IB and IGCSE Private Tutors Who Know Both Mark Schemes

Some can, and fewer than claim to. The overlap is real in Mathematics and the sciences, where content genuinely carries forward from 0580 and 0625 into Analysis and Approaches and Diploma Programme Physics. What does not carry forward is the marking culture, and that is where most tutors are only half equipped. Test it in the trial by asking for one Cambridge answer marked against a mark scheme and one IB task marked against a criterion descriptor, in the same session, on the student's own work.

Use the gap for the assessment culture, not for content. Two or three home sessions a fortnight across that summer are usually enough to teach command terms properly, to write one criterion-marked piece and mark it together, and to read a Diploma Programme subject guide with the student so the vocabulary is familiar before term begins. Content pre-teaching is mostly wasted, because the school will cover it anyway. What is not wasted is arriving in DP1 already knowing what evaluate is asking for.

Only if they live close enough that the trip is not the deciding factor. A home tutor coming from within Gurugram, along Golf Course Road or a neighbouring sector, will usually hold a 6.30 pm slot through the year. Someone crossing from South Delhi or Noida at that hour will start cancelling by the second month, whatever they promise in September. Ask where the tutor is travelling from before you agree the slot, and consider making one of the two weekly sessions online from the start.

Often yes, and it is worth saying so plainly. One tutor across both boards makes sense when the subject is the same, the two students can take back-to-back slots, and the tutor has genuinely taught both syllabuses. It stops making sense when the subjects differ, when both children need the same evening hour, or when the dual-board claim turns out to be one board plus confidence. Two specialists on alternate days is frequently the cheaper mistake to avoid.

A command word in a Cambridge question points you at a mark scheme with countable marking points, so explain with four marks wants four identifiable things. A command term in an IB question points at a criterion descriptor written in bands, so evaluate wants a quality of reasoning that no tick list captures. Students who move from one to the other keep the old instinct and lose marks either by under-writing a Diploma Programme answer or over-writing a Cambridge one.

Somebody responsible should be in the flat, and not in the room. For a Grade 9 or Grade 10 student, an adult at home is a reasonable safeguarding baseline and also keeps the session from drifting. Sitting in changes what the student is willing to admit they do not understand, which is the most valuable thing a private tutor can get out of them. The compromise most families reach is an open door, a visible study space and a short conversation with the tutor at the end.

From marked evidence rather than from confidence. A tutor gathers two or three past papers sat under time at Extended level, marks them against the real mark scheme, and looks at whether the student is losing marks on the harder questions or on carelessness across the whole paper. The school makes the entry decision and the subject teacher holds the strongest view, so a private tutor's job is to give the family evidence for that conversation rather than a competing verdict.

It can be, with one piece of equipment and one habit. The equipment is a document camera or a phone stand pointed at the page, so the tutor watches the working appear rather than seeing a finished photograph. The habit is that the student writes as they would in the exam, not in a chat box. Without those two things, online Mathematics quietly becomes a conversation about methods, and the method marks keep going missing on the real paper.

Widen the search rather than lower the standard. Families in Adyar, Besant Nagar or along Old Mahabalipuram Road often find a strong single-board tutor locally for home classes and take the second board online from Mumbai, Bengaluru or Delhi NCR. That hybrid split is usually better than one nearby generalist covering both weakly. The same pattern works in Pune around Koregaon Park, Baner and Kharadi, and in Ahmedabad around Satellite, Bodakdev and SG Highway.

Agree the rule before it happens, because it will happen. The workable arrangement is that a session cancelled by the tutor is rescheduled or moved online within the same week, and a session cancelled by the family with reasonable notice is rescheduled where the tutor's timetable allows. Monsoon weeks in Mumbai and long weekends around Diwali break more sessions than anything else. Writing down how many reschedules are realistic per term prevents the awkward conversation in December.

Not yet, but ask a sharper question. One month is roughly six sessions, which is enough to change how a student explains a lost mark and not enough to move a criterion level or a paper grade. Ask the tutor what specifically they are working on, what evidence they are tracking, and what they expect to look different by week eight. A tutor who cannot answer that is not planning. At that point, asking IB Gram for a different match is reasonable.

No. IB Gram is an independent tutoring platform. It has no connection to the International Baccalaureate, to Cambridge International Education or to Pearson Edexcel, and no relationship with any school mentioned on this page. Schools are named only as local context for the calendar pressures families here describe. All entry decisions, tier and level choices, internal assessment deadlines and mock dates come from your own school, and the coordinator or subject teacher is the person to confirm them with.