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IB Diploma Online Tutors in India for the Core and Rare Subjects

Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay and the subjects your city has almost no teacher for, taught one to one over video. This page explains what online core support can legitimately do, where the line sits, and why your school supervisor still holds the final word on the essay.

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Core and Rare Subject Tutors Online Across India

Families look for IB Diploma online tutors in India when the part of the diploma that needs help is the part their city does not staff: Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay (EE), or a subject with one teacher in the whole school. The core carries up to 3 of the 45 points, and an E grade in either TOK or the EE is a failing condition, so it is not a soft extra. Online is usually the only way to reach a teacher who has actually marked this work. Home tuition and hybrid weeks still suit subject teaching, and we say where. What follows sets out the two TOK assessments separately, the EE with the school supervisor's role protected, and the exact boundary a tutor must not cross.

Matching

How does a Theory of Knowledge request in India reach a teacher?

Start with what you actually have. Most families write in with one line: the TOK essay is due, or the exhibition commentary came back carrying a comment nobody at home can decode. That is enough to begin. The shortlist gets much better, though, if you send specifics: whether it is the exhibition or the essay, which of the six prescribed titles the student is drawn to, what the school's internal deadline is, and what the supervisor or TOK teacher has already said about the work so far. IB Gram asks about board, syllabus, level, school calendar, location and schedule, then shortlists tutors whose profiles are verified and match those needs. For core work the match is narrower than for subject tuition. A strong Physics tutor is not automatically someone who can sit with a student and interrogate a knowledge claim about the natural sciences, and a fluent essayist is not automatically someone who has read the current assessment instrument. Families searching for an online TOK and EE tutor usually want one person who can do both. That person exists. They are simply not common, and they are rarely in your neighbourhood. A demo or trial session can be arranged before the family commits, and for core work that trial belongs on the student's own material rather than on a tour of the areas of knowledge. If the fit is wrong, ask for a different match. Timing is subject to tutor availability and to the hour you want, which for a DP2 student in Coimbatore or Jabalpur usually means late evening, after school, activities and travel are finished. One caution before you start. If the school has not yet given the feedback the student is entitled to, get that first. A tutor working ahead of the school's own process produces a student arguing two different plans at once, and in DP2 that costs more time than it saves.

1. Send the exact task: exhibition, TOK essay, or the Extended Essay.

2. Name the deadline your school set, not the IB session date.

3. Say what the supervisor or TOK teacher has already told the student.

4. Take a trial built around the student's own draft or object choice.

5. Ask for a different match if the first session feels generic.

IB and IGCSE tutors matched by subject, level and learning need

Browse a sample of verified IB and IGCSE tutors for PYP, MYP, DP and IGCSE subjects. Matching considers syllabus fit, HL or SL level, preferred tutoring mode, schedule and the kind of support the student needs.

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Priyanka Kumari

Priyanka Kumari

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Dharambir Prasad

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5rating20 Yrs
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Ajay Vatsyayan

Math AAHL

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Gurugram, Online(usa/canada/australia /EU)home / online(usa/canada/australia/EU)AustraliaUnited States+2 more
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PYP, MYP, DP

Three core points, one failing condition: the diploma arithmetic in India

The Diploma Programme (DP) runs across two years, DP1 and DP2, with six subjects drawn from six groups. Three or four of them are taken at Higher Level (HL), which carries 240 recommended teaching hours, and the rest at Standard Level (SL) at 150 hours. Each subject is graded 1 to 7, which gives 42. The last three points come from Theory of Knowledge (TOK) and the Extended Essay (EE) together, so the maximum is 45. Twenty-four points is the minimum for the diploma, subject to the IB's failing conditions. Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) must also be completed, and it takes weekday hours without adding a point. Read that arithmetic again, because parents in India usually read it wrong. The core is not a rounding error. TOK and the EE are each graded A to E, the two grades combine on a matrix worth up to 3 points, and an E in either one is a failing condition on its own. A student sitting comfortably in the high thirties can still lose the diploma through the core. That is the strongest argument for treating core support as seriously as a final paper in a Higher Level subject. The calendar makes it harder. Exam sessions run in May and November, and schools in India overwhelmingly enter candidates for the May session, which fits the Indian academic year running roughly April to March. May results are released in early July. So the core deadlines fall inside the same DP2 winter when mock examinations, internal assessments in every subject and university applications all land together. Nobody plans it that way. It simply happens, year after year. Naming the structure this precisely tells you where an hour of tutoring is worth most. For a student already scoring 6s, another subject hour moves very little. A clean TOK essay and a finished EE can move the core grade, and the core grade moves the total.

