EE, TOK & CAS · TOK · 8 min read
TOK exhibition: choosing three objects and writing commentaries that link to your prompt
What the exhibition asks for, how to choose objects that actually say something about your prompt, and a worked example of three objects for one prompt.
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The TOK exhibition asks you to show how TOK appears in the world around you. You pick one prompt from a fixed list in the TOK guide, choose three specific, real objects that each connect to that prompt, and write a commentary on each explaining what the object is, why you chose it and how it links to the prompt. It is marked by your teacher, moderated by the IB, and counts for one-third of your TOK grade.
What does the TOK exhibition involve?
The exhibition is the internally assessed part of TOK, and it usually happens in the first year of the Diploma. The rules below are as widely reported from the current TOK guide; check the exact wording with your teacher before you start.
| Element | What you do |
|---|---|
| Prompt | Choose one of the IA prompts in the TOK guide (reported as 35, the same every session). All three objects link to this one prompt. |
| Objects | Three objects that already exist. They can be physical or digital. You cannot create one for the exhibition. |
| Commentaries | One commentary per object, reported as 950 words in total across all three (roughly 300 each). |
| Who | Individual work only; no group exhibitions. |
| Format | Usually a single file with an image of each object and its commentary, plus references. Your teacher will give you the exact format. |
| Weight | One-third of the TOK grade. The TOK essay is the other two-thirds. |
The exhibition is widely reported to be marked out of 10 by global impression, like the essay: one overall judgement of how well the exhibition shows TOK at work in the world, rather than separate criteria. With only two objects the mark is capped (reportedly at 6); with one, at 3.
The prompts are short, open questions about knowledge. Two from the list are "What counts as knowledge?" and "Is bias inevitable in the production of knowledge?" Use your chosen prompt word for word, and read the full list in the guide your school gives you rather than a copy found online.
How do I choose a prompt and objects that fit together?
Choose them together, not one after the other. Students who pick three objects they like and then hunt for a prompt end up with links that only work if you squint. Students who pick a prompt first and then grab the first three objects they can think of end up with generic objects. A better order:
- Shortlist three or four prompts you have an opinion about.
- Brainstorm 8–10 candidate objects from your own life, subjects and interests: things you own, things from your family, a document from a subject you study, something from the news you followed closely.
- Test each object against each shortlisted prompt by writing one sentence: "This object shows that… which suggests the answer to the prompt is…". If you can't finish the sentence specifically, drop the pairing.
- Pick the prompt with three strong sentences, ideally ones that point in slightly different directions.
What makes an object strong?
A strong object is specific and has a real-world context you can describe: who made it, owns it or used it, when and where, and what happened with it. Generic objects can't do this.
Generic"A smartphone." "A map." "A textbook." (Any student anywhere could choose these, and the commentary has nothing particular to say.)
Specific"The map app on my phone, open on the route it chose to my school on 3 March, which avoided the road the local council had just closed." "My grandmother's 1974 school atlas." "Page 112 of the history textbook my school used in Year 9."
Other things that make an object strong:
- It does work for the prompt. The object should show something about knowledge, not just be on the same topic as the prompt.
- It's yours, or close to you. Personal objects are easier to make specific, and teachers and moderators see the same famous objects (the Mona Lisa, a COVID vaccine) again and again.
- The three differ. Different kinds of object, different areas of knowledge or themes, and ideally different angles on the prompt. Three objects that make the same point are really one object.
How do I write each commentary?
Each commentary (about 300 words) needs to do three jobs. Keep them in roughly this order:
- Identify the object and its context (2–3 sentences). What it is, plus the specific real-world details: where it comes from, who made or used it, when.
- Link it to the prompt (the bulk). Explain what the object shows about the question the prompt asks. Use TOK concepts (evidence, bias, perspective, justification, certainty) and refer to the prompt's own words, but analyse, don't just repeat them.
- Justify its place in the exhibition (2–3 sentences). Why this object and not another? What does it add that your other two don't?
Support any factual claim with a reference, as you would in any piece of IB coursework.
Before drafting a commentary, write the single sentence that says how this object answers the prompt. If that sentence is vague ("This object relates to bias because bias is everywhere"), no amount of writing around it will fix the commentary.
A worked example: three objects for one prompt
This is an invented exhibition written by us to show the method. The student, their family and their school are imaginary. Don't reuse these objects; find your own.
Prompt: Is bias inevitable in the production of knowledge?
