IB and IGCSE Tuition in India: What Changes Between the Boards

Yes for content, less so for habits. A student who has done Cambridge IGCSE Extended Mathematics, a science and First Language English arrives in DP1 with most of the knowledge the first term assumes. What the two years did not build is the habit of justifying an answer, designing an investigation from scratch, and writing about an unseen text under time. That is why the useful bridging work is skill work rather than content revision, and why the transition summer matters more than an extra month of Grade 10 content coverage.

It depends on the degree the student is aiming at and on evidence from their own work, not on which subject sounds harder. Analysis and Approaches is algebraic and proof-heavy; Applications and Interpretation is modelling and statistics-heavy with technology used throughout. Students heading for engineering or economics are often advised towards AA, but the school's DP coordinator makes the final placement. Ask the tutor to set one AA-style proof question and one AI-style modelling question, and let the two attempts inform the conversation with the school.

Fees vary by subject, level, city and whether the tutor travels, so no honest page can print a figure. What you can compare is structure. One-to-one costs more per hour than a batch and buys the whole hour. A home tutor's travel is built into the rate in practice. Scarce combinations, such as a tutor who teaches both 0625 and DP Physics, cost more than a widely taught one. Ask for the rate per session, the session length, and the notice period for cancellation before you commit.

Often yes inside their own corridor, and rarely across a metro at peak hour. A tutor based in Bandra will hold a weekday slot in Juhu or Andheri comfortably; the same tutor agreeing to Thane or Kharghar usually starts rescheduling by the second month. In Bengaluru the Whitefield and Sarjapur Road side and the Jayanagar side behave like two different cities in the evening. Ask where the tutor lives before you ask whether they can come, and consider an earlier slot or a hybrid mix.

Three things, in this order. First, close the Mathematics reasoning gap: a fortnight of writing out full justified solutions rather than answers. Second, read one scientific investigation's criteria and plan a small experiment end to end, so the shape of the internal assessment is familiar before school sets one. Third, practise unseen textual analysis twice a week on short passages. That is enough. Racing ahead into DP1 content is the least useful way to spend the break, and it usually wears the student out before the year starts.

Not for the whole session, but be in the house and visible at the start and end, especially for the first few weeks and for younger students. That is a reasonable safeguarding practice and it also keeps the session honest on both sides. Set up the study space in a common area rather than a bedroom, with a table, decent light and no television in earshot. Ask the tutor for a short written note after each session so you know what was covered without sitting through the hour.

Some can, and they are genuinely scarce. The two jobs need different mark schemes, different pacing and different feedback language, and a tutor who is strong on Cambridge past-paper technique is not automatically strong on criterion-based DP marking. If you want one home visit to serve both children, test each half separately in the demo. Otherwise, a common arrangement is one home tutor for the IGCSE child and an online specialist for the DP subject, which also removes the scheduling squeeze of two back-to-back hours.

For paper review and for scarce subjects, yes, and sometimes better. A marked script annotated live on screen with the mark scheme open beside it is a strong session in any mode. For building working habits in a student who takes shortcuts, the home session still wins, because the tutor can see the page as it is written. Families in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad frequently run exactly this split: home tuition for the mainstream subject, online for the one specialist nobody local teaches.

Yes, within clear limits. A tutor can teach what the four criteria mean, question a research design the student has proposed, point at a weak Evaluation section, and explain why a conclusion overreaches the data. A tutor must not choose the research question, write any part of the report, or process the data for the student. The work has to be the student's own, and schools check. Ask the tutor at the first session how they handle coursework, and be cautious of one who is vague about it.

Ask for the diagnosis in writing before you change tutors. A month should have produced a specific list: these topics are missing, this habit is costing method marks, this is the plan. If that list exists and the student has not been doing the work between sessions, the tutor is not the problem. If no such list exists, ask for a different match. You can do that without a confrontation, and a month is a fair point at which to decide rather than waiting out a term.

April is a good time, and the second week of the new school year is a poor one. The tutors who hold both boards for the same subject are the first to fill, and the good weekday evening slots in Delhi NCR, Pune and Bengaluru are taken before August. Starting early also means the demo happens while there is no deadline pressure, which gives you a better read on the tutor. Availability always depends on subject, level and schedule, so ask sooner rather than later.