中文（繁體）
中文（简体）
English
IB Social and Cultural Anthropology Past Papers & Drilling (Paper 2): Ethnography with Level Descriptors
TUTORZONE ORIGINAL DRILLING MOCK · IB SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY PAPER 2
Written to the IB Social and cultural anthropology Paper 2 assessment: SL is 30 marks in 1 h 30 min (40% of the subject); HL is 45 marks in 2 h 30 min (45%). Section A is compulsory and connects a key concept, an area of inquiry and a real-world issue; Section B is chosen by area of inquiry – one question at SL, two at HL, none in the same area as Section A. Level descriptors and drilling technique included.
What is in IB Social and Cultural Anthropology Paper 2?
Direct answer: Section A is one compulsory question (15 marks) linking a key concept, an area of inquiry and a real-world issue. Section B is chosen from the nine areas of inquiry – one question at SL, two at HL (15 marks each). SL: 30 marks, 1 h 30 min, 40%. HL: 45 marks, 2 h 30 min, 45%.
Assessment at a glance (2027)
| Component | Content | Weighting | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 2 Section A: one compulsory question | Connect one key concept, one area of inquiry and one real-world issue (15 marks) | SL 40% / HL 45% (15 marks) | SL 1 h 30 min (whole paper) |
| Paper 2 Section B: chosen by area of inquiry | Two questions in each of the nine areas of inquiry (15 marks each); SL answers one and HL two, from areas other than the Section A area | SL 40% / HL 45% (SL 30 marks / HL 45 marks) | SL 1 h 30 min / HL 2 h 30 min |
| Paper 1: unseen text and a big question | Questions 1 and 2 compulsory, one of questions 3 and 4, and question 5 from the six big anthropological questions; HL adds the ethics question | SL 40% / HL 30% (30 / 40 marks) | SL 1 h 30 min / HL 2 h |
| Internal assessment: fieldwork | SL four compulsory activities (450 / 300 / 400 / 850 words), criteria A 4 + B 6 + C 4 + D 12 = 26 marks; HL fieldwork proposal, an 800-word critical reflection and a 1,600-word research report, criteria A-E | SL 20% / HL 25% | SL 30 hours / HL 60 hours |
Drilling technique: every answer in Paper 2 has to rest on ethnography you have actually studied, and this paper never supplies invented field material; renaming a study, changing its figures or citing from memory counts as no evidence. The difference between ‘discuss’ and ‘evaluate’ is that discussion sets out several understandings while evaluation ends with a judgement and the criteria behind it.
How this paper was built
This is a TutorZone original drilling mock: the questions, level descriptors and model structures are our own writing, not an IB past paper, specimen paper, markscheme or IB publication. Only the published framework numbers (marks, times, weightings) and component names follow the official assessment.
For Section A you are expected to choose the real-world issue yourself and say where it comes from; all Section B ethnographic evidence must come from you, and this paper only shows how to organise it and how to reach a judgement.
Marks: the official Paper 2 totals are 30 marks at SL and 45 at HL. This paper follows that total by giving 15 marks to each question – Section A plus one Section B question at SL, Section A plus two Section B questions at HL. The per-question split is this paper’s own arrangement.
Pacing
| Section | Marks | Suggested time | What to do first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 2 Section A: one compulsory question | SL 40% / HL 45% (15 marks) | about 18 min: 2 min defining the concept, 3 min setting out the ethnography and the source of the issue, 11 min arguing, 2 min concluding | One line through all three, not three blocks side by side |
| Paper 2 Section B: chosen by area of inquiry | SL 40% / HL 45% (SL 30 marks / HL 45 marks) | about 15 min per question: a judgement sentence first, then the ethnographic evidence, then the exception | In ‘evaluate’ questions, state your criteria; do not write half the answer each way |
| Paper 1: unseen text and a big question | SL 40% / HL 30% (30 / 40 marks) | Read the unseen text twice before allocating time by marks | Concept naming, evidence from the material, a position in the essay |
| Internal assessment: fieldwork | SL 20% / HL 25% | Your Paper 2 ethnography list feeds straight into criteria A and C of the internal assessment | Research question, methods, ethics, use of concepts |
May Section B use the same area of inquiry as Section A?
Direct answer: No. SL answers one Section B question and HL two, and none of them may come from the area used in Section A. This rule is often forgotten during practice and costs marks for nothing.
Section A: one compulsory question – concept, area of inquiry and real-world issue
Section A has a single compulsory question at both levels; the depth of the argument and the amount of ethnography expected rises from SL to HL.