The argument across the three objects: some bias is built into the tools of knowledge and can't be removed, only chosen; some can be reduced by deliberate design; and the hardest to see is the knower's own.
Object 1: My grandmother's 1974 school atlas
Context: the atlas she used at secondary school, open at the world map, which uses the Mercator projection.
Link to the prompt: Mercator's projection (1569) was designed for navigation: a line of constant compass bearing is straight on the map. The trade-off is that areas far from the equator are enlarged, so Greenland looks roughly the size of Africa, though Africa is about fourteen times larger. No flat map can preserve shape, area and direction all at once, so every mapmaker must choose what to distort. This suggests that some bias in the production of knowledge is unavoidable; what can vary is whether the choice is visible and whether it suits the map's purpose.
Why it's included: it opens the exhibition with the strongest case for "yes, bias is inevitable", and it raises the question of whether an unavoidable distortion counts as bias at all.
Object 2: The candidate-number cover sheet from my school's November mock exams
Context: the sheet my school attaches to mock papers so that teachers mark by candidate number, not name.
Link to the prompt: the sheet is a deliberate attempt to stop one bias (a teacher's expectations of a particular student) shaping the mark. It shows that bias in judging knowledge can be designed out, at least partly. But it only removes the name. Handwriting, a teacher's view of what a "good" answer looks like, and the order in which scripts are marked all remain. This challenges object 1: here bias is not inevitable in every form, but removing one form leaves others.
Why it's included: it gives the counter-position and moves from maps to how knowledge is assessed, a context every IB student knows from the inside.
Object 3: Page 14 of my Biology practical notebook
Context: the page recording my enzyme experiment from January, where I crossed out one reading as "anomalous" before calculating the mean.
Here is what part of this commentary could look like:
Page 14 shows five readings for the time taken to reach the end point at 40 °C. I crossed out the fourth because it was much slower than the rest. I had no evidence of a mistake: I removed it because it didn't fit the trend I expected from the theory we'd been taught. This is bias at the point where knowledge is produced, and unlike the atlas, it was not built into a tool. I chose to exclude it. A rule decided in advance (for example, excluding only readings with a recorded procedural error) would have prevented this. The page suggests that bias is not inevitable in the method itself; it becomes likely whenever a knower decides what counts as data after seeing the data.
Why it's included: it turns the prompt on the student as a knower, which neither of the other objects does, and it ends the exhibition with the most precise answer: bias is most likely, not inevitable, where decisions are made after the results are known.
What are the most common TOK exhibition mistakes?
- Generic objects. "A camera" has no context to analyse. Name the specific one.
- Bolting the prompt on afterwards. Three objects you like, plus a prompt they only half fit, gives three commentaries that circle the prompt without answering it. Choose prompt and objects together.
- Describing instead of linking. Half the commentary on the history of the object, one sentence on knowledge. Context should be short; the link is the point.
- Three objects, one point. If all three say "bias is everywhere", the exhibition doesn't develop. Let them disagree or build on each other.
- Repeating the prompt's words. Writing "this shows bias is inevitable in the production of knowledge" three times is not analysis. Say how and how far.
- Making an object. A poster you designed or a survey you ran for the exhibition isn't allowed. The object must already exist.
- Going over the word limit. Plan about 300 words per object and keep any long context out of the commentary.
Many of these have twins in the essay; see TOK essay mistakes.
When should I do the exhibition?
Most schools run the exhibition in the first year, partly so it's finished before the EE and TOK essay take over year 2. Your school sets the deadline. Give yourself about three weeks: one to shortlist prompts and objects, one to draft, one to revise after any feedback your teacher is allowed to give. Our IB timeline shows where it sits alongside your other deadlines, and if you use an AI tool at any point, the citation rules in AI for IB apply.
Questions students ask
Can my TOK exhibition objects be digital?
Yes. A tweet, a screenshot, a dataset or a web page can be an object, as long as it is a specific one that already exists in the world with a context you can describe. You cannot make something new for the exhibition.
Can I use a photo of something instead of the object itself?
Objects are usually shown as images in the exhibition file, so a photo standing in for a physical object is normal. What matters is that the object itself is specific: this atlas, owned by this person, not "an atlas".
Can two students use the same object?
There is no group work, and each student's exhibition has to be their own. Even if two people pick a similar object, the context, prompt and commentary should be different. Check your school's rules if you're in doubt.
What happens if I only use two objects?
Your mark is capped. It is widely reported that an exhibition with two objects can score at most 6 out of 10, and one with a single object at most 3. Always submit three.