Six subjects from six groups: three or four taken at Higher Level

HL carries 240 recommended hours, SL 150, each graded 1 to 7

TOK and the EE combine for up to 3 points; 45 is the maximum

24 points is the diploma minimum, subject to the IB's failing conditions

An E grade in TOK or the EE is a failing condition by itself

May session for most schools in India, with results released in early July

Subjects

Which diploma subjects are thinly taught, and who teaches them online?

The thinly taught subjects are whichever ones your school runs with a single teacher, plus the core, which many schools hand to whoever has a free period. Mathematics AA and AI, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics and English A are usually well staffed in Indian cities. TOK is not, and an EE in anything unusual is not either. That matters because the EE is written in one DP subject or as an interdisciplinary essay. A student who wants to research a question in a subject their school teaches to only a handful of candidates is asking a supervisor to stretch. The supervisor still supervises, and should. But the subject-specific reading behind the question, the conventions of evidence in that discipline, and the difference between a descriptive survey and an argued essay are exactly what an outside teacher can work on without touching a word of the writing. TOK is thin for a different reason. It is nobody's degree subject. The course runs across the core theme, knowledge and the knower, two of five optional themes, and five areas of knowledge: history, the human sciences, the natural sciences, mathematics and the arts. A teacher confident in three of those areas can still leave a class stranded in the other two, and the prescribed title a student picks may sit squarely in the weak one. So families look for IB Diploma online tutors in India for a very specific reason: the person who can do this work is rarely in the same postcode. An online IB diploma tutor who has taught the exhibition repeatedly is worth more than a local generalist who has read the guide once. Ask what a tutor has actually taught, not what they could teach. And ask which area of knowledge they would decline, because anyone claiming equal strength across all five is telling you something useful about themselves.

Core theme: knowledge and the knower, plus two of five optional themes

Five areas of knowledge: history, human sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, the arts

The EE is written in one DP subject or as an interdisciplinary essay

Ask a tutor which area of knowledge they would decline to teach

Usually well staffed locally: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, English A

Local coverage

Where in India the core is taught by nobody within driving distance

Core teaching capacity sits where the IB schools are, and even there it runs thin. A family in Powai, Bandra or Andheri can usually find somebody; the same request from Kochi, Coimbatore or Madurai often returns nothing local at all. Take southern India beyond Bengaluru and Chennai first. Thiruvananthapuram, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada each have families running the full diploma with no TOK specialist within reach. Central and western India looks the same: Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Nashik, Raipur, Jabalpur, Aurangabad and Goa. Evening traffic between a suburb and the nearest international school in these cities can stretch a short trip badly, and a weekly two-hour essay session lost to travel is a session not spent on the essay. Kolkata and eastern India behaves differently again. Salt Lake, New Town, Rajarhat, Ballygunge and Alipore sit close enough together for a home tutor to travel, while Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Ranchi and Patna have no such option for core work. Searches for an IB Diploma online tutor in Kolkata come mostly from those first five localities, and the answer is often a teacher in another state. Northern India beyond Delhi NCR covers Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Jaipur, Lucknow, Dehradun, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Kanpur. In Gujarat, requests cluster in Ahmedabad around Satellite, Bodakdev and SG Highway, and then in Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot. The metros are not exempt. An IB Diploma online tutor in Delhi is often the practical answer for a student in Gurugram (Gurgaon) or Noida whose evenings are already gone. An IB Diploma online tutor in Bangalore serves Whitefield and Sarjapur Road for the same reason. An IB Diploma online tutor in Hyderabad, an IB Diploma online tutor in Chennai and an IB Diploma online tutor in Ahmedabad follow the pattern from Gachibowli, Adyar and Bodakdev, while an IB Diploma online tutor in Mumbai and an IB Diploma online tutor in Pune work with Worli and Baner. IB Diploma online tutors in India exist as a category because the alternative is no teacher.