Question 1 (compulsory) (15 marks)
Section A, compulsory. Taking production, exchange and consumption as your area of inquiry, choose a real-world issue you have studied (for example food delivery, second-hand trading platforms or the decline of night-market stalls) and connect it to one key concept – culture, change, power, society, identity, materiality, symbolism, belief and knowledge, or social relations. Discuss the connection using ethnographic material you have studied yourself. (15 marks)
Section B: chosen by area of inquiry (two areas, four questions, in this paper)
Section B offers two questions in every area of inquiry. This paper shows four questions across two areas – movement, time and space, and production, exchange and consumption. SL answers one (15 marks) and HL two (15 marks each), and none may come from the area used in Section A.
Question 2 (Section B – area of inquiry: movement, time and space) (15 marks)
Discuss how a group makes ‘who belongs here’ visible through everyday movement and the ordering of time. Refer to at least two ethnographic sources. (15 marks)
Question 3 (Section B – area of inquiry: movement, time and space) (15 marks)
Evaluate the claim that the spatial arrangement of a community decides power relations between its members more than language does. Answer with ethnographic evidence. (15 marks)
Question 4 (Section B – area of inquiry: production, exchange and consumption) (15 marks)
‘When gifts become transactions, a community loses its cohesion.’ Discuss this claim with ethnographic material. (15 marks)
Question 5 (Section B – area of inquiry: production, exchange and consumption) (15 marks)
Compare two ethnographic cases you have studied to show how consumption is used to express identity, and explain when that expression fails. (15 marks)
How specific does the ethnographic material have to be?
Direct answer: every paragraph needs at least the author, the people studied and the period, then one specific finding and the point it supports. A name alone, or a citation from memory, counts as no evidence.
Section A answer and level descriptors
Question 1
15 marks = level descriptors; four moves are assessed
(1) Link all three: the question asks for one line running through area of inquiry, key concept and real-world issue – not three blocks placed side by side. A model line: the decline of night-market stalls (issue) removes the people who maintained shared equipment (materiality), so reciprocal obligation shifts from work exchanged for work to settlement in cash (social relations and change). (2) Ethnographic material must be specific: give the author, the people studied and the period, summarise one finding and say exactly where it agrees or disagrees with your issue. (3) The concept must run through the answer: defined in the first paragraph, used to explain the material in the middle, and re-examined at the end – what has changed in your understanding of the issue now that you have used it? (4) The real-world issue needs a source: news, a policy document or your own observation of your district will do, but say how you know it and separate fact from inference.
Where marks are lost: writing background only, using ethnography as decoration, or letting the concept appear in the title alone.
Section B answers and level descriptors
Question 1
15 marks = level descriptors
(1) Turn an abstract question into observable behaviour: belonging to a place usually shows up as when someone appears, which route they take and where they linger, not as a declaration of identity alone. (2) Give each ethnography a job: one showing how movement itself draws the boundary (commuting, going to market, or the route home taken during a festival), the other showing how the ordering of time confirms status (rosters, shifts, the sequence of ritual). State the author, the people studied and the period for each. (3) Handle the exception: newcomers and short-stay visitors often have to borrow the same movement and the same timetable, which shows both the force of the rule and the fact that it is not unbreakable. (4) Conclude by returning to the word visible: which arrangements make the boundary legible to outsiders, and who needs that visibility.
Question 2
15 marks = level descriptors; ‘evaluate’ asks for a judgement, not two halves
(1) The spatial case: walkways, gates, the height of a stall or who may sit at which table repeat daily and can fix power without anyone speaking; space also decides who is visible and who is placed at the edge. (2) The linguistic case: forms of address, the choice of dialect and who has the right to name and to record decide whose version is accepted in a dispute, and language can conceal spatial inequality by describing compulsion as cooperation. (3) State the criteria: for instance which resource is harder to bypass when a conflict breaks out, or which is harder to change within a generation. Use the criteria to compare rather than writing half the essay each way. (4) Evidence in both directions: ideally one source supports space and one supports language, and you should say how the nature of the evidence (long-term observation or interviews) affects its weight.
Conclude with a clear position and acknowledge the counter-case – for example digital communication letting language travel across space and gain the advantage.
Question 3
15 marks = level descriptors
(1) Open by questioning the split: gifts and transactions are not mutually exclusive – many exchanges carry both (a price, a relationship, a record) – so say where the line is drawn and who draws it. (2) Material supporting loss of cohesion: monetisation lets an obligation be settled in one move, so the long mutual indebtedness that had to be maintained disappears, and outside pricing replaces local judgement, weakening the position of those who mediated. (3) Material against: transactions can also create new ties – instalments, credit, collecting on someone’s behalf and group buying all re-embed exchange in relationships, and the record itself can become a basis for trust. (4) Close with concepts: use social relations and symbolism to say what cohesion is made of, and distinguish the number of ties from their resilience.
