| Component | Max | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100 | 38 | 50 | 61 | 73 |
| Internal assessment | 24 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 |
| Paper 1 (multiple choice) | 39 | 17 | 21 | 25 | 29 |
| Paper 2 | 90 | 26 | 38 | 49 | 61 |
| Paper 3 | 45 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 |
| Component | Max | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100 | 38 | 49 | 61 | 73 |
| Internal assessment | 24 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 |
| Paper 1 (multiple choice) | 30 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 21 |
| Paper 2 | 50 | 19 | 25 | 31 | 37 |
| Paper 3 | 35 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 26 |
Paper 1
Multiple-choice papers judged fair by most schools, with a spread of difficulty giving a normal mark distribution; ratio reasoning, polarizers and graph reading caused the most trouble.
Found difficult
- uncertainty propagation
- polarization
- simple harmonic motion
- thin-film interference
- alternating current
- quantum tunnelling
- proportional reasoning
| Q | Topic | How it went | Where marks were lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| HL1 / SL1 | uncertainty of a quantity involving a constant | Most struggled | unsure how a constant affects the propagated uncertaintyTip: Remember that exact constants carry no uncertainty and do not change the fractional uncertainty. |
| HL2 / SL4 | projectile velocity components | Answered well | lost track of the sign of vertical velocityTip: Fix a positive direction and keep track of the sign of vertical velocity. |
| HL3 / SL5 | mechanics item (content not described) | Mixed | a popular distractor beat the key at SL |
| HL9 / SL11 | ideal gas with temperature and volume both doubled | Mixed | assumed doubling both quantities cancels outTip: Write the gas law and substitute the changes rather than guessing they cancel. |
| HL11 / SL13 | phase and acceleration in simple harmonic motion | Most struggled | confused link between displacement and acceleration; unsure how phase relates to radiansTip: Recall that acceleration is opposite and proportional to displacement in SHM. |
| HL15 / SL18 | direction of current | Most struggled | treated electron flow as conventional currentTip: Check whether the question asks about electron flow or conventional current. |
| HL19 / SL24 | relative strength of fundamental forces | Answered well | misjudged gravity versus electromagnetic strength (SL) |
| HL20 / SL25 | beta-plus decay products | Mixed | unsure whether a neutrino or antineutrino is emittedTip: Learn that beta-plus decay emits a positron with a neutrino. |
| HL23 / SL29 | ratio calculation | Mixed | guessing at SLTip: Practise solving MCQs by forming ratios of the relevant equations. |
| HL 6 | electric force and charge | Mixed | assumed smaller charge always means smaller force |
| HL 7 | momentum (ambiguous wording) | Mixed | question had no strictly correct answer |
| HL 10 | gas calculation with temperature | Most struggled | kept temperature in degrees Celsius instead of kelvinTip: Always convert temperatures to kelvin in gas law calculations. |
| HL 14 | intensity through two polarizers | Most struggled | forgot the first polarizer halves the intensity; struggled to work backwards from transmitted intensityTip: Apply the polarizer rules step by step through every filter. |
| HL 24 | nuclear reactor components | Answered well | mixed up control rods and moderatorTip: Know that control rods absorb neutrons while the moderator slows them. |
| HL 26 | energy ratio in simple harmonic motion | Mixed | inverted the final ratio; linked displacement directly to total energyTip: Use the SHM energy expressions to compare kinetic and total energy algebraically. |
| HL 27 | number of maxima from a diffraction grating | Most struggled | rounded n = 2.5 up to 3; forgot orders appear on both sides of centreTip: Take the integer part of n and count orders on both sides plus the central maximum. |
| HL 28 | phase change in thin-film interference | Most struggled | assumed no phase change on reflectionTip: Check each reflecting surface for a half-wavelength phase change. |
| HL 29 | Doppler effect from a moving train | Mixed | missed that frequency kept decreasingTip: Read whether the frequency is changing over time, not just lower. |
