November 26, 2020 Extended Essay

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Giving students an empty space and saying, “reflect” can be really challenging. This is why I like to give a few possible ideas of what they could write about. These are explained below. 

The RPPF (Reflections on Planning and Progress Form) is where EE students write their three reflections: First, Interim and Final (after the viva voce). The maximum word count for all three reflections combined is 500 words and should be recorded on the most recent version of the RPPF Form.

Your school’s IB Coordinator can help you with the RPPF if you need it.

The RPPF is a chance for EE students to show one or more of the following:

• Intellectual, creative, personal, and/or developmental growth,
• How actively engaged they are in the learning process ,
• What they have learned about how to learn and research and/or how they have grown as a learner,
• critical thinking,
• decision-making,
• general research,
• referencing and citations,
• specific research methodology,
• time management.
• EE Supervisor Tips: The Viva Voce
• How to write the perfect EE question
• 3 Examples of how to write excellent EE questions

The following suggestions have been created using information from the EE guide (pg. 55) to help students write their reflections.

First Reflection

This should be completed after your initial reflection session with your supervisor. 

Possible topics to discuss in this section of the RPPF include (but are not limited to) your thoughts on:

• Your initial topic exploration,
• The topic you have chosen and why,
• Possible sources and methods,
• What you might hope to learn or achieve from studying this topic,
• Possible ideas of how you might answer your question and/or research the answer,
• Questions or challenges faced so far,
• Anything else you feel could show your engagement, learning, growth or initiative.

Remember that the total word count for all three reflections is 500 words. This means about 140-170 words is perfect for each reflection.

Interim Reflection

This should be completed after your interim reflection session with your supervisor. 

• The research so far, including reactions to specific things you’ve learned or discovered,
• How your research (including your research question) changed or developed,
• Things you’ve learned about the topic and/or research process,
• Progress in the timeline for completing the essay,
• Possible outlines of arguments being made in response to your RQ,
• Challenges encountered and strategies used to overcome them,

Final Reflection

This should be completed after your viva voce (final) reflection session with your supervisor. 

• The personal significance of the work to you as a student,
• What you have learned about the topic,
• What you have learned about learning and/or how you have “grown” as a learner,
• New questions you have about your topic,

If you have questions post them to our Facebook group for IB Psych Students or our Facebook group for IB Psych Teachers .

Travis Dixon is an IB Psychology teacher, author, workshop leader, examiner and IA moderator.

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Extended Essay Support Site

All Extended Essays are submitted with a Reflections on Planning and Progress Form (RPPF), which consists of three boxes: the first reflection, the interim reflection and the viva voce or final reflection. The reflections are assessed on Criterion E: Engagement for 6 out of the 34 marks that are available for the EE. The cumulative word limit for these three boxes is 500 words. Supervisor comments must also be supplied on this form. You can download the English version of the form here:

Frequently asked questions

1. can candidates edit previous entries before submitting the rppf, 2. can a supervisor ’s comments hurt the candidate’s marks for criterion e, 3. should a new rppf be started, if a candidate changes the research question , 4. which one is read by examiners first: the essay or the rppf, 5. does the quality of the essay influence the marks for the rppf and criterion e, 6. should the rppf be written in the same language as the essay, 7. how should the 500 words be distributed across the 3 boxes, 8. when should students complete the form, 9. where do candidates sign the form.

Is it even possible to assess someone on their ability to reflect? Yes and no. Criterion E measures student's ability to articulate their decision making process and their ability to convince the examiner that they are engaged with the topic and research. Notice the phrases 'ability to articulate' and 'ability to convince.' Mastering useful RPPF phrases may help you score well on Criterion E. Reflective thinking is a self-management skill, one of the IB's Approaches to Learning , which will help you in life in general.

Extended Essay: Reflecting on the process

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Guidelines for completing the Reflections on Planning and Progress form

• The first formal reflection session should focus on your initial ideas and how you plan to undertake your research;
• the interim reflection sess ion is once a significant amount of your research has been completed; 
• and the final session will be in the form of a viva voce once you have completed and handed in your EE.

This document acts as a record in supporting the authenticity of your work.

A note for students writing in Chinese, Korean and Japanese:

Students writing their extended essay in Japanese, Korean or Chinese should use the following  conversions.

• Japanese: 1 word = approximately 2 Japanese characters 

• Korean: 1 word = 1 word

• Chinese: 1 word = approximately 1.2 Chinese characters

When typing in Chinese, Korean or Japanese word processing software is likely to include the number of  characters and punctuation in the word count. Students are asked to not include punctuation in the word  count for assessed work. The word count should only take into account the number of characters typed.

First and interim reflection sessions

Reflecting throughout the research process.

The following table identifies three stages in the review process and the kinds of questions you can usefully consider at each. It also suggests what evidence you might use in your reflection sessions to demonstrate your progress and learning.

