IB Physics · Based in Milan · Online, one-to-one · SL & HL
An IB Physics tutor for Milan families — who already knows your child's school system.
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). His Milan physics case — a student's move from IGCSE Maths into IB Physics HL over several years — is a public Google review, reproduced in full on the results page. His strongest documented Physics recovery — a Grade 3 to Grade 7 in IB Physics SL — was delivered entirely online, for a family outside Italy: the same method, wherever the student is based. Application-only, with every case publicly documented.
Milan international schools run on their own rhythm: iSAMS progress comments, specific internal-assessment calendars, DP1 subject-choice windows that lock in during Year 11, and mock weeks that don't always align across schools. Most of that context is invisible from outside the system, and most tutoring never accounts for it.
When a school report arrives, I know what it measures, what it omits, and what to do about it before the next parent meeting — not after it. That comes from years of working directly with Milan school systems and families, not from being nearby.
The unexplained Grade 4: the report card says it, nobody can say why.
School systems like iSAMS record outcomes, not causes: a grade, a comment, sometimes a commendation — 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 physics: the DP1 choice, made with half the information.
Milan international schools ask families to lock SL or HL while the student has never seen an IB Physics paper. The choice shapes university options — physics, engineering, architecture, natural sciences — and it 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.
Milan absorbs a lot of relocating families, and a student arriving from Singapore, Dubai, London or a US high school inherits the IB clock mid-cycle with gaps shaped by a different syllabus. The first month is structural triage: find where the previous curriculum left holes, rebuild those, and align to the Milan school's assessment calendar from the next mock onwards.
Liceo-to-IB transition: your child comes from the Italian system.
The passage from liceo scientifico physics to IB Physics is wider than most families expect: different notation conventions, a calculator policy that varies by paper, a marking culture that rewards visible reasoning rather than just the final answer, and a data-analysis component that has no equivalent in the Italian state system. The gap is translation, not ability, and it closes fast once named.
The syllabus change: it landed mid-course, and your school is still catching up.
The IB changed the Physics syllabus — new guide, first assessment 2025, new paper structure. Schools are still calibrating, and published revision materials are lagging the current guide. 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.
The method
A documented weekly system, familiar with the Milan school calendar.
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 plan around what Milan school calendars actually contain: mock weeks, IA deadlines, 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 physics recoveries are public on Google — the same rigor as every subject I teach.
My Milan Mathematics cases on the results page are named students' public Google reviews, linked to their originals. Physics evidence is held to the same standard: named students, public Google reviews, each one you can open and read yourself.
The strongest documented Physics result on this site is a Grade 3 to Grade 7 in IB Physics SL, delivered entirely online for a family outside Italy — proof the method travels, not proof it depends on being nearby.
The Milan-specific physics case is a student who moved from IGCSE Maths into IB Physics HL with me over several years. Her review is public on Google and reproduced in full on the results page.
Milan cases, public on Google
“I've been working with Renzo for the past years. Firstly helping me with IGCSE maths and later with IB Physics HL. Throughout these years, he has been an incredible teacher. One of the things I appreciated the most about his teaching is that he never simply explained the exercise I was struggling with. Instead, he would always try to identify the root of my confusion, taking time to fill in the knowledge gaps. Additionally, he was always looking for new ways to explain complex concepts or exercises, making sure I understood everything in depth.”
Beyond Milan, same method
“I cannot recommend working with Renzo enough. When I first started working with Renzo in the first year of my IB journey, I was struggling a lot with Physics and Math Applications (where my first report card scored 3 & 4). Also, at this time the IB changed the syllabus and created new papers making class in school a blind test. Despite this difficulty, Renzo adapted fully and helped me bring both classes from low grades up to 7's.”
“I prepared with Renzo for both my Physics SL and Maths HL IB exams. I had a lot of problems regarding self-confidence as well as comprehending some of the concepts and understanding how to approach the problems presented. However, Renzo managed to help me navigate through these issues and achieve what I wanted, managing to get a 7 in Physics as well as a 5 in Maths, having been only one mark away from a 6.”
“Renzo has been helping me with physics and math throughout the 2-year course of IB. As tough and challenging as the programme can be, Renzo has guided and helped me so much in understanding the fundamental concepts of the courses. My knowledge and understanding has dramatically boosted as a result of our classes, and I was very well prepared for both exams.”
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.