| HL 30 | gravitational field and potential graphs | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| HL 32 | field from charges at square corners | Mixed | used side length instead of the diagonalTip: Sketch the geometry to find the correct distances. |
| HL 33 | emf induced by changing flux in a coil | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| HL 35 | alternating current graph | Most struggled | read 10 A as the peak current from the graphTip: Check what quantity the graph axis actually shows before calculating. |
| HL 36 | item not described | Most struggled | many blanks |
| HL 38 | deviations from Rutherford scattering | Mixed | answered about Rutherford scattering itself, not deviationsTip: Read the stem carefully for qualifiers such as deviations from. |
| HL 40 | quantum tunnelling | Most struggled | linked barrier height to tunnelling incorrectly |
| SL 3 | work done when extension changes | Most struggled | scaled work linearly with extensionTip: Elastic work depends on extension squared; apply the ratio carefully. |
| SL 9 | calculation item | Answered well | power of ten error |
| SL 12 | calculation item | Mixed | power of ten errorTip: Handle powers of ten by hand carefully in Paper 1. |
| SL 14 | oscillation graph | Mixed | picked the curve typical of SHM by reflex |
| SL 16 | Snell's law and total internal reflection | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| SL 17 | intensity through polarizers | Mixed | struggled to work back to source intensity |
| SL 20 | circuit with a lamp | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| SL 26 | half-life with background count | Mixed | counted the wrong number of half-lives; ignored background count rateTip: Subtract background before counting half-lives. |
| SL 27 | charge-to-mass ratio | Most struggled | compared total masses instead of charge-to-mass ratios |
What to practise
- Use MCQs throughout the course as warm-ups and diagnostic tools, not only as exam practice.
- Teach mental arithmetic with powers of ten and cancelling explicitly.
- Practise ratio methods for predicting the effect of changing one variable.
- Visualise the situation and eliminate wrong options using units and extreme values.
- Read every word of the stem; similar-looking past questions can mislead.
Paper 2
Length and difficulty matched earlier sessions; early SL mechanics and gases went well, while explanation-heavy items on cells, half-life, capacitors and photoelectricity were weak.
Found difficult
- work and energy
- internal resistance
- half-life
- nuclear energy release
- gravitational potential energy
- capacitors
- photoelectric effect
Well prepared
- momentum and impulse
- vectors
- kinematics
- projectile motion
- gas laws
- refraction
- resistivity
| Q | Topic | How it went | Where marks were lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1a | momentum conservation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 1b | energy transfer in a collision | Mixed | ignored work done deforming the target |
| 1c | force diagram with tension and weight | Mixed | diagrams too small or untidy; arrows not starting at point of application; missing labelsTip: Draw forces from the point of application with a ruler and label them. |
| 1d (HL) | energy conservation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 2ai | velocity vector on a path | Answered well | vector not drawn from point P |
| 2aii | acceleration direction of a projectile | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 2bi (HL) | horizontal velocity of a projectile | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 2bii (HL) / 2b (SL) | projectile height | Mixed | forgot to add the launch height; treated downward acceleration as positiveTip: Set a sign convention and include the starting height. |
| 3a | verifying Boyle's law from a graph | Mixed | assumed pV constant without using graph valuesTip: In show-that items, use several data pairs to demonstrate the relationship. |
| 3b | gas law calculation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 3c | microscopic explanation of pressure | Mixed | could not link molecular kinetic energy to pressure clearly |
| 4a | refraction calculation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 4b | wave entering a faster medium | Mixed | did not state frequency stays the sameTip: State that frequency is unchanged, then deduce the wavelength change. |
| 4cii (HL) | total internal reflection ray | Answered well | ray drawn perpendicular to another ray |
