IB Psychology Tutoring, SL and HL
IB Psychology changed for students examined from May 2027: the course is now built around concepts such as bias, causality and measurement, applied to content and real-world contexts, and the papers reward applying them to situations and studies the student has never seen. Learning summaries of well-known studies, the habit many older resources encourage, is no longer enough on its own.
Short answer
IB Psychology 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 Psychology 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 · Psychology · subject brief, first assessment 2027
| Component | SL: weight and length | HL: weight and length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | 35% · 1 hour 30 min | 25% · 1 hour 30 min | Integration of concepts, content and contexts: short answers from the content areas, application to unseen situations, and two concept-based extended responses. |
| Paper 2 | 35% · 1 hour 30 min | 25% · 1 hour 30 min | Applying concepts and content to research: questions on the class practicals and the evaluation of an unseen study. |
| Paper 3 (HL only) | HL only | 30% · 1 hour 45 min | Analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative research data from one of the HL extensions. |
| Internal assessment | 30% · 20 hours | 20% · 20 hours | Research proposal using one of the four research methods from the class practicals. |
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 Psychology syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
Concepts
Bias · Causality · Change · Measurement · Perspective · Responsibility
Content
Biological · Cognitive · Sociocultural
Contexts
Health and well-being · Human development · Human relationships · Learning and cognition
Research
Class practicals · Research methods · Data analysis and interpretation (HL)
Where IB Psychology marks are usually lost
Learning studies instead of concepts
Questions now ask students to apply a concept or a piece of content to an unseen situation, or to write an extended response through one of the course concepts. Students who have memorised lists of studies tend to describe them at length and miss the question. What earns marks is using the evidence: showing how a study sheds light on bias, causality or change in the context the question names.
Vague answers about your own practicals
Paper 2 asks about the class practicals the student carried out — interview or focus group, observation, survey and experiment — and may ask them to explain a concept in relation to one, compare methods, or design another study on the same topic. Students who cannot recall precisely what they did, why, and with what limitations lose marks that should be easy. Notes kept on each practical prevent this.
Evaluating a study with stock phrases
Paper 2 also includes an unseen study to evaluate with reference to concepts such as bias, causality, measurement or responsibility. Generic criticism — “the sample was small”, “it lacks ecological validity” — earns little unless it is tied to this study’s design and explains why the problem matters for its conclusions. Students need practice reading a method quickly and spotting what actually limits the findings.
The IB Psychology internal assessment
The internal assessment is now a research proposal at both SL and HL, replacing the experimental report of the previous course. The student designs a proposal to investigate a topic in relation to a specified population of interest, using one of the four research methods met in the class practicals. A tutor can help a student narrow a broad interest into a researchable question, think through which method fits it and why, and consider ethics, sampling and how the course concepts bear on the design. The proposal itself must be the student’s own work.
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 Psychology
A tutor teaches the new IB Psychology course from the concepts outward. Each topic starts from a question about real behaviour in one of the four contexts — health and well-being, human development, human relationships, learning and cognition — and works through biological, cognitive and sociocultural explanations, with research used as evidence rather than as stories to retell. Students practise applying content to short unseen scenarios and writing concept-based extended responses against the clock. Because the course is new, the tutor works from the IB’s material for the new syllabus and the resources the school uses, and flags older resources written for the previous course. HL students also work on the extensions — culture, motivation and technology — and practise interpreting graphs and data from several sources for Paper 3.
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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