IB Physics · Online, one-to-one · SL & HL
An online IB Physics tutor for international-school families in Germany, on German time.
Renzo Diaz is an IB Physics tutor based in Italy, teaching IB since 2016 and teaching one-to-one online across both levels — Standard and Higher Level, current syllabus (first assessment 2025). For TUM, the first step is recognition of the Diploma, and the Physics BSc itself is taught in German. His strongest documented Physics result, Blake Eustaquio's Grade 3 to a final Grade 7 in IB Physics SL in May 2025, was delivered entirely online: the same method, wherever the student is based. His teaching record carries a 4.9 / 5 rating on Google from 19 public reviews since June 2020 (as of October 2026). Milan is on the same time zone as Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin, so lessons fit straight after school, and the first step is a free 45-minute strategy call. Lessons are in English or Spanish.
Two questions are easily confused. TUM's guidance for IB applicants explains how the Diploma is recognised — a uni-assist preliminary review that converts the grades and checks the subject combination. The TUM Physics BSc describes the degree itself: taught in German, with the first four semesters devoted to mathematics alongside experimental and theoretical physics. A family's checklist needs both — recognition, language, and the student's real ability to use mathematical methods in physics.
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. Germany's IB World Schools — in Munich, Munich International School and Bavarian International School among them — run the same syllabus, so the diagnostic applies the same way regardless of which one your child attends.
IB Physics tutor for families in Germany: the key facts
- Teaching IB since
- April 2016, with a dated record on the About page
- Rating on Google
- 4.9 / 5 from 19 public reviews, with a review in every calendar year since 2020 (as of October 2026)
- Documented IB Physics result
- A final 7 in IB Physics SL, from a 3, in the first exams of the current course (May 2025)
- Courses
- IB Physics SL and HL on the current course (first exams 2025), one-to-one online, in English or Spanish
- Time zone
- Milan (CET), the same as Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin, so lessons fit straight after school
- German universities
- Recognition asks for 24 points, at least a 4 in each subject, three HL subjects, and HL Maths for science and engineering
- Students in Germany
- Currently teaching IB students in Germany, online from Milan
- First step
- A free 45-minute strategy call: 15 minutes with a parent, then 30 with the student on a topic they choose
- Lesson record
- Every programme includes the session recording, an AI-generated summary and a searchable archive
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.
A posting to Germany often lands a family mid-way through their child's schooling, 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 fixed-posting timeline: one shot at the Diploma, no room for a slow start.
When a family's time in one place is tied to a defined posting, there usually isn't a second attempt at getting the Diploma right. A diagnostic approach in the first term — finding exactly where a student's Physics reasoning is weakest, before a full year of teaching builds on top of it — matters more here than in a more open-ended timeline.
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 (25 multiple-choice + 20 data-based) | 36% | Multiple-choice plus a data-analysis component new to this syllabus. |
| Paper 1 (HL) | 120 minutes, calculator allowed | 60 marks (40 multiple-choice + 20 data-based) | 36% | Same structure as SL, with 40 multiple-choice questions that include HL material. |
| Paper 2 (SL) | 90 minutes, calculator allowed | 50 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.
The diagnosis starts from one energy question. A 2 kg object rises 3 m: its gain in gravitational potential energy is about mgh = 2 × 9.8 × 3 = 58.8 J. If it then slides back down against friction, not all 58.8 J becomes kinetic energy. Ask the student to define the system and account for every transfer before writing an equation. A student who recalls mgh but assumes 'all the energy becomes motion' needs conceptual work, not more formulas. Bring a recent marked physics answer to the strategy call.
Documented · public reviews since 2020
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 Blake Eustaquio's: a 3 on his first Diploma report card to a final Grade 7 in IB Physics SL, May 2025, taught entirely online while he studied at the Metropolitan School of Panama (the documented IB Physics SL result). That is proof the method travels, not proof it depends on being nearby.
It sits alongside 19 public reviews behind a 4.9 / 5 rating on Google (as of October 2026), each verifiable on Google, 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.
For a family in Germany the table below usually includes TUM, where the first hurdle is recognition, not a points target. How the two Physics levels differ in practice is in Physics HL vs SL. The German rule, with its grade conversion, is set out in the Swiss and German rules.
| University | Requirement | Note |
|---|---|---|
| University of Oxford | Physics: 39 points including core, 766 at HL, with the 7 in Physics or Maths | Physics and Mathematics expected at Higher Level; either Maths course, AA or AI, is accepted at HL. |
| University of Cambridge | 41-42 points, 7-7-6 at Higher Level | Engineering asks for Maths AA and Physics at HL; Natural Sciences (Physical) expects AA and is best applied for with Physics and Maths. A student whose school does not offer AA should contact a College. |
| Imperial College London | Physics: minimum 40 points with 7 in HL Physics and HL Maths and 6 in a third HL subject; typical offer 42 | Math AA is preferred over AI, though both are formally accepted. |
| TU Munich (TUM) | IB recognition: 24 points, at least a 4 in each subject, three subjects at HL and a natural science | The Physics BSc is taught in German, has no selection procedure, and gives its first four semesters to mathematics alongside experimental and theoretical physics. |
What does TUM need from an IB Diploma for Physics?
Can you help us choose between SL and HL before the school deadline?
We're on a fixed posting and won't be in Germany for the whole Diploma. Does that change anything?
Can you really go from a Grade 3 to a Grade 7 in IB Physics?
How do we start?
Related pages
Ready to see if this is the right fit for your child?
The strategy call is free and commits you to nothing. 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.