IB Tutor in Zurich for Maths and Physics, with a PhD in Physics

As an IB tutor I cover two subjects only: IB Mathematics, both Analysis and Approaches (AA) and Applications and Interpretation (AI), and IB Physics, each at Higher and Standard Level. That includes the Internal Assessment in both subjects, HL Paper 3 in Maths, and exam technique on past papers marked against the IB markscheme.

Every student starts from a diagnosis, not from chapter one. In the first lesson I look at a recent test or mock paper and separate three things that look the same on a report card: a concept that was never understood, a method that is known but slow, and marks lost in how the answer is written. Each one needs different work.

• IB Maths AA HL and SL, including HL Paper 3
• IB Maths AI HL and SL, including calculator technique
• IB Physics HL and SL on the current guide (first exams 2025)
• Maths and Physics Internal Assessment: topic, structure, criteria
• IGCSE and MYP Maths and Physics as the foundation for the Diploma

Zurich and Zug have one of the two largest groups of IB schools in Switzerland, and they reach the Diploma by three different routes. Inter-Community School Zurich and ISZL in Zug teach the Middle Years Programme first. Institut Montana teaches IGCSE first. SIS and Obersee run a bilingual Swiss programme that leads to the Federal Matura and the IB Diploma together.

The route matters for Maths and Physics. A student arriving in DP1 from IGCSE usually has solid algebra and little practice in writing mathematics in sentences, which is exactly what the Internal Assessment and HL Paper 3 reward. A student arriving from the MYP is often the opposite: comfortable explaining and investigating, less drilled in algebraic technique. The first term of the Diploma is where that difference shows.

That third route is particular to Switzerland. Students at SIS and Obersee carry the Matura and the IB at once, which makes the workload in Maths and Physics heavier than at a school that teaches the IB alone. Not every international school here teaches the Diploma: Hull’s School and Academia International School follow IGCSE and then A-Levels.

Because a lesson can go where it fits the student’s week, not where two clocks happen to overlap. Zurich and I are on the same time, all year, so a lesson at 5 pm is at 5 pm for both of us. Tutors teaching from Asia or the Americas cannot offer that, and families notice it as soon as the timetable gets busy.

In practice that means a fixed slot straight after school, before sport and homework, that stays put through the year. A lesson that keeps moving around the week is the first thing a busy DP2 student drops when the mocks arrive.

Lessons happen on a video call with a shared whiteboard. The student writes on it too, so I see the working as it appears and not only the final answer. After every lesson a written report goes to the parents: what we covered, what went wrong, and what to practise before the next one.

My IB tutoring is CHF 130 per lesson, invoiced monthly, at one or two lessons a week. Each lesson is 50 minutes, one to one.

Exam months and a second subject cost more, and are agreed after the first lesson. There are no packages and no volume discounts. Nothing longer than the month is required, and the first lesson, 50 minutes one to one, is paid by card when you book.

For scale: a repeated year at a top international school in Zurich or Geneva costs from CHF 40,000 in fees alone.

Swiss international schools sit the May session. For students taking the May 2027 exams, which run from late April to mid-May, the useful moment to start is before the mock exams, not after them. The deadlines that arrive first are internal: the Maths and Physics IA drafts, set by each school months before the written papers.

The Swiss school year runs from mid-August to mid-June, so the first year of the Diploma starts in late summer and the IA season falls through the autumn and winter of the second year. The first term of DP1 is when the gap between the previous course and Diploma pace shows up, and it is the cheapest moment to close it, because nothing has been built on top of the gap yet.