IB Tutor in Hong Kong 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.

Hong Kong has no shortage of IB tuition: tutorial centres with a tutor for every subject, group classes, agencies. This is the other model. One person, two subjects, taught every day for more than ten years, which means knowing where each topic of the guide tends to break and which marks students give away without noticing.

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

Hong Kong is one of the highest-scoring IB regions in the world. In the May 2026 session its candidates averaged 37.02 points against a world average of 30.88, as reported by the South China Morning Post, and several schools published averages of 39 or more. In that setting the target is usually a 7, and a 7 is a different problem from a 6.

Moving from a 5 to a 6 is mostly content: closing gaps, learning methods. Moving from a 6 to a 7 is mostly precision. It is the method mark lost to a missing line of working, the "show that" answer that skips a step, the Physics explanation that says "the force" where the markscheme wants "the resultant force". These are small, they repeat, and they are visible only when someone reads the student’s paper line by line.

That is what one-to-one time is for. A class can teach the syllabus. It cannot read one student’s script against the markscheme every week.

Yes. Hong Kong is six hours ahead of Central Europe in summer and seven in winter, so a lesson at 6:30 pm in Hong Kong is late morning for me. I teach Hong Kong students on weekdays between 5 pm and 9 pm HKT, after school and activities, at the same slot every week.

The time difference is the reason this works rather than the obstacle. A tutor in Hong Kong teaches in the evening after a full day, in the three hours every student wants. For me those hours are the start of the working day, and they are reserved for Asia because European students are still at school. Hong Kong does not change its clocks, so the lesson stays at the same local time all year.

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.

Rates are on request. My IB tutoring is sold by the month, not by the lesson, and I quote the monthly fee after the 20-minute assessment session, once we both know what the work is. The assessment session carries no charge and no commitment. Each lesson is 50 minutes, one to one.

There are two intensities at the same price per lesson: one lesson a week, or two, which is the programme I recommend when a grade has to move by a fixed date. Exam months and a second subject are agreed after the assessment session. There are no packages and no volume discounts, and nothing longer than the month is required.

Most families book a programme, which holds a fixed weekly slot through to a clear point in the school year: the mocks, the IA deadline, or the May session.

The largest group of IB Diploma students in Hong Kong is at the seven ESF secondary schools, about a third of all candidates in the territory. Among the international schools, the Diploma is taught at CDNIS, Chinese International School, German Swiss, Singapore International School, Malvern College, Nord Anglia, Yew Chung and others. Harrow, Kellett and Discovery Bay International School are A-Level schools.

The route into the Diploma differs. King George V, Island School, Sha Tin College, South Island and West Island teach IGCSE first, as do German Swiss, Nord Anglia and Yew Chung. Renaissance College, Discovery College, CDNIS and Malvern teach the MYP. A student arriving in DP1 from IGCSE usually has solid algebra and little experience of writing mathematics in sentences, which is what the IA and Paper 3 reward. A student arriving from the MYP is often the opposite.

For Hong Kong students sitting the May 2027 session, which runs 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.

For students in the first year of the Diploma, the first term is when the gap between the previous course and DP pace shows up. It is also the cheapest moment to close it, because nothing has been built on top of the gap yet. For students choosing between Maths AA and AI, or HL and SL, the decision is easier to make well before the school’s option deadline than to reverse afterwards.