| 4d | direction of polarization | Most struggled | guessed the direction |
| 5a | emf and internal resistance | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 5bi | parallel resistors | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 5bii | internal resistance explanation | Most struggled | unclear idea of work done driving current through the cell |
| 5c | resistivity calculation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 6a | definition of half-life | Most struggled | said mass halves instead of number of nucleiTip: Define half-life using the number of undecayed nuclei. |
| 6b | half-life calculation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 6c | identifying the alpha particle | Answered well | named a wrong nuclide |
| 6di | nuclear binding energy arithmetic | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 6dii (HL) | energy per kilogram of nuclear fuel | Most struggled | stopped after finding reactant mass |
| 6diii (HL) | comparing fuel energy densities | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 6dii (SL) | mass converted to energy | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 7a | greenhouse gas absorption | Mixed | omitted that more Earth radiation is absorbed |
| 7b | Stefan-Boltzmann temperature | Mixed | did not add the intensities |
| 8a (HL) | gravitational potential energy difference | Most struggled | quoted the data booklet without derivingTip: When asked to deduce, show the reasoning rather than quoting a formula. |
| 8bi (HL) | field strength from a potential graph | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 8bii (HL) | gravitational field calculation | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 8ci (HL) | change of g with small change in radius | Mixed | could not explain the effect on g |
| 8cii (HL) | orbital energy | Most struggled | missed that total energy is half the potential energy |
| 8a, 8b (SL) | circular motion calculation | Answered well | Nothing specific reported.Tip: In show-that items give one more significant figure than the stated value. |
| 9a (HL) | SHM energy graph amplitude | Answered well | read amplitude from the wrong axis |
| 9b (HL) | SHM energy sketch | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 9c (HL) | half oscillation from graph | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 9di (HL) | period from energy and amplitude | Mixed | found k but could not reach T |
| 9dii (HL) | force in SHM | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| 10ai (HL) | capacitor charging | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 10aii (HL) | current during capacitor charging | Most struggled | muddled explanation mixing two approachesTip: Pick one argument, such as p.d. across R and C, and follow it through. |
| 10b (HL) | current direction | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 10c (HL) | energy change in a capacitor | Mixed | used area under graph wronglyTip: Find energy change by subtracting stored energies at the two voltages. |
| 10d (HL) | smoothing in full-wave rectification | Most struggled | could not explain smoothing via charge storage and release |
| 11a (HL) | photoelectric effect explanation | Most struggled | did not say photon energy is proportional to frequency; missed comparison with work functionTip: Explain threshold frequency by comparing photon energy with the work function. |
| 11bi (HL) | stopping potential | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| 11bii (HL) | saturation photocurrent | Most struggled | did not link emission rate to intensity |
| 11ci (HL) | photoelectric calculation | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 11cii (HL) | kinetic energy of photoelectrons | Mixed | confused kinetic energy with work function |
What to practise
- Make sure students can define key quantities such as capacitance and work function precisely.
- Practise command terms on real questions rather than abstractly.
- Lay out working clearly so errors can be followed and carried forward.
- Draw diagrams and vectors neatly with labels and units.
- Check whether numerical answers are physically reasonable.
Paper 3
Section A on data handling and the four options were well balanced; calculations went well but explanations and careful reading were weaker. Astrophysics and Engineering were the most popular options.