Modified from the West Sound Academy LibGuide for the Extended Essay reflection session.

IB Documents

• RRPF online FOR REFERENCE ONLY--ALL REFLECTIONS MUST BE ENTERED INTO THE "PLANNING AND PROGRESS FORM" TAB ON MANAGEBAC This link takes you to the online, pdf version of the Reflections on Planning and Progress form.
• RRPF in other languages If you have completed your EE in Chinese or Korean, you can download the form in those languages here for your reference. Your reflections must be written in the language of the EE. However, you do not complete your reflection on this form. You must copy and paste your reflections into the "Planning and Progress Form" tab on Managebac.
• Video: Reflection Process (initial and interim) This is a 7-minute video giving an overview of the reflection process at the International School of Dusseldorf.
• Video: The Viva Voce This is another sample from The International School of Dusseldorf, outlining and giving examples of the viva voce in practice.
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• Last Updated: Dec 12, 2024 8:40 AM
• URL: https://isumongolia.libguides.com/ee

What Is EE RPPF and How to Write It?

Hey there, fellow IB students! As someone who has written many IB essays and gained valuable experience, I’m thrilled to offer some tips for mastering the Extended Essay Reflections on Planning and Progress Form (EE RPPF). From my perspective, grasping the EE RPPF involves capturing the true essence of your research.

What Exactly Is the EE RPPF?

It’s a document that carefully keeps track of your ideas, plans, and research progress as you work on your Extended Essay. This form is not just some tedious administrative task. It plays a super important role in the IB evaluation process. Based on the general IB criteria, it’s all about showing off how engaged and reflective you are during the research process in one of the six EE groups .

The EE RPPF, or the Reflections on Planning and Progress Form, is a crucial part of your essay. It gives valuable insights to your examiners about your growth as a thinker and researcher throughout the writing process. Now’s your chance to share the story of your research — the obstacles you faced, the adjustments you made, and the valuable lessons you gained.

Based on my extensive experience guiding IB students, I can confidently say that a thorough and well-documented RPPF may have a considerable impact on the final assessment of your Extended Essay. It enables examiners to gain insight in addition to the written essay and grasp the extent of your involvement with your topic. The form asks you to think about three important parts of your essay process: the beginning when you plan, the middle when you do research, and the end when you reflect on what you’ve done.

Throughout these stages, you must offer well-considered perspectives that showcase your individual progress and academic maturation. It’s about your actions, approach to the task, ability to handle unexpected obstacles, and development as a critical thinker . By effectively expressing these ideas, you improve your RPPF and gain a deeper understanding of the research process.

Is the Extended Essay RPPF Graded?

Yes, the RPPF is actually quite important in determining your final grade for the Extended Essay. It accounts for 19% of your overall EE score. This significant percentage demonstrates that it is crucial to consider and evaluate your research process carefully. These are the main areas in the RPPF that affect your grade:

• Insight into Challenges . Your ability to effectively communicate the obstacles encountered during your research.
• Analytical Reflection . Your capacity to carefully examine and contemplate your learning and decision-making processes.
• Development and Growth . Showing how you’ve evolved personally and intellectually during your research.

These elements give the examiners a glimpse into your investigation, showing off your critical thinking and reflection skills, especially in hard EE subjects . Completing the RPPF is crucial for improving the narrative of your Extended Essay and boosting your final grade. It demonstrates the depth of your research and analytical skills.

What Are the Main elements of EE RPPF?

Let’s discuss the critical elements of this process — planning, progress documentation, and reflection insights. With my wealth of experience, I will guide you through each step to help you confront them effectively.

Planning Your EE

When you’re starting to plan your Extended Essay, having a clear understanding is crucial. Clearly define your research question and outline your approach to establish a strong foundation for your project. Establishing clear expectations helps you stay focused on your research and prevents potential obstacles.

Furthermore, you must specify the resources you plan on using, including primary sources, databases, and texts. This step is super important because it helps you prepare to gather and analyze data in a structured way. It ensures that your resources match your research goals and you do not fail your Extended Essay .

Progress Documentation

As you continue your research, document each step of your progress thoroughly. This aspect of the RPPF is more than just listing the activities you did. On the contrary, it demands a more thorough involvement in your process, where you articulate the reasons behind specific changes and the lessons you gained from each stage.

In my opinion, successful progress documentation requires a thoughtful approach to evaluating the results of your actions and how they have influenced your research. It’s all about making connections between your theoretical framework, methodological changes, and the new insights that come from these adjustments.

Reflection Insights

In my opinion, the reflection section of the RPPF is where you showcase your intellectual and personal growth. Here, you can reflect on the obstacles you faced and the insights you gained during writing and research. Thinking about your choices and how they affect things shows you’re good at thinking critically and can handle different situations.

