The Diploma Programme Core

Made up of the three required components, the DP core aims to broaden students’ educational experience and challenge them to apply their knowledge and skills.

The three core elements are:

• Theory of Knowledge, can be described as a critical thinking course. In TOK, students reflect on the nature of knowledge and on how we know what we claim to know. It is assessed with an essay and a presentation related to knowledge issues.
• The Extended Essay, is an independent, self-directed piece of research, focused on one of the chosen subjects. It is a great opportunity to demonstrate the student’s knowledge on a topic of their own choice. The Extened Essay is externally assessed and takes about 40 hours to complete, with a 4000 words paper as end product.
• Creativity, Activity, Service, in which students learn by personal experiences related to those three concepts (Creativity, Activity and Service). Students take part in a range of experiences and at least one project. CAS experiences are real, purposeful experiences which have a significant outcome. The CAS experiences must involve a personal challenge, planning, reviewing progress and reporting and students must reflect on the outcomes and the personal learning.