If your child is taking IB Diploma Chemistry, the first thing to know is that the course changed. This page describes the Chemistry guide first assessed in May 2025, which is the version current students study. Check with your child's school that they are following it, as some older materials online describe the previous syllabus.

Synergy Institute has been tutoring for 8 years and has taught 200+ students. This page explains the course and where one-to-one tutoring can help.

How the IB Chemistry course is organised

The current course is built around two big ideas: Structure (what matter is made of and how it is held together) and Reactivity (why and how substances change). The content is grouped into six topics:

  • Structure 1: Models of the particulate nature of matter (atoms, moles, gases)
  • Structure 2: Models of bonding and structure
  • Structure 3: Classification of matter (periodicity, functional groups)
  • Reactivity 1: What drives chemical reactions (energetics, rates)
  • Reactivity 2: How much, how fast and how far (equilibrium, kinetics)
  • Reactivity 3: What are the mechanisms (acids and bases, redox, organic reaction pathways)

Students choose Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL). HL covers the same framework in greater depth and adds extra content and harder calculations. A student's school decides which levels are offered.

How the assessment works

Assessment has an external part and an internal part:

  • Written exams: two papers sit at the end of the course. They mix multiple-choice questions, questions based on data, short answers and longer written responses.
  • Internal assessment (IA): a single independent scientific investigation, marked by the teacher and moderated by the IB. It counts for 20% of the final grade.

The IB reports results on a scale of 1 to 7. Exact paper lengths and mark allocations differ between SL and HL, so ask your child's teacher for the current figures, or read the subject brief on the IB website.

Where students commonly lose marks

These are features of the course, not promises about any individual student:

  1. Calculations that go wrong at the first step. Mole and concentration questions are multi-step. An early slip carries through the whole answer, and units are often missed.
  2. Describing instead of explaining. Questions that say "explain" want a cause, such as why a boiling point is higher in terms of intermolecular forces, not just a statement that it is higher.
  3. Data and graph questions. Students are expected to read unfamiliar data, spot trends and give uncertainties, so practice with unseen data matters.
  4. Organic mechanisms. Curly arrows must start at a lone pair or bond and finish at the right place. Vague arrows lose marks.
  5. The internal assessment. Common problems are a research question that is too broad, too little repeated measurement, and weak evaluation of method and uncertainty.
  6. Equilibrium and acids and bases. Students often memorise Le Chatelier's principle without being able to apply it to a new situation.

A sample question to try

Here is an original question of the kind that tests the first of these points:

25.0 cm³ of 0.100 mol dm⁻³ sodium hydroxide solution is neutralised exactly by hydrochloric acid of unknown concentration, and 20.0 cm³ of the acid is used. Calculate the concentration of the acid.

A reliable approach is to write the balanced equation, find the moles of sodium hydroxide, use the 1:1 ratio, then divide by the volume in dm³. The answer is 0.125 mol dm⁻³.

How one-to-one tutoring fits

In general, one-to-one tutoring has advantages for a course like this. A tutor can find which topic a student's difficulty really comes from, spend the time on that topic, and let the student attempt and correct problems aloud. Lessons are online and one tutor works with one student.

Questions parents ask

Which should my child choose, SL or HL? This depends on their other subjects and university plans. Their school counsellor can advise on this.

Can tutoring help with the internal assessment? A tutor can help a student plan and discuss the investigation, but the work submitted must be the student's own.

Book a free first session

If your child is studying IB Chemistry, you are welcome to book a free first session. Tell us the level, the school year and the topics that are causing trouble, and we will use the session to see where to start.