International Baccalaureate (IB) Physics Tuition: 2025 Guide for Higher Level (HL) & Standard Level (SL) Candidates
Download printable cheat-sheet (CC-BY 4.0)11 Jul 2025, 00:00 Z
Join our Telegram study groupQ: What does International Baccalaureate (IB) Physics Tuition: 2025 Guide for Higher Level (HL) & Standard Level (SL) Candidates cover?
A: Major syllabus changes in 2023 mean one Internal Assessment now drives 20 % of the grade.
TL;DR
The 2023 IB Physics syllabus compressed Papers 1 & 2, scrapped Paper 3 and shifted all practical skills into a single 10-hour Internal Assessment worth 20 %. Yet the mean global grade in May 2024 sat at 4.9 for Higher Level (HL) and 4.2 for Standard Level (SL) despite the lighter exam load.
Specialist tuition that blends concept transfer (fields ↔ mechanics), IA data-analysis coaching and timed-paper stamina can lift grades by one to two bands within a semester.
1 | IB Physics 2023-25 - What Actually Changed
| Old syllabus (2016-22) | New syllabus (first exams 2025) |
| Paper 1 (MCQ) 30 % + Paper 2 (extended) 36 % + Paper 3 (options) 24 % + IA 20 % | Paper 1 (MCQ+data) 30 % + Paper 2 (extended) 50 % + Paper 3 removed; IA still 20 % but now the sole practical component |
| 60 hours of "additional higher level" (AHL) topics | Re-clustered 20 "skills" across core & options; HL adds depth, not breadth |
Key pain-point - students used to bank on the specialist options in Paper 3 (Astrophysics, Medical, Eng Physics). Now all HL & SL sit the same theory, so weak fundamental links (e.g., energy-field dualities) cost more marks.
1.1 Assessment weights at a glance
| Component | SL | HL | What tutors target |