Southern India beyond Bengaluru and Chennai: Kochi, Coimbatore, Mysuru, Madurai, Visakhapatnam

Central and western India: Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Nashik, Raipur, Goa

Kolkata and eastern India: Salt Lake, Ballygunge, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Patna

Northern India beyond Delhi NCR: Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Dehradun, Kanpur

Gujarat: Ahmedabad, Satellite, Bodakdev, SG Highway, Gandhinagar, Surat, Vadodara

Metro requests still arrive from Powai, Gachibowli, Adyar and Koregaon Park

School ecosystem

The core calendar in India: exhibition, reflections and the May session

Ask your DP coordinator for the school's own core calendar in writing, and plan around that rather than around the IB session dates. Schools in India set internal deadlines for the TOK exhibition, the TOK essay and each EE reflection session, and those internal dates are what actually govern a student's term. The shape is fairly consistent. The exhibition usually belongs to DP1, when the student is still working out what a knowledge question even is. The EE research question is settled in DP1 as well, with the first reflection session recorded, and the bulk of the 4,000 words written across the long summer break and the first DP2 term. The TOK essay, answering one of six prescribed titles released for each exam session, arrives in DP2 alongside mocks and internal assessments in every subject. Since schools here enter candidates for the May session, that pile-up lands in the same two or three months. Families name the same schools when they call: Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Oberoi International School, Ecole Mondiale World School, Pathways World School, Stonehill International School, Indus International School, Oakridge International School, Mahindra International School, Good Shepherd International School and The International School Bangalore. IB Gram is an independent platform and is not affiliated with any school named here, the International Baccalaureate, Cambridge International Education or Pearson Edexcel. We say nothing about what any school teaches or how it runs its core. What we will say is that expectations differ sharply between schools on how much scaffolding the core receives. Some run timetabled TOK lessons every week and a supervisor who meets the student monthly. Others run a handful of sessions and expect the student to manage. You can find out which kind you are dealing with in one conversation with the coordinator, and that conversation should happen before you hire anybody. Diwali and the long summer break are the two windows where core work genuinely fits. Use them.

Ask the coordinator for the school's written internal core deadlines

The exhibition usually sits in DP1; the TOK essay lands in DP2

EE reflection sessions are recorded along the way, not at the end

The May session concentrates core deadlines into the busiest DP2 term

Summer and Diwali breaks are the realistic windows for EE drafting

Modes

Online, home or hybrid for core work in India?

For the core, online usually wins, and the reason is supply rather than teaching quality. A home tutor who can teach the TOK exhibition well is rare outside a few metro pockets, so choosing home tuition for the core often means choosing a weaker teacher. For ordinary subject work the calculation flips, and a home tutor is frequently the better call. Here is the plain comparison. A home tutor sits beside the student, sees the half-written paragraph, notices the stalling and the avoidance, and holds a weekday evening slot reliably because the travel is short. An online tutor reaches you from anywhere, which for the core is the entire point, and can share a screen, open the prescribed titles, and annotate the student's own paragraph live. A hybrid week takes both: home sessions for the subject the student is struggling with, online sessions with the core specialist who lives in another city. Hybrid is what most DP2 families in India end up running, and it is the honest answer rather than a fudge. A Mathematics home tutor on Tuesday in Baner, a TOK teacher on Saturday morning from wherever they happen to be, and nothing else in the week. The trade-offs are real. Online core sessions fail when the student joins with nothing open, because discussing a knowledge question in the abstract is pleasant and useless. They also fail on a phone. Home sessions fail when the tutor is competent at the subject and out of their depth on the criteria, which a family often cannot see for a full term. And a hybrid week fails when the two tutors contradict each other about the same essay, so tell each one what the other is doing. IB Diploma online tutors in India cannot read a room the way somebody sitting across the table can. Accept that and compensate: camera on, document shared, and the student doing the talking.