This section should capture your experience, giving you a glimpse into how your understanding of the topic grew and how you overcame the challenges of the research process . By immersing yourself in this section of the RPPF, you can elevate it from a mundane procedural document to a captivating story that showcases your growth as a student and a critical thinker.

What Is the Word Count for Extended Essay RPPF?

As per the official guidelines of the International Baccalaureate (IB), the RPPF must not exceed 500 words. The purpose of this concise limit is to encourage you to reflect briefly and thoughtfully on important moments in your research.

When tackling the RPPF, make the most of these 500 words. Remember the critical reflections showcasing your intellectual and personal development during the Extended Essay process. Think of this form as a chance to express the ups and downs of your research, the adjustments you made to your original plan, and, most importantly, the milestones you achieved as a student and researcher.

I also recommend you read your article about Extended Essay word count .

From what I’ve seen, the most effective RPPFs are straightforward, thoughtful, and directly connected to specific moments in the research process. They summarize the project and provide insights into how the students made decisions, encountered obstacles, and used strategies to overcome them.

How to Write Extended Essay RPPF?

As someone well-versed in the IB program, I’m here to help you get around the process of completing your Extended Essay RPPF. This form is super important in showing your writing process and is a massive part of your EE assessment . Now, let’s break down each step so you can express your thoughts and experiences.

First Formal Reflection Session (170 words)

In the beginning, clearly define your research question and decide on your research strategy. This reflection should capture your initial excitement and any doubts you may have about the direction of your research. It’s important to discuss your methodology and the resources you plan to use.

I think the most effective way to handle this situation is to be straightforward and provide all the necessary information. Tell me about what you’re hoping to achieve with your research and if there’s anything you’re worried about regarding finding the right resources or narrowing down your topic. This reflection establishes the vibe for your study and gives a starting point for later reflections.

Document Your Interim Reflection (150 words)

Now that you’ve reached a critical point in your research, it’s time to take a moment to reflect on your progress so far. Here is where you can think about how your research question has changed over time and any tweaks you’ve made to your approach when writing your Extended Essay .

In this part, write about any specific challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Did you come across any surprising findings? How did your approach change? This part is also fantastic for contemplating your personal and intellectual development.

Complete Final Reflection – Viva Voce (150 words)

The final reflection, usually done as a viva voce after finishing your EE, is your chance to discuss the culmination of your research efforts. This reflection should bring together your EE writing and showcase important insights and learnings.

Talk about the results of your research concerning what you initially anticipated. What did you pick up? What impact did the research process have on your perspectives? Now is the time for you to reflect on how much you’ve grown as a researcher and a thinker, giving a complete summary of your path.

Supervisor’s Role and Your Reflections

During these sessions, your supervisor will offer guidance and feedback. It’s crucial to include their perspectives in your reflections to show how their guidance influenced your research approach and intellectual growth.

Jot down your thoughts right after each session while everything is still fresh in your mind. Make sure your comments are short, thoughtful, and in line with the RPPF criteria.

A friendly reminder: ensure your reflections don’t exceed 500 words. Keep it clear and concise!

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Wrapping Up Your EE RPPF

By now, you should better grasp the extended essay RPPF and how to write it effectively. With these tips and strategies, you can create a reflective RPPF that meets the IB criteria and strengthens your overall research experience. So go ahead and give it a shot! Best of luck, and enjoy your research!

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What is IB Extended Essay RPPF?

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The extended essay is one of the mandatory requirements of the IB. Another document that also needs to be submitted with the extended essay is RPPF or the reflections on planning and progress form. Many students find this extremely confusing. Students can find themselves thinking in all directions when asked to ‘reflect.’ It seems like they are told to do something that is completely out of scope.

The best part about a reflection form is that it allows students to think in a certain direction, which is again very important to help them go through what was required of them and what they have done by far. 

Like with IB TOK essay PPF , to some students, EE RPPF seems very challenging because it requires thorough research to be done. Like with TK PPD , it also requires students to be fully vigilant with what they are going, delving into the details of everything that is required from that end. 

In this guide, you will find out more about IB extended essay RPP form and how you can work your way through it. 

What is an Extended essay planning form 

The RPPF is a form in which students are required to write three reflections. This is a total of 500 words that they have to write, in which they have to slowly work their way through writing what they have understood here. The main idea is to write about what they found out in this and what they thought of the whole process. Another idea here is for the examiner to gauge the direction in which the student is thinking.

The whole extended essay aims to teach students how to research and write an analysis. This can only be done well when they slowly analyze and understand things in the best way possible. In this form, they are required to share their responses about what they think, and that is the most important when it comes to an understanding the student’s thought process behind what they are doing. 

In this form, students are expected to be able to show their intellectual and personal growth. They are expected to talk about how actively they are engaged in the whole process and what they have learnt through it. they are expected to show how they have grown as learners and what skills they have learned here. These skills include critical thinking skills, decision making skills, general research skills, referencing skills and time management skills as well.

