How to Tutor IB Diploma Students Online

October 2026  ·  10 min read

The IB Diploma Programme (DP) is one of the most demanding pre-university courses a teenager can take, and families often look for a tutor when the workload starts to bite. Online tutoring suits IB students well: they are spread across international schools in every time zone, they tend to be organised and screen-confident, and they usually want targeted help rather than a full reteach of the course.

But tutoring the IB is not the same as tutoring a national exam. Part of every student's final grade comes from coursework their school marks and the IB moderates, and the rules on outside help are strict. This guide covers what you can and cannot do, how to pace Higher Level (HL) and Standard Level (SL), how to teach command terms and markbands, and how to map your support across the two years.

How does the IB Diploma actually work?

Before your first lesson, make sure you understand the structure your student is working inside:

• Six subjects from the subject groups, normally three at HL and three at SL. The IB recommends 240 teaching hours for each HL subject and 150 for each SL subject.
• Each subject is graded 1–7, combining externally marked exams and an Internal Assessment (IA) marked by the school and moderated by the IB.
• The core: Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay (EE, an independent research paper of up to 4,000 words) and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS). TOK and the EE are each graded A–E and together earn up to 3 bonus points.
• Maximum score: 45 points (6 × 7 plus 3 core points). The minimum for the diploma is 24 points, subject to further passing conditions set out by the IB.
• Exams sit in May (most schools) or November (mainly southern-hemisphere schools) at the end of the second year.

Subject guides are revised on a rolling cycle, so paper structures, IA formats and weightings change. Always ask which guide your student's cohort is assessed on and check the current version through their school, since the official guides sit behind the IB's teacher resources.

What is the difference between subject tutoring and IA/EE support?

This is the most important distinction in IB tutoring, and the one that protects both you and your student.

Subject tutoring is ordinary teaching. You can explain concepts, work through past papers, model answers to exam-style questions, drill vocabulary in a language B course, or reteach a calculus topic the class rushed. Nothing here is assessed coursework, so you can be as hands-on as a good teacher would be.

IA and EE support is different because the final product counts towards the diploma and the student must sign that it is their own work. Their school supervisor or subject teacher is the person officially responsible for guiding it, and the IB limits even their input: typically, the teacher gives feedback on one draft and does not edit it. A private tutor should never do more than the school is permitted to do.

What tutors can and cannot do on coursework

A useful test: if the student could not explain and defend every sentence of their work in a viva-style conversation without you there, you have done too much. The IB's academic integrity policy treats work produced by someone else, including AI-generated text that is not credited, as potential misconduct, and a misconduct finding can mean no grade in that subject. Make your boundaries clear to parents at the first meeting, and put them in writing.

How should I pace HL vs SL students?

HL is not simply "SL but harder". It has more content (240 versus 150 recommended hours), and in many subjects extra material or an extra paper. In Mathematics, both Analysis and Approaches and Applications and Interpretation have a Paper 3 at HL only, built around longer problem-solving questions. In the sciences, HL students cover additional higher-level material on top of the shared SL core.

Practical pacing rules that work online:

• HL students need more frequent, shorter contact. Weekly 60-minute sessions usually beat fortnightly 90-minute ones, because HL content builds quickly and gaps compound.
• SL students often need exam technique more than content. Many SL students understand the material but lose marks on command terms and timing. Move to past-paper work earlier.
• Track the school's scheme of work, not your own. Ask for the topic order and test dates. Pre-teaching a topic a week before class is far more effective than reteaching it after a poor test.

How do I teach IB command terms?

Every IB question begins with a command term, and each one signals the depth of response expected. Students who answer "describe" questions with analysis waste time; students who answer "evaluate" with description cap their marks. Command terms are published in each subject guide and tied to assessment objectives, so the exact list varies by subject.

Teach them in families, from lower to higher demand:

• Knowledge: define, state, list, identify, outline. Short, precise, no justification needed.
• Understanding: describe, explain, distinguish, suggest. Explain means giving reasons or causes, not just restating.
• Analysis and application: analyse, compare and contrast, apply, deduce, show that. Break things into parts and connect them.
• Evaluation: evaluate, discuss, justify, to what extent, examine. These need a balanced argument and a supported conclusion or judgement.

A simple online drill: put the same stem on a shared whiteboard with three different command terms ("Outline / Explain / Evaluate the effect of a minimum wage on…"). Have the student plan all three in two minutes each, then compare what changed. This teaches depth calibration faster than any glossary.

How do IB markbands work, and how do I teach them?

Many IB extended-response questions are marked with markbands (level descriptors) rather than point-by-point mark schemes. This is common in essay-based subjects such as History, Economics, Psychology, English A and TOK, and in IA and EE criteria across all subjects. Examiners read the whole answer, find the band whose description best fits, then decide where in the band it sits.

