For IB students sitting exams in May 2028 (started DP1 in August 2026).
The best May 2028 IB ab initio study advice is to practise listening, reading, writing, and speaking every week rather than postponing exam preparation until DP2. For this cohort, study from the current language ab initio guide, first assessed in 2020, because the revised course is first assessed in May 2029 and does not apply to May 2028 candidates.
A new language often feels deceptively manageable at first. You learn greetings, family vocabulary, and a few dependable verbs. Then the course begins asking you to understand unfamiliar recordings, choose an appropriate text type, and speak without composing every sentence in English first.
The solution is not endless vocabulary collection. It is regular retrieval and communication under increasingly realistic conditions.
Your May 2028 checklist
- Follow the current five-theme, 20-topic syllabus.
- Make compact notes that help you produce language, not merely recognize it.
- Practise all four skills every week.
- Start short timed tasks in DP1 and full components in DP2.
- Keep an error log for grammar, comprehension, and text conventions.
- Rehearse the individual oral from visual stimuli rather than memorizing a universal script.
- Confirm administrative details and deadlines with your teacher or IB coordinator.
Which syllabus applies to IB ab initio 2028?
The IB states that the enhanced language ab initio course begins teaching in August 2027, with first assessment in May 2029. Students assessed in May 2028 therefore remain under the current course, whose first assessment was in 2020. The 2029 revision should not determine your notes, practice tasks, or assessment preparation.
Under the current guide, language ab initio is offered at SL only. Its syllabus is organized around five prescribed themes: identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organization, and sharing the planet. Four prescribed topics sit within each theme, giving 20 topics overall.
The current assessment model can be summarized as follows:
| Component | What it assesses | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | Productive writing through two tasks | 25% |
| Paper 2 | Listening and reading comprehension | 50% |
| Individual oral | Presentation and conversation based on a visual stimulus | 25% |
Paper 1 currently lasts one hour and requires two written tasks, generally 70-150 words each, selected from the options provided. Paper 2 contains separate listening and reading sections. The individual oral lasts 7-10 minutes, with 15 minutes of preparation under the current arrangements.
The exact May 2028 examination timetable has not yet been published. As of October 2026, the IB examination schedule page lists the 2026 sessions, so do not rely on unofficial dates circulating online. Final May 2028 scheduling information will come later through the IB and your school.
How to make notes that become usable language
The weakest language notes resemble a museum. Everything is carefully stored, but nothing moves.
Build notes around what you may need to understand or communicate. For each syllabus topic, create one compact page containing:
- 12-20 high-utility words and phrases
- two or three verb patterns
- connectors for sequence, contrast, cause, and opinion
- one relevant cultural or social context
- two likely oral questions
- one possible writing situation
- recurring errors from your own work
Write phrases rather than isolated nouns. Learning a word for “journey” is useful; learning how to describe where you went, how you travelled, what happened, and whether you recommend the experience is far more transferable.
RevisionDojo’s IB Spanish ab initio resources provide a syllabus-focused starting point for Spanish students. You can also use the complete Spanish ab initio course guide to connect themes, skills, and assessment components.
Turn your notes into active tools. RevisionDojo Study Notes can clarify content, while Flashcards help with spaced retrieval. AI Chat can test the meaning of a phrase, generate a fresh context, or explain why a correction matters. You should still check language-specific conventions with your teacher, especially when several expressions are grammatically possible but differ in register or regional usage.
What to practise each week
Frequency matters because language knowledge fades when it is only revisited in large monthly sessions. A realistic DP1 routine might use four or five short sessions instead.
| Skill | Useful weekly minimum | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary and grammar | 3 sessions of 10-15 minutes | Retrieve phrases, transform sentences, and revisit errors |
| Listening | 2 sessions of 15-20 minutes | Listen for gist, then replay for details and wording |
| Reading | 2 short texts | Identify purpose, audience, tone, references, and evidence |
| Writing | 1 focused task | Plan, draft, check conventions, and correct recurring errors |
| Speaking | 2 sessions of 5-10 minutes | Describe an image, answer follow-up questions, and record yourself |
This is a baseline, not an official IB requirement. Adjust it around your teacher’s plan and your weaker skills.