On the whole, it gauges the students’ way of doing things in the best way possible. The idea is to understand how well the student is working their way through things. 

To guide you even more, here is some further information to help you. 

First Reflection 

This section needs to be around 140 to 170 words in total. In this reflection, you need to talk about how you came to choosing your topic. The first part of the extended essay is to choose a topic that you think you can work on. You need to take the examiner through the whole process so that they understand what went behind all of that. Then you also have to give reasons for what you did and why. After that, you have to give more information about the possible sources and methods that you used.

Furthermore, you also have to talk about what you expect to learn or achieve from this topic. Sharing ideas about how you think you should explore the topic further is also one of the most important things here. This helps the examiner understand the kind of road map that you had in your mind after you selected this topic. You can also touch upon any challenges that you faced throughout. Anything else that you can talk about that highlights how engaged you were through the whole process would also be idea to add here. 

Interim Reflection 

This is the section that you should complete after the first reflection is done. This can also be around 150 words in total. Here, you touch upon the research that you have already done. You also need to touch upon what you have already learned here and why that is important.

Apart from that, you also talk about some new things that you have discovered through this process. If you have slightly tweaked your research question also here, then you should also mention that in the best way possible.

You can also touch upon the progress in the timeline and how well you are doing on this by far. Then you also touch upon any arguments that you think are very important here. If there are any challenges that you have faced here, then you also talk about those. If there is anything that you feel will help you show how engaged you are through the process, then you can also highlight that here. 

Final Reflection 

This is the last part of the reflection that you have to work on. This can again be of around 150 words. Here, you have to talk about the personal relevance that this topic has to you. When you do that, it helps you learn so much about the topic, and also helps the examiner learn more about who you are and how this has helped you further.

It shows the examiner how you can grow as a learner and how working on this topic has further allowed you to do just that. If there is anything else that you think can add value to this section, then you can add that as well.

Remember that the idea is to show the examiner how involved you are in the whole process. So you must make sure that you do that. This is most integral to help you get done with things in the best way. 

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FAQ’s about EE RPPF

Here are a few of the common questions that many people ask about this. 

Is the EE RPPS marked?

While this is not marked, you have to make sure that you do your best here to show the full engagement that you have here as a student. This is crucial to help the examiner understand the approach you had right when you started.  

How do I submit my EE RPPF?

You need to submit this form along with the extended essay on the portal. This is an imperative part so you must make sure that you do it diligently. Online, you will find several IB RPPF examples to help you through this. So make sure that you go through most things thoroughly to understand this well. 

What is extended essay RPPF word limit?

The word limit for the reflections on planning and progress form (RPPF) is typically around 400-500 words. Some schools say that it has a strict word limit of 500 words, and supervisors will not even check your RPPF in case you are above the limit. However, it’s always best to check with your school or supervisor for their specific guidelines , as they may vary.

If you can show how you worked your way through things correctly, then you will definitely be able to do a good job on this. 

Example of EE RPPF

Below, you will find an example of how to fill an extended essay RPPF:

Ready to work on your reflections on planning and progress form?

Many students find this part extremely difficult even after they have the right know how of how to do it. We at the Writing Metier are here to help you with the IB RPPF.

Writing Metier has experienced writers on board who can help you get done with this in the best way. All you need to do is get in touch with us on our website and order an essay RPPF.

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Reflections on Planning and Progress Form (RPPF)

As you work on your Extended Essay, you will meet with your advisor at least three times in a reflection session. Each meeting should last between 20-30 minutes and you should record a summary of your meetings on the Reflections on Planning and Progress Form . Your three reflections will count for 19% of your total grade . The combined word limit for all three RPPF´s is 500 words. A good standard is to allow 150 words for your first RPPF, 150 words for your second RPPF and 200 words for your final RPPF.

Some sample questions you can use in your RPPF´s:

RPPF 1: The first reflection session

Why did you choose this research question and/or topic?

Has your research question changed from where it started?

Do you have a timeline?

What research methods will you use, and why?

Has the research surprised you?

RPPF 2: Interim reflection session

Have you encountered challenges? What have they been?

Have you had to adapt your process, or change your research question, as you´ve learned more about your topic?

Are you satisfied with the quality of your research and writing?

What can you do to improve your research and writing?

Do you need to adjust your timeline? Why or why not?

RPPF 3: The final reflection session/ viva voce

What would you do differently, if you could do the process over again? How would this help?

What was the biggest challenge you encountered? Why was it a challenge?

What was something you handled particularly well? How did it help  you in the process of completing the Extended Essay?

Is there a weakness in your work? What is it?

Did your thinking change as you progressed in the research/writing?

What skills or knowledge have you learned throughout this process that you can utilize in the future?

What did you learn about yourself - as a learner - during this process?