IB Tutor in Geneva 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

The International Baccalaureate was created in Geneva in 1968, and the International School of Geneva was central to building it. More than half a century later, IB World Schools in Geneva and along the lake in Vaud still serve the families of the international organisations, companies and diplomatic missions based there.

That history has a practical side. Geneva families are used to the IB, often across several countries and several children, and they tend to know exactly what the Diploma asks for. What they look for in a tutor is not an introduction to the programme but specific help on the parts that cost marks: HL Paper 3, the Internal Assessment, and Physics at Higher Level.

The IB schools of the Lake Geneva region sit in both the Geneva and the Vaud cantons. In and around Geneva they include the International School of Geneva, Collège du Léman in Versoix, Institut Florimont in Petit-Lancy and Institut International de Lancy in Grand-Lancy. In the Lausanne area, the International School of Lausanne in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne teaches the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. La Côte International School in Aubonne, between the two cities, teaches IGCSE and then the Diploma. The Geneva English School and the British School of Geneva follow the British curriculum, with A-Levels instead of the IB.

Many of these schools teach in French and English, and some students take a bilingual IB Diploma. My lessons are in English, which is the language of the IB Maths and Physics papers most students here sit. For a student who takes Maths or Physics in French, I would rather say that plainly in the assessment session than find out later.

Collège du Léman, Institut International de Lancy and La Côte International School teach IGCSE before the Diploma. The International School of Geneva is different: Years 9 to 11 follow its own Universal Learning Programme, then the Diploma. The International School of Lausanne teaches the Middle Years Programme before the Diploma, not IGCSE. A student arriving in DP1 from IGCSE usually has solid algebra and little practice in writing mathematics in sentences, which is what the IA and HL Paper 3 reward. A student arriving from the Middle Years Programme is often the other way round.

Because a lesson can go where it fits the student’s week, not where two clocks happen to overlap. Geneva 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.

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.