IB Physics · Online, one-to-one · SL & HL
An IB Physics tutor for Amsterdam families — a direct diagnosis, not a vague reassurance.
Renzo Diaz is an IB Physics tutor based in Milan, teaching one-to-one online across both levels — Standard and Higher Level, current syllabus (first assessment 2025) — in the same Central European time zone as Amsterdam. His strongest documented Physics recovery, a Grade 3 to a Grade 7 in IB Physics SL, was delivered entirely online: the same method, wherever the student is based. Application-only, with every case documented.
The Netherlands has one of the highest concentrations of international schools in Europe relative to its size, built around a large multinational corporate and diplomatic presence in and around Amsterdam. Physics is often where a "doing fine" school update and the actual exam-day picture diverge fastest, because the exam rewards applying a principle under pressure, not reciting it.
Physics rarely fails at the physics alone. More often it fails at the mathematics underneath it — the algebra, the unit handling, the graph reading — carried in from a different subject entirely. Diagnosing which one is breaking, before building a plan, is the first job. Amsterdam's IB World Schools — the International School of Amsterdam and Amsterdam International Community School among them — run the same syllabus, so the diagnostic applies the same way regardless of which one your child attends.
The unexplained Grade 4: the report says it, nobody can say why.
School reports record outcomes, not causes: a grade, a comment, rarely the reason underneath. In IB Physics the gap between a grade and its cause is wider than in most subjects, because Physics can break at the physics — a misapplied principle, a missing free-body diagram — or at the mathematics underneath it. Before any plan is built, I diagnose the exact step where the reasoning broke.
SL vs. HL: the choice, made with half the information.
International schools ask families to lock SL or HL while the student has never sat a real IB Physics paper. The choice shapes university options — physics, engineering, architecture, natural sciences — and is expensive to reverse mid-Diploma. I walk families through both levels with real exam material before the school deadline, including what each university faculty actually requires.
Mid-Diploma transfer: arrived from another curriculum, partway through.
Amsterdam's international-school population includes a steady flow of relocating families, and a student arriving mid-Diploma from a different curriculum inherits the IB clock with gaps shaped by whatever they studied before. The first month is structural triage: find where the previous curriculum left holes, rebuild those, and align to the new school's assessment calendar from the next mock onward.
The "he's fine" plateau: reassurance from school, no actual movement in the grade.
A school update that a student is "doing fine" is not the same as a specific answer to what, exactly, is capping the grade. Where school feedback stays general, the diagnostic session gets specific: which topic, which step, which exam habit — named precisely enough to actually work on.
The syllabus change: it landed mid-course, and revision materials are still catching up.
The IB changed the Physics syllabus — new guide, first assessment 2025, new paper structure. Published revision materials are lagging the current guide almost everywhere, not just in one school system. I teach the syllabus as it is now, verified against the IB's official documentation, not the materials that haven't caught up.
Coverage
Both IB Physics levels. Find the one your child is sitting.
SL and HL share the same five themes but differ in depth, pace, and the AHL content that appears on Paper 2. Each level has its own page with the situations, syllabus coverage and exam technique specific to it.
What's actually examined
The exam your child is sitting.
The IB Physics syllabus was restructured for first assessment 2025 — five themes, 24 topics, with a genuinely new paper component. SL and HL share the same structure at different depth; both are shown below.
| Paper | Duration | Marks | Weight | What it tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 (SL) | 90 minutes, calculator allowed | 45 marks (30 multiple-choice + data analysis) | 36% | Multiple-choice plus a data-analysis component new to this syllabus. |
| Paper 1 (HL) | 120 minutes, calculator allowed | 60 marks (40 multiple-choice + data analysis) | 36% | Same structure as SL, deeper data-analysis component. |
| Paper 2 (SL) | 90 minutes, calculator allowed | 55 marks | 44% | Short-answer and extended-response questions. |
| Paper 2 (HL) | 150 minutes, calculator allowed | 90 marks | 44% | Same format as SL, across the full HL syllabus. |
| Internal Assessment (both levels) | Across the two-year Diploma | 24 marks (4 criteria × 6) | 20% | Scientific Investigation, student-designed. |
The method
A documented weekly system — the same one, wherever your child studies.
Every week opens with last week's wrong answers, because wrong answers are the cheapest source of marks. We work on what is live from school, advance the syllabus in order, and hold the same rhythm through mock weeks, IA deadlines and report cycles. Every session is recorded, summarised, and archived into a searchable library your child keeps for the entire Diploma.
Documented, public on Google
The same evidence standard, wherever the student is based.
The method does not depend on geography — it depends on rhythm. The strongest documented Physics result is a Grade 3 to a Grade 7 in IB Physics SL, delivered entirely online. That is proof the method travels, not proof it depends on being nearby.
It sits alongside 19 public Google reviews averaging 4.9 stars, each one open on the Business Profile under the reviewer's own name and date. Open the profile and check the names, the dates, and the full text yourself.
Real admission requirements
Where the IB score actually leads.
The IB score isn't the only thing universities look at — but for competitive Physics and Engineering courses, Physics HL itself is usually non-negotiable, even where the exact science-subject rules are more flexible than families are told.
| University | Requirement | Note |
|---|---|---|
| University of Oxford | Physics: 39 points including core, HL pattern around 7-6-6 | Physics and Mathematics both required at Higher Level. |
| University of Cambridge | 41-42 points, 7-7-6 at Higher Level | Engineering and Natural Sciences require Physics HL plus Math AA HL specifically — AI HL is not accepted. |
| Imperial College London | Minimum 40 points with 6 in Physics HL and 6 in Math HL; competitive offers run 7 and 7 | Math AA is preferred over AI, though both are formally accepted. |
| TU Delft | Physics HL required for most Bachelor's programmes | Paired with a Math AA HL requirement for nearly all programmes — AI HL is not accepted. Aerospace Engineering is capped at 440 places a year. |
Related pages
Ready to see if this is the right fit for your child?
Two free conversations come before anyone commits to anything. If I don't think the system will move your child meaningfully, I will tell you directly — I'd rather lose a client than take on a case I can't help.