IBDP Online Tuition: Working on an IA Draft Over a Screen

Yes, within a clear boundary. A tutor may teach the skill the assessment needs, question the reasoning, mark practice work, and point at a criterion and ask the student to reread their own paragraph against it. What no tutor may do is write, rewrite or edit the submission. The IB's academic integrity policy allows a teacher to comment on one draft; it does not extend that permission to anyone outside the school. Everything genuinely useful happens on the teaching side of that line.

No, and the offer tells you something about the tutor. Polishing a submission line by line is editing, which the IB does not permit from a tutor or from a parent. The honest version looks different: the tutor names the criterion a weak paragraph is failing, explains what the descriptor asks for, and the student rewrites it themselves. If the writing genuinely needs work, that is a skill to teach across several sessions, not a service to buy in the final week before a deadline.

It compares the submitted work against published sources and against other submitted work, so copied text and reused material surface quickly. It does not know who was on a video call. The stronger detector is the subject teacher, who has read the student's writing all year and notices when one section arrives in a completely different register. That mismatch is usually what starts a conversation, and malpractice findings are handled by the IB rather than by the school on its own.

The student's attempt is shared on screen and the tutor works through it question by question, asking what the examiner wanted before commenting on the answer. For a science Paper 1B data-based question that means reading the stimulus and saying what the data shows. For a Paper 2 extended response it means counting the marks available and checking that the answer contains that many distinct points. It is slower than returning a score by email, and considerably more useful.

For DP2 subject work, usually yes. A student in Adyar or Anna Nagar working with a tutor in Delhi NCR loses physical presence and gains a specialist who has actually taught the level. Ask for a trial on the student's own material before committing, and watch whether the tutor holds attention for a full session over a screen. If the student drifts badly in that trial, a local home tutor with slightly less subject depth may still be the better arrangement.

Online is the realistic answer, and it is why families across southern India beyond Bengaluru and Chennai rely on it. Kochi, Coimbatore, Mysuru, Visakhapatnam and Madurai rarely have a local DP Physics HL or Mathematics AA HL teacher free in the evenings. The same applies across central and western India, in Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur and Nashik. Online tuition there is not a compromise on a home visit, because there was no home visit available to compare it against.

A short written note, and you should ask for one if it does not arrive. It should say what was covered, which criterion or paper section was worked on, what the student is doing before the next session, and one honest line about how the hour went. Four of those notes read together will tell you whether anything is moving. A grade prediction is not part of it, and neither is a paragraph of reassurance written to keep you calm.

Not usually, though it is better for some students. IA work lives in a document, so a screen is where the criteria and the draft naturally sit side by side. Home tuition wins where the student will not begin without someone in the room, or where handwritten working matters and the student will not photograph it. Plenty of DP2 families in Bengaluru and Pune end up hybrid: home sessions at the weekend for long work, online midweek for draft review.

Most DP students manage one session a week per subject, of sixty to ninety minutes, and ninety only if it is split with a real break. A screen session at the end of an Indian school day competes with homework, CAS and sleep. Two subjects tutored at once is common in DP2; four is usually a sign that something else needs fixing, most often the timetable rather than the teaching. Frequency depends on level and schedule.

A laptop, headphones and a stable connection cover most of it. A phone will not do for IA sessions, because the criteria and the draft need to be visible together. If the subject involves handwritten working, a phone camera and a shared folder are enough to get scripts to the tutor; a graphics tablet is a convenience rather than a requirement. Agree the folder and how files will be named in the first session, before versions start multiplying.

No, but the plan has to narrow. With the May session ahead, target the papers where marks are cheapest to recover instead of attempting full syllabus coverage. Read what the mock script shows: unfinished papers point at timing, lost explanation marks point at technique, and blank topics point at content. Internal assessment deadlines may already have passed, in which case tuition belongs entirely on the externally assessed papers. Confirm every remaining date with the DP coordinator.

By the hour, and it varies with level, subject and how experienced the tutor is, so treat any single figure you read online with suspicion. Higher Level sessions and scarce subjects generally sit above Standard Level ones. An online slot usually costs less than an equivalent home tuition slot, because nobody is paying for travel time. Ask what a trial costs, what notice is needed to cancel a session, and whether unused sessions carry over.