Conclude by answering whether cohesion is necessarily lost, and state the conditions (a right of appeal, deferred payment, a third-party witness) under which transactions do not destroy it.
Question 4
15 marks = level descriptors
(1) The two cases must genuinely compare: pick cases of similar scale or situation (two cities’ young consumers, or two generations in one district) and state the basis of comparison in the first paragraph. (2) Show the mechanism: consumption is not only what is bought but when, with whom and how it is displayed – buying together, sharing publicly, or deliberately not buying. (3) Failure is the key to this question: (i) insufficient means to keep up the performance; (ii) the same symbol taken over by another group so that its meaning no longer holds; (iii) division within the group over what counts as respectable; (iv) being read from outside through a stigmatised interpretation. (4) Conclude that failure is usually not a matter of individual choice but of how resources and the power to interpret them are distributed.
How do ‘discuss’ and ‘evaluate’ questions differ?
Direct answer: discussion sets out several understandings and handles the exception; evaluation states the criteria and ends with a clear judgement. Neither accepts a half-and-half answer.
Where these marks are usually lost
| Mistake | What it looks like | What it costs | Instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citing ethnography from memory | Naming a study with vague or wrong detail | Counts as no evidence in marking | Cite only studies you have read and can give author, people and period for |
| Three blocks instead of one line | Section A: issue, then concept, then ethnography | Section A stalls in the middle bands | Run the three together through one causal or tension line |
| ‘Evaluate’ answered as two halves | Three paragraphs for, three against, then stop | No judgement or criteria, so no top band | State the criteria, then take a position in the conclusion |
| Inventing data or cases | Creating interview content or figures for colour | An academic-integrity problem the answer cannot sustain | Use real research, or label your inference as inference |
| Ignoring the exception | Only examples that fit the claim | Little depth or evaluation | Raise the counter-example and explain why it does not overturn the judgement |
How to use this paper
First drill: time it – 1 h 30 min at SL and 2 h 30 min at HL. Before writing, list the ethnographies you can give an author, a people and a period for.
Mark it: check four moves in every answer – is the concept defined, is the ethnography both set out and used, are the criteria stated, and does the conclusion answer the wording of the question?
Second drill: redo it three to seven days later choosing different questions, and extend your list to a third area of inquiry.
What should I do after drilling this paper?
Direct answer: (1) extend your list to three areas of inquiry; (2) redo it in three to seven days with different questions; (3) move on to Paper 1 and practise naming concepts quickly in unfamiliar material.
FAQ
Is this an IB past paper?
No. The questions and level descriptors are TutorZone originals – not an IB past paper, specimen paper or markscheme.
What is in IB Social and Cultural Anthropology Paper 2?
Section A is one compulsory question (15 marks) connecting a key concept, an area of inquiry and a real-world issue. Section B draws on the nine areas of inquiry: SL answers one question and HL two (15 marks each), none from the Section A area. That is 30 marks in 1 h 30 min at SL and 45 marks in 2 h 30 min at HL.
Why do the model answers not contain specific research?
Paper 2 examines only the ethnography you have studied. This paper supplies structure and criteria; the material has to come from you, which is what makes the drilling useful.
Can both Section B questions come from the same area?
No. SL answers one and HL two, and none of them may come from the area used in Section A.
Official references
| Resource | What to check |
|---|---|
| IB social and cultural anthropology subject page (IBO) | Confirm the Paper 2 times, weightings and the nine areas of inquiry |
| IB Social and Cultural Anthropology Paper 1 drilling mock | Unseen-text questions and the big-question essay |
| IB Digital Society Paper 1 drilling mock | Also asks for concept, context and a real example |
| IB Philosophy Paper 1 drilling mock | A model of position and structure in essay answers |
Related: practice area · IB Anthropology Paper 1 drilling mock · IB Digital Society Paper 1 drilling mock · IB World Religions Paper 2 drilling mock
Next step: find a tutor / register as a tutor
After drilling, the hard part is telling a conceptual error from a writing error. Tell us the year group, the school and your available times, and TutorZone will match you with a tutor who knows the HKEAA assessment requirements.
Demand for tutors in this subject is steady, and those who can explain the marking scheme and where marks are won are especially sought after. Register free; you pay only when a match succeeds.
