IB Diploma Programme · Physics SL · Student guide
Your IB Physics SL game plan
How your grade is built, what you must master and how marks are awarded — the essentials, at a glance.
examinerprep.com1How your final grade is built
Paper 1
1A: 25 multiple-choice questions.
1B: data-based questions — graphs, units and uncertainties.
Paper 2
Short-answer and extended-response questions across all five themes. Marks reward the reasoning you show.
Internal assessment
One scientific investigation, written up in at most 3,000 words. Marked by your teacher, moderated by the IB.
2What you must master: 19 topics Tick a topic when you could teach it to a friend
Not on your SL papers (HL only): A.4 Rigid body mechanics · A.5 Galilean and special relativity · B.4 Thermodynamics · D.4 Induction · E.2 Quantum physics. If a past paper question uses these, skip it.
Across every topic you are also assessed on tools and inquiry: measuring, uncertainties, graphing and linearising data, and handling the equations in the data booklet. Practise them from week one.
3The IA: 24 marks you control
One scientific investigation · 10 hours · report of at most 3,000 words · four criteria of 6 marks each. It is the only part of your grade settled before exam day — treat it as a head start.
6
Research design
A focused research question and a method described well enough for someone else to repeat it.
Tip: one independent and one dependent variable, everything else controlled.
6
Data analysis
Clear, accurate processing of raw data, with uncertainties carried through to tables and graphs.
Tip: error bars and a gradient with its uncertainty beat extra repeats.
6
Conclusion
An answer to your research question, justified by your data and compared with accepted physics.
Tip: quote your numbers and say how far they are from theory.
6
Evaluation
Strengths and weaknesses of your method, their effect on the result, and realistic improvements.
Tip: link every weakness to the data it actually affected.
4Your two years at a glance Typical plan · your school sets exact dates
Year 1 · build the foundations
- Autumn
- First themes begin. Master units, significant figures and graphs early.
- Spring
- Practical work and data analysis. Start a mistake log for every test.
- Summer
- Shortlist two or three IA ideas and discuss them with your teacher.
Year 2 · deliver
- Autumn
- Carry out and write up your IA. Meet every draft deadline.
- Winter
- Mock examinations: full papers, timed, then review every lost mark.
- May
- Final examinations: Paper 1 and Paper 2.
Also required: the Collaborative Sciences Project (10 hours) — an interdisciplinary team project with students from other sciences. It is not graded, but you must complete it.
5Six habits that earn marks
Obey the command term
“State” wants a fact, “Explain” a cause, “Determine” a number with working.
Show every step
In Paper 2 a correct method can still earn marks when the final answer is wrong.
Units and significant figures
Every final answer carries a unit; match its precision to the data given.
Know your data booklet
Find any equation in seconds — and learn what is not in it.
Paper 1A: reason first
Eliminate options with physics and extreme cases before you calculate.
Paper 1B: practise new data
Gradients, intercepts, error bars and linearising graphs — on data you have never seen.
Stuck on a topic or your IA?One-to-one IB Physics support with Evan Kotronis at ExaminerPrep.
examinerprep.comSource: IB Physics guide, first assessment 2025. Your school sets internal deadlines.
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