Online: the only route to a core specialist in most Indian cities

Home: better for subject teaching where local supply is genuinely good

Hybrid: subject sessions at home, core sessions online, agreed between both tutors

Online core sessions need a shared document open from the first minute

A phone screen is not enough for reading a 1,600-word essay

Compare

How do the four ways to get core help compare in India?

Four ways to get help with TOK and the Extended Essay, and they are not interchangeable. A home tutor gives presence, an online tutor gives reach, a batch gives peer argument, which TOK genuinely needs, and a recorded course gives repetition at no fixed hour. The trade-off that decides it is simple: if nobody within travelling distance has actually taught the core, presence is not on the menu.

How do the four ways to get core help compare in India?
What mattersOne-to-one home tutorOne-to-one online tutorCoaching or tuition centre batchRecorded self-study course
Reaching a genuine core specialistDepends entirely on local supply; outside a few metro pockets there is noneThe whole point: the teacher can be in any cityBatches form where demand is dense, so mostly in the largest metrosAlways available, though the teacher cannot respond to this student's title
Peer argument for TOKNone; the student argues only with the tutorNone, unless the tutor stages both sides of a claimStrongest here: hearing classmates disagree is real TOK practiceNone; the discussion already happened without the student in it
Travel and evening time in Indian citiesTutor travel eats into the slot in heavy traffic and monsoon weeksNo travel for either side, so the session starts when it saysThe student travels, which costs study hours twice a weekNo travel at all, and no fixed hour to protect
Working on the student's own draftStrong: the tutor reads the paper version and the crossings-outStrong on a shared screen, provided the document is open from the startLimited; a batch cannot spend an hour on one student's paragraphNot possible, because the course cannot see the draft
Holding the integrity boundaryProximity to the student's keyboard makes the line easier to crossEasier to keep clean if the student types and shares their own screenGroup model answers drift towards everyone submitting the same argumentSafest by design, since nothing is written for the student
Cost structureHighest per hour, with travel time priced into the rateOne-to-one rates without travel loading, quoted by level and scheduleUsually the lowest per hour, because the fee is sharedA single payment for the course rather than an hourly rate
Spotting stalling and avoidanceBest: a tutor beside the student sees the blank page and the fidgetingPossible with the camera on, but easy to missA quiet student can hide inside a batch for weeksNobody is watching, so avoidance goes unnoticed entirely
Fitting an odd hour or a final weekConstrained by the tutor's travel and other bookingsFlexible across time zones, subject to tutor availabilityFixed timetable; the batch does not move for one studentAvailable at two in the morning, which is sometimes what happens
Verification

How do you check a TOK or Extended Essay tutor you never meet?

Check three things, in this order: what they have taught, what they will refuse to do, and what they say about your school's supervisor. A tutor who answers the third question by explaining that the supervisor leads and they support is worth more than one with a longer list of qualifications. IB Gram shortlists tutors whose profiles are verified against the details they claim, and a demo or trial session can be arranged before the family commits. Verification covers identity and stated experience. It cannot tell you whether this particular person will be good with your particular child on a Thursday night in Ranchi, and no platform can. That part stays with you. So run the trial on real material. Put the student's chosen object, or the draft research question, on the shared screen and watch what the tutor does with it. A good one asks the student why they chose it and then stays quiet while the student flounders for a minute. A poor one starts proposing better objects within four minutes, which is the same instinct that later becomes rewriting the essay. Ask directly what the tutor will not do. The answer should be unambiguous: they will not write, rewrite or edit the submission, and they will not produce a model answer to the student's own prescribed title. If the reply is vague, or worse, reassuring, stop there. You are being sold the thing that gets a candidate reported. Finally, ask which version of the EE guide they work from. The guide was updated for first assessment in 2027, so a tutor quoting criterion mark allocations from memory may be quoting something that no longer applies. The correct answer is that they follow whichever version your DP coordinator issues, and that they would like to see it. IB Diploma online tutors in India who say that are reading the right documents.

