Curriculum
IB Physics Curriculum: The Whole Year, Term by Term
This is what a student actually covers with us in IB Physics, laid out as a single
DP year: summer workshop, autumn semester, winter workshop, spring semester. Read
one column from top to bottom and you have that year group’s whole year.
The year, in order
Two tracks run through every DP year: an intensive workshop in each vacation and
a group class alongside each school semester. The workshops run ahead of
school so a student arrives at a topic already having met it; the semester
classes then track what school is actually teaching. Most students combine both,
and either can be taken on its own.
- Summer Vacation workshop 4 weeks · July–August
Period DP1 DP2 Week 1 A. Space, time and motion I D. Fields I Week 2 A. Space, time and motion II D. Fields II Week 3 A. Space, time and motion III E. Nuclear and quantum physics I Week 4 B. Particulate nature of matter I E. Nuclear and quantum physics II Period DP1 DP2 September A.1 Kinematics · A.2 Forces and momentum D. Fields I October A.3 Work, energy and power D. Fields II November A.4 Rigid body mechanics · A.5 Galilean and special relativity E. Nuclear and quantum physics I - Winter Vacation workshop 3 weeks · December–January
Period DP1 DP2 Week 1 B. Particulate nature of matter II Review — A, B, C Week 2 C. Wave behaviour I Review — D, E Week 3 C. Wave behaviour II Full past-paper practice - Spring Term-time semester January–May
Period DP1 DP2 January–February B. Particulate nature of matter I Final preparation — A. Space, time and motion · B. Particulate nature of matter March B. Particulate nature of matter II Final preparation — C. Wave behaviour · D. Fields April C. Wave behaviour I Final preparation — E. Nuclear and quantum physics May C. Wave behaviour II —
HL and SL follow the same sequence: Higher Level goes further into each topic and adds the five HL-only subtopics marked on the subject guide. DP2 spring is given over to final-exam preparation rather than new content, and the DP2 year ends with the May examinations. Every class is delivered online, and the last week of each five-week semester term is a mock exam with error review.
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