About Evan Kotronis
The examiner's perspective
I am Evan Kotronis. For twenty years I have taught Physics and Mathematics — seventeen of them preparing students for the IB, at both Diploma and Middle Years level — and I currently examine IB Physics at MYP level. Examining and teaching are two different educations. Examining changes what you notice: you stop teaching a subject and start teaching an examination.
What twenty years teaches you
My path has run through some demanding classrooms in international education — Athens College and Tashkent International School — and, more recently, reviewing examinations for Qatar Foundation Schools as a senior exams reviewer. Along the way I led the science laboratories at Athens College, wrote physics texts still used by students today, produced the national video lessons commissioned by Greece's Ministry of Education, and supervised student research teams to awards at the International Science and Engineering Fair.
The through-line is simple. I have watched a great many able students meet the examination — and I have learned precisely where the able ones come unstuck.
What the mark scheme rewards
Marks are rarely lost on understanding; they are lost on communication. A student gives an answer that is correct in every physical sense and is awarded five marks out of eight, because the working does not show what the mark scheme requires it to show. Another defines a term loosely and forfeits a mark that was never about difficulty. These are not gaps in ability. They are the gap between knowing physics and presenting it the way a mark scheme is written to reward.
I teach to close that gap — not with tricks, but with structure. My students learn to read a question the way the person marking it will; to set out reasoning so that every available mark has somewhere to land; and to recognise the difference between an answer that is right and an answer that scores. Most years, that is the difference between a 6 and a 7.
How I work
I work privately, with a deliberately small number of students, so that each one has my full attention. Lessons are live and one to one, over Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, scheduled around your child's time zone rather than mine — I currently teach students from Dubai to Sydney. My own subjects are IB Physics, which I examine at MYP level, and Mathematics AA and AI, which I have taught throughout my career, at Diploma and MYP level, alongside IGCSE and International A-Level.
Every student begins with a consultation. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing; it exists so that I can understand where your child stands, and be honest about whether I am the right person to help.
In brief
- Active IB Physics Examiner (MYP), International Baccalaureate
- Senior exams reviewer, Qatar Foundation Schools
- OCR / Cambridge examiner (GCSE & A-Level)
- IB Physics Teacher (DP & MYP) — Athens College & Tashkent International School
- Former Head of Science Labs, Athens College
- BSc Physics; MSc Physics Education; MSc Management, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), UK Department for Education
- Published physics author (Enastron; Carpe Diem)
- Physics video lessons for Greece's Ministry of Education
- Four ISEF awards as research supervisor
A note on my examiner role
I work as an examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organization, at Middle Years Programme level in Physics. I do not speak for the IB, and nothing on this site is written on its behalf or with its approval. No confidential assessment material — no live paper, no mark scheme, no student script — is used, quoted or described here or in any lesson. What I teach is technique: how to write physics that a mark scheme can award.
Examiner Prep is an independent tutoring service. It has been developed independently from and is not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. “International Baccalaureate”, “IB” and “IB Diploma Programme” are registered trademarks of the International Baccalaureate Organization and are used here for descriptive purposes only.
If that approach fits what your child needs
The next step is a short, free consultation — no obligation.
Book a free consultation or message me on WhatsApp