Verified profiles cover identity and stated experience, not classroom chemistry

Run the trial on the student's own object, draft or research question

Ask what the tutor refuses to do, and listen hard for vagueness

Check which EE guide version they use, updated for first assessment in 2027

Watch whether they let the student struggle before stepping in

The integrity line on TOK and the Extended Essay, stated exactly

Every IB internal assessment is the student's own work. The IB's academic integrity policy allows a teacher to give feedback on one draft. It does not allow anyone, tutor or parent, to write, rewrite or edit the student's submission. That is the whole boundary, and for the core it bites harder than it does for ordinary subject tuition, because the core is almost entirely written work produced away from a classroom, at a desk at home, over months. What a tutor may legitimately do is teach the underlying skill, question the reasoning, point at a criterion and ask the student to reread their own paragraph against it. Those are not consolation prizes. Teaching a student to tell a knowledge question from a topic, or to see that their second body paragraph asserts where it should argue, moves the grade more than any amount of quiet editing, and the skill survives into the next task. The exhibition and the essay need the line drawn differently. For the exhibition, the student links three objects to one of the 35 IA prompts in up to 950 words, internally assessed, worth one third of the TOK grade. The objects must be the student's own choice, and choosing them for a student is the most common quiet breach. A tutor may ask why an object matters, what it shows about how knowledge is produced, and whether the link to the prompt is genuine. A tutor may not hand over a list. For the essay: one of six prescribed titles, up to 1,600 words, externally assessed, two thirds of the grade. The title is set by the IB and must be answered as written. A tutor may teach a student how to unpack a title into the question it is actually asking, and may not supply the argument that answers it. The school submits the work and runs it through similarity checking, and malpractice findings are handled by the IB, not the school alone. Families underestimate that last part. The consequence does not stay inside the building.

Feedback on one draft is allowed; writing, rewriting or editing is not

Exhibition: three objects, one of 35 IA prompts, up to 950 words

Essay: one of six prescribed titles, up to 1,600 words, externally assessed

The exhibition is internally assessed and worth one third of the TOK grade

The school submits the work and runs it through similarity checking

Malpractice findings are handled by the IB, not by the school alone

Why your school supervisor outranks any tutor you hire

The Extended Essay is supervised by a teacher at the student's own school, and that is not an administrative detail. The supervisor records the reflection sessions, knows the school's internal deadlines, and is accountable inside a process a private tutor sits entirely outside. So when the supervisor and the tutor disagree, the supervisor wins. Tell your tutor that on day one and watch the reaction, because the reaction tells you a great deal. The EE itself is an independent research essay of up to 4,000 words and roughly 40 hours of work, written in one DP subject or as an interdisciplinary essay, graded A to E, and combined with TOK for up to 3 points. Forty hours spread across more than a year is not much per week, which is precisely why it slides. A tutor's most useful contribution is often not subject expertise at all. It is holding the student to a schedule the supervisor has already set. Do not let an outside tutor rewrite the research question the supervisor approved. If the tutor genuinely believes the question is unworkable, the student should take that argument back to the supervisor in their own words, and the supervisor decides. This is also the honest reason to be careful with EE criteria: the guide was updated for first assessment in 2027, so follow the version your DP coordinator issues rather than any printout a tutor brings to a session. Progress on core work looks slower than progress in a subject. Expect the first three or four sessions to produce very little visible text, because they should be spent on the question and the structure. By the second month the student should be able to explain their own argument out loud without reading it off the screen. If after two months they still cannot say what their essay claims, something is wrong, and it may be that the tutor is doing the thinking. No tutor can guarantee a grade on the core, and anyone who talks about the 3 points as though they were purchasable is describing a different transaction altogether.

