IB Tutor in Basel for Maths and Physics, with a PhD in Physics

As an IB tutor I cover two subjects only: IB Mathematics, both Analysis and Approaches (AA) and Applications and Interpretation (AI), and IB Physics, each at Higher and Standard Level. That includes the Internal Assessment in both subjects, HL Paper 3 in Maths, and exam technique on past papers marked against the IB markscheme.

Every student starts from a diagnosis, not from chapter one. In the assessment session I look at a recent test or mock paper and separate three things that look the same on a report card: a concept that was never understood, a method that is known but slow, and marks lost in how the answer is written. Each one needs different work.

• IB Maths AA HL and SL, including HL Paper 3
• IB Maths AI HL and SL, including calculator technique
• IB Physics HL and SL on the current guide (first exams 2025)
• Maths and Physics Internal Assessment: topic, structure, criteria
• IGCSE and MYP Maths and Physics as the foundation for the Diploma

Two schools in the Basel area teach the IB Diploma, and they reach it by different routes. International School Basel, in Reinach, offers the Primary Years Programme, the Middle Years Programme and the Diploma. SIS Swiss International School Basel, on Erlenstrasse in the city, offers the Diploma in the last two years of its bilingual college, including together with the Swiss Matura.

The route matters for Maths and Physics. A student arriving in the Diploma from the Middle Years Programme is often comfortable explaining and investigating, and less drilled in algebraic technique. A student at SIS Basel who carries the Matura and the IB at once has a heavier workload in the same subjects than a student who sits the IB alone, because the two qualifications assess them in different ways.

Not every international school here teaches the Diploma. Academia International School Basel follows Cambridge IGCSE and then A-Levels.

Because a lesson can go where it fits the student’s week, not where two clocks happen to overlap. Basel and I are on the same time, all year, so a lesson at 5 pm is at 5 pm for both of us. Tutors teaching from Asia or the Americas cannot offer that, and families notice it as soon as the timetable gets busy.

In practice that means a fixed slot straight after school, before sport and homework, that stays put through the year. A lesson that keeps moving around the week is the first thing a busy DP2 student drops when the mocks arrive.

Lessons happen on a video call with a shared whiteboard. The student writes on it too, so I see the working as it appears and not only the final answer. After every lesson a written report goes to the parents: what we covered, what went wrong, and what to practise before the next one.

My IB tutoring is CHF 130 per lesson, invoiced monthly, at one or two lessons a week. Each lesson is 50 minutes, one to one.

Exam months and a second subject cost more, and are agreed after the assessment session. There are no packages and no volume discounts. Nothing longer than the month is required, and the assessment session before the first lesson carries no charge and no commitment.

For scale: a repeated year at a top international school in Zurich or Geneva costs from CHF 40,000 in fees alone.

Swiss international schools sit the May session. For students taking the May 2027 exams, which run from late April to mid-May, the useful moment to start is before the mock exams, not after them. The deadlines that arrive first are internal: the Maths and Physics IA drafts, set by each school months before the written papers.

The Swiss school year runs from mid-August to mid-June, so the first year of the Diploma starts in late summer and the IA season falls through the autumn and winter of the second year. The first term of DP1 is when the gap between the previous course and Diploma pace shows up, and it is the cheapest moment to close it, because nothing has been built on top of the gap yet.