For listening, make the first attempt without pausing. Record the main idea, speaker, setting, and purpose. On the second attempt, collect specific details. Only then inspect a transcript, if one is available. The IB language listening structure guide explains why comprehension practice should extend beyond translating every word.
For speaking, use a photograph connected to one of the prescribed themes. Give yourself 15 minutes to prepare brief notes, then speak, answer unpredictable questions, and listen back. Notice pauses, repeated vocabulary, unclear verb forms, and places where memorized language does not answer the question.
Which practice materials match the current syllabus?
Use materials labelled for the current language ab initio course and verify that they practise the assessed skill you intend to improve. Suitable resources should connect to the five prescribed themes and reflect Paper 1 writing, Paper 2 listening and reading, or the individual oral.
RevisionDojo’s Questionbank lets you move from topic review into targeted questions. Grading tools can help expose patterns in a response, while teacher feedback remains important for nuance and language accuracy. The Paper 1 notes and questions for Spanish ab initio are especially useful when learning how purpose, audience, and text type shape a written response.
Predicted Papers and Mock Exams become most valuable when used as checkpoints rather than consumed repeatedly. Before using any future-facing resource, confirm that it is explicitly aligned with the May 2028 course. The same principle applies to examples in the Coursework Library: use relevant models to notice structure and decisions, never as scripts to reproduce. If a persistent weakness survives self-study, RevisionDojo Tutors can provide focused feedback instead of asking you to restart the entire course.
Spanish students can compare options in the Spanish ab initio self-study resource guide. French students can adapt the routines in the French ab initio preparation guide. Language-specific resources matter because pronunciation, grammar, orthography, and conventions cannot always be transferred cleanly between languages.
Common habits that lose marks
Answering the topic but ignoring the situation
A response can contain accurate language and still be poorly suited to its purpose or audience. Before writing, identify who is communicating, to whom, why, and through which text type. Leave time to check whether your opening, organization, register, and closing fit that situation.
Translating ambitious English sentences word for word
Complexity is useful only when you control it. Build clear sentences from structures you know, then add detail through connectors, time frames, reasons, comparisons, and examples. Forced sophistication often creates avoidable agreement, tense, and word-order errors.
Treating listening as a memory test
Do not panic when a recording contains unfamiliar language. Listen for relationships, setting, attitude, sequence, numbers, negatives, and repeated ideas. A missed word is not automatically a missed answer.
Memorizing an oral presentation
Prepared language helps, but a rigid script becomes fragile when the image or follow-up question changes. Practise reusable structures for describing, interpreting, comparing, and expressing opinions. The aim is controlled flexibility.
Repeating tasks without reviewing errors
Completing more questions does not guarantee improvement. After each task, classify mistakes as vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, instruction reading, timing, or text convention. The guide to earning a strong Spanish ab initio result offers further skill-specific strategies, but your personal error log should decide what you practise next.
Are there HL and SL differences?
There is no HL version of language ab initio under the current course. Ab initio is an SL-only subject designed for students with no previous experience, or very limited prior exposure, in the chosen language.
Do not confuse it with Language B, which is offered at SL and HL and is intended for students with prior experience. If a website labels an ab initio resource “HL,” verify the actual course and syllabus before using it. Your school is responsible for appropriate placement, so raise any concern with your teacher or coordinator early.
A sensible path from DP1 to May 2028
During DP1, build broad thematic vocabulary, core grammar, listening tolerance, and confidence speaking imperfectly. Begin short timed writing and comprehension work rather than waiting until every topic feels complete.
In early DP2, increase task length and combine skills. Convert reading into speaking questions, turn listening material into short summaries, and rewrite corrected sentences in new contexts. In the final months, use timed component practice, oral simulations, Mock Exams, and carefully selected Predicted Papers only when their May 2028 alignment is clear.
Progress in ab initio rarely arrives as one dramatic breakthrough. It appears when a phrase you once had to search for becomes available during a recording, written response, or conversation. RevisionDojo brings the Questionbank, Study Notes, Flashcards, AI Chat, grading support, Mock Exams, Predicted Papers, Coursework Library, and Tutors into one focused study system, but the value comes from using each tool for a specific weakness.
Your next step: open the RevisionDojo Spanish ab initio Questionbank, complete five questions from your weakest current topic, and record every error you need to revisit this week.