The EE is supervised by a teacher at the student's own school

Up to 4,000 words and roughly 40 hours of work, graded A to E

Reflection sessions are recorded by the supervisor, not by an outside tutor

Follow the EE guide version your DP coordinator issues, not a tutor's printout

If supervisor and tutor disagree, the supervisor's instruction stands

Starting with IB Diploma online tutors in India: bring the prompt and the draft

Bring three things to the first session and the hour will not be wasted: the task itself, whatever the school has already said about it, and the student. Not a summary of the student's problem written by a parent. The student. For TOK exhibition work, that means the current object choices and the IA prompt the student is considering out of the 35. For the essay, the six prescribed titles for the session, with the student's shortlist and the reason behind it. For the EE, the research question as the supervisor last saw it, the reflection notes, and an honest word count of what actually exists. A blank document is a legitimate starting point. A document a parent has tidied up is not. The first session should end with a plan the student can repeat back without prompting. Typically that is a next chunk of writing with a deadline earlier than the school's own, one specific skill to practise, and one question to take to the supervisor. If the tutor closes by emailing a corrected version of the student's paragraph, raise it immediately, because that is the line and it has just been crossed. Practical matters. Sessions for a DP2 student usually sit late on weekdays or on weekend mornings, subject to tutor availability and to the student's CAS and mock timetable. Ninety minutes suits core work better than an hour, since unpacking a title takes time before anything gets written. Online diploma classes in India run on the same evening pattern whether the tutor is in Chandigarh or Kochi. And IB diploma online tuition for the core is better booked as a block that ends at a deadline than as an open-ended weekly habit. If the fit is wrong after two sessions, ask for a different match. That is quicker than hoping it improves, and in DP2 there is no spare term to lose.

Bring the object choices or the shortlisted prescribed title to session one

Bring the research question exactly as the supervisor last approved it

Ninety minutes suits core work better than a sixty-minute slot

Book core support as a block ending at a deadline, not open-ended

Ask for a different match after two sessions if the fit is wrong

IB Gram is an independent tutoring platform and is not officially affiliated with any school named on this page, the International Baccalaureate, Cambridge International Education or Pearson Edexcel.

FAQs

IB tutoring FAQs

Can an online tutor help with the TOK exhibition without choosing the objects?+

Yes, and choosing the objects is precisely what they must not do. The exhibition links three objects to one of the 35 IA prompts in up to 950 words, and the choice is part of what is assessed. A tutor can ask why an object matters to the student, whether the link to the prompt is real or decorative, and what the object shows about how knowledge is produced. If a tutor arrives at the first session with a list of suggested objects, that is the wrong tutor.

Is it allowed for a tutor to read my child's Extended Essay draft?+

Reading and discussing a draft is allowed; editing it is not. The IB's academic integrity policy allows a teacher to give feedback on one draft, and it does not allow anyone, tutor or parent, to write, rewrite or edit the student's submission. In practice a tutor may point at a criterion and ask the student to reread their own paragraph against it, or question whether a claim is supported by the evidence given. The corrected paragraph emailed back is the version that crosses the line.

Our school released the TOK essay titles late. Can online sessions catch up?+

Often yes, because the essay runs to 1,600 words rather than 4,000, and much of the work is thinking rather than typing. Six prescribed titles are released for each exam session, and the first useful session is spent unpacking the chosen title into the question it is really asking. Two or three focused sessions plus the student's own drafting can produce a real essay. What cannot be compressed is the reading behind the examples, so pick a title where the student already has material.

