IB Physics · Online, one-to-one · SL & HL
An online IB Physics tutor for families in Switzerland, on Swiss 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 ETH Zurich, Physics is one of three sciences that can meet the Higher Level science condition, alongside HL Mathematics. 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 Zurich and Geneva, so lessons fit straight after school, and the first step is a free 45-minute strategy call. Lessons are in English or Spanish.
The ETH admission requirements name a Higher Level science among several conditions, and they work as one Diploma configuration: for 2026/27, 38 of 42 points without bonus, HL Mathematics, HL Physics, Chemistry or Biology, and an HL Language A. A single Physics grade does not secure the place on its own. ETH also teaches its bachelor programmes mainly in German, so the language plan sits in the same conversation as the subject plan.
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. Switzerland's IB World Schools — in Zurich, Zurich International School and Inter-Community School Zürich among them — sit the same syllabus, so the diagnostic applies the same way regardless of which one your child attends.
IB Physics tutor for families in Switzerland: 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 Zurich, Geneva and Basel, so lessons fit straight after school
- ETH Zurich
- HL Physics can meet ETH’s Higher Level science condition, alongside HL Mathematics
- 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.
Switzerland absorbs a steady flow of relocating families, and a student arriving mid-Diploma from a different curriculum inherits the Diploma 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 high-expectations plateau: the effort is real, the standard is high, and the grade won't move.
In a cohort where the baseline is already strong, a plateau rarely means a student is behind — it means the remaining gap is narrow and specific: a derivation habit, an unfamiliar-context question, a unit slip under time pressure. Closing a narrow gap takes a more precise diagnosis, not more hours of the same practice.
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 set of measurements. Five readings of a pendulum's length: 0.98, 0.99, 1.00, 1.01 and 1.02 m. The mean is 1.00 m, but reporting 'exactly 1.00 m' hides the spread. Ask what the spread says, what could cause it and how to improve the method, and you see whether the student can move from a number to an evidence-based physics explanation — the same skill the internal assessment rewards. Bring a recent marked practical or written 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 Switzerland the table below usually includes ETH. Its row is a whole-Diploma condition, so a Physics decision is made alongside the Maths level and the points total, not on its own. How the two Physics levels differ in practice is in Physics HL vs SL. ETH's and EPFL's full conditions are 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. |
| ETH Zurich | 38 out of 42 points, excluding Core bonus points | HL Physics is one of three accepted sciences, with Chemistry and Biology, alongside HL Mathematics (AA or AI) and HL Language A — 2026/27 intake. |
Does ETH Zurich require Physics at Higher Level?
Can you help us choose between SL and HL before the school deadline?
Do you teach the current Physics syllabus or the old one?
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.