Found difficult
- systematic errors
- significant figures
- uncertainty propagation
- simultaneity
- spacetime diagrams
- rotational dynamics
- conservation of angular momentum
- optical instruments
- optical fibres
- Cepheid variables
- relativistic energy and momentum
- fluid dynamics
- medical imaging
- nucleosynthesis
Well prepared
- graph analysis
| Q | Topic | How it went | Where marks were lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | speed of sound from echo timing data | Mixed | halved the speed by ignoring the return trip; applied standing wave theory wrongly; best-fit line drawn without a rulerTip: Account for the echo travelling there and back. |
| 2 | specific heat capacity of water | Mixed | too many significant figures; could not outline effect of the systematic errorTip: State how a systematic error shifts the measured value, not just its source. |
| 3 | proper length | Answered well | Nothing specific reported. |
| 4 | relative velocity and simultaneity | Most struggled | could not show events were not simultaneous |
| 5 | two frames on one spacetime diagram | Most struggled | could not read coordinates in the second frame |
| 6 (HL) | relativistic momentum of an accelerated particle | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| 7 (HL) | bending of light and gravitational frequency shift | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 8 / SL6 | rolling down an incline | Mixed | ignored larger moment of inertia of the ring; used L for angular momentum instead of length |
| 9 / SL7 | orbiting planet and angular momentum | Mixed | discussed only one of linear or angular momentumTip: When asked about two quantities, address both. |
| 10 / SL8 | Carnot cycle | Mixed | illogical explanations missing a key idea; efficiency calculation wrong |
| 11 (HL) | fluid flow in a pipe | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 12 (HL) | damping and Q factor | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
| 13 / SL9 | diverging lens | Mixed | drew a converging lens diagram |
| 14 / SL10 | optical compound microscope | Most struggled | sign convention errors; numerical slipsTip: Apply the real-is-positive sign convention consistently. |
| 15 / SL11 | optical fibres and dispersion | Mixed | weak qualitative explanations |
| 16 (HL) | medical imaging methods | Mixed | could not explain acoustic impedance; could not explain NMR contrast |
| 17 / SL12 | stellar distances and Cepheids | Mixed | Wien's law not used; Cepheid variation poorly explained |
| 18 / SL13 | expansion of the universe | Mixed | explanations weaker than calculations |
| 19 (HL) | red supergiants and r process | Most struggled | Nothing specific reported. |
| 20 (HL) | rotation curves and dark matter | Mixed | Nothing specific reported. |
What to practise
- Practise graph analysis and discussion of random versus systematic errors.
- Answer the question asked; do not assume it matches a past paper.
- Give feedback on concise, logical written explanations.
- Learn the updated command terms, including those used in the IA.
Internal assessment
What moderators raised about the scientific investigation this session, criterion by criterion.
- Personal engagement. interest claimed artificially; all three descriptors needed for full marks
- Exploration. background copied from textbooks instead of giving only the relevant equation
- Exploration. key concepts like range versus path or efficiency misunderstood in methodology
- Analysis. max/min gradient lines drawn from first and last points only, ignoring the rest
- Analysis. correlation coefficient misused when data have uncertainties; unjustified linear or polynomial fits
- Evaluation. linear with negative gradient wrongly called inversely proportional; superficial discussion of method
- Communication. loose terminology (speed/velocity, linear/proportional) and padded reference lists of unused sources
About this summary
After every session the IB sends schools a subject report: how candidates did on each paper and question, and what teachers should work on. This page is my reading of the Physics report for May 2024 TZ1, in my own words. No text from the report or from the exam questions is reproduced, and it is not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate.
This session was one of the last on the 2014 Physics syllabus (Papers 1, 2 and 3 with options); from May 2025 the papers are 1A, 1B and 2. Session codes: TZ is the time zone variant of the papers. Other variants of the same session:
Frequently asked questions
Which questions were hardest in Physics May 2024 TZ1?
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The questions most candidates struggled with were on uncertainty of a quantity involving a constant, phase and acceleration in simple harmonic motion, direction of current and gas calculation with temperature. The tables above list every question discussed in the report, paper by paper.
What did candidates find difficult in May 2024 TZ1?
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Across the papers the examiners listed uncertainty propagation, polarization, simple harmonic motion, thin-film interference, alternating current, quantum tunnelling, proportional reasoning and work and energy, among others.
What were the grade boundaries for Physics May 2024 TZ1?
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Physics HL: a 7 from 73 out of 100 overall in May 2024 TZ1. Physics SL: a 7 from 73 out of 100 overall in May 2024 TZ1. The component boundaries are in the table on this page.
Is this the official IB subject report?
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No. It is my summary of the report the IB issues to schools after each session, rewritten in my own words with a teacher's reading of it. No text from the report or from exam questions is reproduced. Your school's IB coordinator can access the original.