IB Physics Tutoring, SL and HL
IB Physics asks for two skills at once: fluent calculation with the data booklet and a calculator, and clear explanation of why something happens. Many students are strong at one and lose marks steadily on the other, especially on Paper 1B, where the data come from experiments they have not seen.
Short answer
IB Physics 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
Your lessons are taught by Tom Harrison, who teaches IB Physics.
- SL and HL assessment from the IB’s own subject brief
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 95 per lesson
How IB Physics 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 · Physics · subject brief, first assessment 2025
| Component | SL: weight and length | HL: weight and length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 (1A and 1B) | 36% · 1 hour 30 min | 36% · 2 hours | Paper 1A: multiple-choice questions. Paper 1B: data-based questions. |
| Paper 2 | 44% · 1 hour 30 min | 44% · 2 hours 30 min | Short-answer and extended-response questions. |
| Internal assessment | 20% · 10 hours | 20% · 10 hours | Scientific investigation: an open-ended investigation of the student’s own research question, written up as a report of at most 3,000 words. |
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 Physics syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
Theme A: Space, time and motion
Kinematics · Forces and momentum · Work, energy and power · Rigid body mechanics (HL) · Galilean and special relativity (HL)
Theme B: The particulate nature of matter
Thermal energy transfers · Greenhouse effect · Gas laws · Thermodynamics (HL) · Current and circuits
Theme C: Wave behaviour
Simple harmonic motion · Wave model · Wave phenomena · Standing waves and resonance · Doppler effect
Theme D: Fields
Gravitational fields · Electric and magnetic fields · Motion in electromagnetic fields · Induction (HL)
Theme E: Nuclear and quantum physics
Structure of the atom · Quantum physics (HL) · Radioactive decay · Fission · Fusion and stars
Where IB Physics marks are usually lost
Equations used outside their conditions
Knowing an equation is only the start: the marks depend on choosing the right one for the situation and knowing when it applies. Students use the constant-acceleration equations when the acceleration changes, conserve kinetic energy in an inelastic collision, or put both forces of a Newton’s third law pair on the same body. Checking the conditions before substituting saves these marks.
Answers that skip the working
“Show that” questions give the answer, so the marks are for the method, and a bare final line earns little. Elsewhere, answers lose marks for missing or wrong units, for rounding too early, and for an unreasonable number of significant figures. Students who set out the symbols, the substitution and the result on separate lines also make fewer slips with powers of ten and unit prefixes.
Graphs read but not analysed
Data-based questions expect students to work with a graph: find a gradient from a large triangle, read an intercept, linearise a relationship, or use error bars to judge the uncertainty in a gradient. Students who read off a single point, take a gradient from two data points close together, or ignore the error bars lose marks that the data would have given them.
The IB Physics internal assessment
The internal assessment is a scientific investigation into a research question the student formulates, written up as a formal report. In physics this usually means investigating how one variable depends on another — a pendulum, a resistor, a magnet falling through a coil — with a wide range of measurements, repeats, uncertainties and a graph that tests the relationship. A tutor can help a student pick a relationship that school equipment can measure across a useful range, decide how to linearise the data and estimate the uncertainty in the gradient, and make sure the evaluation says how each limitation affected the result instead of simply listing errors.
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 Physics
A tutor teaches IB Physics concept first: a new idea is explained with diagrams and everyday cases before any equation appears, and only then turned into calculations. The five themes are linked deliberately — energy runs from mechanics through thermal physics to fields and nuclear physics — so the student sees one subject rather than a list of chapters. Calculation practice uses the data booklet from the first week, with the student naming the condition behind each equation before using it. Graph work recurs in every theme: plotting, linearising, and finding gradients and their uncertainties. Explanations are written as short causal steps and compared against IB mark schemes. HL students add the HL-only topics, such as rigid body mechanics, relativity, induction and quantum physics, which need time for the ideas to settle.
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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IB prices
IB tutoring from USD 95 per 90-minute lesson. Compare lesson packages and included materials.
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