Students rarely internalise this unless you make it concrete:

1. Translate each band into plain English. Rewrite the descriptors with the student in their own words: what separates the middle band from the top band? Usually it is sustained analysis, a clear argument and well-chosen evidence.
2. Mark exemplars together. Use published exemplars from the school or the IB's teacher resources (ask the student to bring what their teacher shares). Have them award a band first, then reveal the moderator's mark.
3. Self-mark before you mark. For timed past-paper essays, the student assigns a band and justifies it in one sentence before you give feedback. The gap between their estimate and yours is the lesson.
4. Target one band jump at a time. Feedback like "to move up a band, add a counter-argument and weigh it in your conclusion" is actionable. Ten corrections are not.

Learning the IA and EE criteria this way is also legitimate coursework support: you are teaching what the criteria mean, not applying them to the student's draft for them.

What does a good online IB tutoring session look like?

A reliable 60-minute flow for a subject session:

• Check-in (5 min): what happened in class this week, upcoming tests, any IA or EE deadlines.
• Targeted content (20 min): one topic the student found hard, taught with worked examples on a shared whiteboard.
• Exam question (20 min): one past-paper or exam-style question under light time pressure, with attention to the command term.
• Markband or mark-scheme review (10 min): student self-marks first, then you compare.
• Close (5 min): one focus point and a short piece of practice before next time.

Keep a running shared document per student with topics covered, recurring errors and deadlines. IB students juggle six subjects and the core, so a single clear record of where they are in your subject is genuinely valuable to them and their parents. If you already run a structured maths or science practice, the same lesson rhythm works; see our guide to starting online maths tutoring for setup details.

What should a two-year IB support plan look like?

Most IB tutoring is reactive: a family calls in March of Year 2 when predicted grades disappoint. You will serve students better if you offer a plan from the start. Exact dates depend on the school's internal deadlines, so align everything with their calendar.

For November-session schools, shift the plan roughly six months. Also remember that predicted grades for university applications are usually set in the autumn of Year 2, so the Year 1 internal exams and early Year 2 tests carry real weight.

How do I start tutoring IB students online?

A short checklist before you take your first IB student:

1. Decide which subjects and levels you can genuinely teach to HL standard; be honest if you are SL-only in a subject.
2. Read the current subject guide for each subject you offer, including the IA criteria and command term list.
3. Collect past papers and mark schemes through legitimate channels (the student's school or the IB's official store).
4. Write a one-page academic integrity statement for families explaining what you will and will not do on IA, EE and TOK work.
5. Set up a shared whiteboard, a per-student progress document and a reliable video platform.
6. Price for the expertise: IB tutoring usually needs more preparation than general tutoring. Our guide to how much to charge for online tutoring covers how to set rates.

It also helps to give students a structured way to practise between sessions. On Derstina, students can practise IB Diploma exam prep with timed mock exams and daily practice, and students invited by their tutor learn free. For student-facing study habits you can share, point families to our guide on how to study for the IB Diploma.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a tutor help with the IB Extended Essay?

Yes, but only as a coach. A tutor can explain the assessment criteria, ask questions that help the student refine their own research question, and teach research and referencing skills. A tutor must not choose the topic, write or edit any part of the essay, or act as a replacement for the school supervisor, who is the person the IB holds responsible for guiding it.

Is it against IB rules to get a tutor for the Internal Assessment?

Getting general subject help is not against the rules, but the IA itself must be entirely the student's own work. Tutors can teach the skills an IA needs, such as statistical analysis or experimental design, using separate examples. Writing, editing or designing the student's actual IA risks an academic misconduct finding, which can mean no grade in that subject.

What are IB command terms?

Command terms are the instruction words at the start of IB questions, such as define, explain, analyse, evaluate and to what extent. Each one signals how deep the answer should go, and each subject guide publishes its own list linked to the assessment objectives. Teaching students to match their answer depth to the command term is one of the quickest ways to raise marks.

How are IB essays marked?

Many IB essays and extended responses are marked with markbands, which are level descriptors rather than point-by-point mark schemes. The examiner reads the whole answer, chooses the band whose description fits best, then places it within that band. Students improve fastest when they learn what separates one band from the next.

What is the difference between IB HL and SL?

HL subjects have a recommended 240 teaching hours and SL subjects 150, and HL usually includes additional content and sometimes an extra exam paper. Both are graded 1 to 7. Students normally take three subjects at HL and three at SL.

When should an IB student start tutoring?

Ideally early in Year 1, when gaps from earlier courses can be closed before HL content builds on them. Starting before predicted grades are set in the autumn of Year 2 matters for university applications. Last-minute exam tutoring in the spring of Year 2 helps, but there is far less room to change the outcome.