IB Language A Literature SSST Programme
Study literature in your mother tongue. Earn the IB Bilingual Diploma.
Most IB schools teach Language A in a few languages only. The School-Supported Self-Taught (SSST) path changes that. If your mother tongue is a different language, SSST lets you study literature in that language as a full IB subject, sit the same assessments as any other Language A student, and earn the globally recognised IB Bilingual Diploma.
Universities notice that credential. It says, specifically, that you can read, analyse, and write at academic level in two languages. Not just that you speak them.
The challenge: SSST students work mostly independently. There is no classroom, no teacher walking you through the literary tradition you are studying. You select works from the Prescribed Reading List, develop your analytical skills largely on your own, and sit formal IB exams in a language your school may barely acknowledge exists. Most students underestimate how much that demands.
That is exactly where our specialists come in.
Your mother tongue is not your past. It is your edge.
The IB Bilingual Diploma is a genuine differentiator in competitive university admissions. Earning it through SSST tells universities something that almost no other qualification can: this student has the intellectual range and cultural depth to work at the highest academic level in two languages.
Your mother tongue is more than a subject. It's how you think, where you come from, and part of what universities see when they read your profile.
WHO THIS IS FOR
You speak the language at home, but your school does not offer it. Your school may teach French A and English A, but not Russian, Korean, or Norwegian. SSST is the path that lets your mother tongue count as a real IB subject, not an afterthought. You need someone who understands both the literary tradition you are working with and exactly what the IB expects from your analysis.
You have studied the language and want the Bilingual Diploma edge. You know the Bilingual Diploma matters in admissions, and you want to pursue it seriously. SSST demands real analytical depth. You want instruction from someone who knows the literature and the IB standard well enough to get you there.
HOW WE WORK WITH SSST STUDENTS
The SSST programme is managed by your school and the IB. Our role is not to run the programme. It is to give you the specialist literary instruction that the programme assumes you are getting somewhere.
Working with texts from the Prescribed Reading List is not the same as reading for pleasure. The IB expects you to build coherent literary arguments, analyse technique with precision, compare across works with genuine critical insight, and do all of this in academic language, in the language of the literature itself. That is a specific, teachable skill set. Most students do not arrive with it.
We pair each student with a qualified, native-speaking IB teacher in their language. Not a generalist tutor. A teacher who knows the IB assessment criteria, knows the literary tradition you are working in, and can show you, in your language, exactly what separates a confident literary analysis from one that earns top marks.
Sessions cover work selection from the PRL, development of literary analysis skills, essay structure and argumentation, academic writing in the target language, and direct preparation for all formal IB assessments.
Students' written work is their own. We teach the analytical thinking and the craft. The ideas are yours.
SSST A Literature for the following languages:
- Arabic
- Chinese
- Danish
- Dutch
- English
- French
- German
- Greek
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Norwegian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Swahili
- Turkish
- Vietnamese
WHAT THE IB ASSESSMENTS REQUIRE
SSST students sit the same assessments as any other Language A Literature student. You are not examined differently because you studied independently. The standard is identical.
The Individual Oral asks you to discuss two works, one from the Prescribed Reading List and one studied in translation, connecting them to a global issue and demonstrating genuine literary insight. In your mother tongue, the expectation is high. The examiner knows this is the language you grew up speaking.
Paper 1 is an unseen literary commentary. You receive a text you have never seen and analyse it on the spot. Your ability to read quickly, identify technique, and construct a coherent argument under exam conditions is everything here.
Paper 2 is a comparative essay. You write about two works studied in the course, responding to a question you see for the first time in the exam room. Structure, argument, textual evidence, and literary analysis all need to work together under timed conditions.
WHAT WE PREPARE YOU FOR:
Individual Oral: work selection, global issue framing, rehearsed analytical insight, timed practice with detailed feedback in the target language.
Paper 1: unseen text analysis, structural approaches to literary commentary, technique identification, argument construction under strict time conditions.
Paper 2: comparative argument structure, exam-condition essay practice, targeted feedback on language precision and literary depth.
HL Essay: close reading support, argument development, academic register in the target language.
All preparation is calibrated to the IB marking criteria, not generic essay coaching.
