IB Geography Tutoring, SL and HL
IB Geography asks students to carry located, detailed case studies into every answer and to read unfamiliar maps, graphs and infographics against the clock. Its extended answers then demand evaluation across scales and perspectives, which a list of memorised facts about a place never supplies.
Short answer
IB Geography is offered online, one-to-one.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 95 per lesson; lessons are booked singly or in packages.
IB group classes are private groups of three or more friends, who agree the start date with us.
From USD 95 per lesson
- SL and HL assessment from the IB’s own subject brief
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How IB Geography is assessed
External papers set and marked by the IB, and an internal assessment marked by your teacher and moderated by the IB. Standard Level and Higher Level differ in length, weighting and, at HL, in the extra paper or component. Figures are from the IB’s own subject brief, linked below.
International Baccalaureate
IB Diploma Programme · Geography · subject brief, first assessment 2019
| Component | SL: weight and length | HL: weight and length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | 35% · 1 hour 30 min | 35% · 2 hours 15 min | The optional geographic themes (two at SL, three at HL): a structured question and one extended answer per option. |
| Paper 2 | 40% · 1 hour 15 min | 25% · 1 hour 15 min | The SL/HL core: structured questions on each unit, a visual stimulus and one extended answer. |
| Paper 3 (HL only) | HL only | 20% · 1 hour | Extended answers on the HL core extension units. |
| Internal assessment | 25% · 20 hours | 20% · 20 hours | Fieldwork: one written report based on a fieldwork question, with data collection, analysis and evaluation. |
Checked on 24 September 2026
Paper names are the IB’s own. Internal assessment time is the teaching time the IB allocates to it, not an exam.
The IB Geography syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
Part 1: Geographic themes (options)
Freshwater · Oceans and coastal margins · Extreme environments · Geophysical hazards · Leisure, tourism and sport · Food and health · Urban environments
Part 2: Geographic perspectives — global change
Changing population · Global climate: vulnerability and resilience · Global resource consumption and security
Part 3: HL extension — global interactions
Power, places and networks · Human development and diversity · Global risks and resilience
Where IB Geography marks are usually lost
Case studies without a place or a figure
Many answers say “in developing countries” or “for example, in a large city” and stop there. What convinces is specific, located evidence: a named river basin, a named city, real figures for population, rainfall or income, and a date. Students who prepare a small bank of detailed cases for each option and core unit, and actually quote them, give their arguments real weight.
Describing the stimulus instead of reading it
Students must interpret patterns in unfamiliar data and maps, and Paper 2 includes an infographic or visual stimulus. Students often restate what a figure shows without quoting values, identifying the trend or naming the anomaly. Command terms matter: a question asking for a description wants the pattern with evidence from the figure; one asking for reasons wants a geographic explanation tied to it, not a repeat of the data.
Extended answers that argue one side
Extended answers ask students to examine, evaluate or analyse, or to judge “to what extent”, and a convincing answer needs a conclusion that weighs factors, places and scales. A common pattern is a well-informed essay that argues only one side, or treats every country as if it were the same. Strong answers compare contrasting places, consider different stakeholders’ perspectives and say where the argument holds and where it does not.
The IB Geography internal assessment
The internal assessment is a fieldwork report. The student sets a fieldwork question on any suitable syllabus topic, collects information, analyses it and evaluates the investigation. The question needs to be narrow enough to answer with data the student can actually collect, in a place they can reach safely and more than once if needed. A tutor helps test whether a question is workable before any data is gathered, explains how the criteria treat method, analysis and evaluation, and shows how to present data clearly in maps, graphs and tables.
A tutor can explain the criteria, question a draft and point to what is weak. The research, the writing and every decision in it stay the student’s own, as the awarding body’s rules require.
How we teach IB Geography
A tutor first finds out which optional themes the school teaches, since classes follow different combinations. Each unit is then built around a short set of case studies the student owns: located, dated and with figures that can be quoted from memory. Lessons alternate between content and exam skills. Structured questions are practised on unfamiliar graphs, maps and infographics, with attention to command terms and to writing with the data rather than around it. Extended answers are planned quickly, with an argument, contrasting examples and a judgement. For students in Africa, local examples — a river basin, a growing city, a drought or a flood — can strengthen answers, provided they are researched with reliable data. HL students keep the global interactions units active alongside the core throughout the second year.
There is no separate diagnostic, because there is no single test that stands in for two years of a school syllabus. The first lesson is the assessment: the tutor works through your recent marked work, past-paper questions from your own specification, and the units your school has already covered, and reads current level, gaps, exam technique and where school work stands. It is a normal paid lesson and it teaches as it assesses.
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