There is no TOK teacher anywhere near us in Bhubaneswar. What do we do?+

Look online, and look outside your own state. Core teaching capacity in India clusters where the IB schools are, so Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Ranchi and Patna rarely have a local specialist, and neither do Jabalpur, Raipur or Mysuru. An online session with somebody who has taught the exhibition many times beats a local generalist who has not. Speak to your DP coordinator first, though, because the school's own TOK teacher costs nothing and is the person marking the exhibition.

How many sessions does core support usually take?+

Fewer than families expect for TOK, and more than they expect for the Extended Essay. The TOK essay often needs a handful of sessions around drafting, and the exhibition needs two or three if the objects are already well chosen. The EE runs to 4,000 words and roughly 40 hours of student work spread over more than a year, so support there works better as a short block at each stage: question, outline, first draft, final tightening. Open-ended weekly sessions tend to create dependence.

What does an online core session actually look like?+

A shared document, the student's own text on screen, and the student doing most of the talking. A typical ninety minutes opens with whatever has been written since last time, moves to one criterion or one weak paragraph, and ends with a specific writing task due before the school's internal deadline. There is no lecture. If the tutor talks for forty minutes about the areas of knowledge while the student listens politely, the session is not doing the work you are paying for.

Can a tutor tell us what each Extended Essay criterion is worth?+

They can tell you which version of the guide they are reading, and that is the answer you actually want. The EE guide was updated for first assessment in 2027, so mark allocations quoted from memory or from an old printout may not apply to your child's session. Ask your DP coordinator which version the school is working to and use that document for everything. A tutor who insists on numbers without checking the school's version is working from something out of date.

Would home tuition be better than online for the Extended Essay?+

Only if a genuinely capable EE teacher lives close enough to visit, which for most families in India is the sticking point. A home tutor sees the blank page and the avoidance, which matters on a task that slides for months. An online tutor is usually the stronger teacher for the core, simply because the pool is national rather than local. Many families run a hybrid week: home sessions for a subject, online sessions for the core. That is a sensible arrangement, not a compromise.

What if a tutor's advice contradicts our school supervisor?+

The supervisor wins, every time. The Extended Essay is supervised by a teacher at the student's own school, that teacher records the reflection sessions, and the school submits the work. A private tutor sits outside all of it. If the tutor believes the research question is unworkable, the student should take that argument to the supervisor in their own words and let the supervisor decide. A tutor who encourages a student to quietly ignore the supervisor is a risk rather than an asset.

Our child is scoring in the high thirties. Is the core worth tutoring at all?+

It is often the cheapest place left to gain. Subject grades at that level move slowly, while TOK and the Extended Essay together carry up to 3 points on an A to E matrix, and the work is finite and written rather than examined under timed conditions. There is also a downside to protect: an E in either one is a failing condition, whatever the subject grades look like. So the honest reason to tutor the core is not ambition. The diploma itself can turn on it.

We are in Koregaon Park and want weekday evening slots. Is that workable online?+

Usually yes, and evening slots are what most DP2 families ask for. Online removes the tutor's travel, so a session in Koregaon Park, Baner or Kharadi can start at the time it says rather than after traffic has finished with everybody. Availability still depends on the tutor's other bookings and on the student's CAS and mock timetable, so book a recurring slot early, before the DP2 deadline season. Weekend mornings suit ninety-minute core sessions better than a tired weekday hour.

There has been no progress after a month. What should we do?+

Ask the student to explain their own argument out loud, without reading from the screen. On core work that is the real test, because early sessions legitimately produce little visible text while the question and the structure are being settled. If the student can say what their essay claims and why, progress is happening. If they cannot, and yet polished paragraphs keep appearing, the tutor may be doing the thinking. Raise it directly, and ask for a different match if the answer is unconvincing.

Ready to plan IB support?

Send a query or book a free consultation and say which piece of the core it is: the exhibition, the TOK essay, or the Extended Essay. We will ask about your school's deadlines, the level, your city and the hours that work, then shortlist verified tutors who teach that exact thing. A trial can be arranged before you commit, and a different match if the fit is wrong.

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