IB Diploma Programme Physics: Syllabus Guide

This guide covers all five themes of the IB Diploma Programme Physics syllabus, first assessment 2025, for both Standard Level (SL) and Higher Level (HL) students. Topics marked “HL only” are not part of the SL course.

Total recommended teaching time is 150 hours at SL and 240 hours at HL, split across the five themes below plus an experimental programme (40 hours SL / 60 hours HL: practical work, a collaborative sciences project, and a scientific investigation).

Theme A – Space, time and motion (27 hours SL / 42 hours HL)

• A.1 Kinematics
• A.2 Forces and momentum
• A.3 Work, energy and power
• A.4 Rigid body mechanics (HL only)
• A.5 Galilean and special relativity (HL only)

Theme B – The particulate nature of matter (24 hours SL / 32 hours HL)

• B.1 Thermal energy transfers
• B.2 Greenhouse effect
• B.3 Gas laws
• B.4 Thermodynamics (HL only)
• B.5 Current and circuits

Theme C – Wave behaviour (17 hours SL / 29 hours HL)

• C.1 Simple harmonic motion
• C.2 Wave model
• C.3 Wave phenomena
• C.4 Standing waves and resonance
• C.5 Doppler effect

Theme D – Fields (19 hours SL / 38 hours HL)

• D.1 Gravitational fields
• D.2 Electric and magnetic fields
• D.3 Motion in electromagnetic fields
• D.4 Induction (HL only)

Theme E – Nuclear and quantum physics (23 hours SL / 39 hours HL)

• E.1 Structure of the atom
• E.2 Quantum physics (HL only)
• E.3 Radioactive decay
• E.4 Fission
• E.5 Fusion and stars

How the five themes connect

The syllabus is built around a small set of recurring models – forces, energy, fields and waves – applied at increasing scale and abstraction. Theme A (mechanics) and Theme C (waves) give the mathematical language that Theme D (fields) and Theme E (nuclear and quantum) then reuse for phenomena too small or too fast to observe directly. HL-only content (A.4, A.5, B.4, D.4, E.2, plus HL extensions throughout) tends to sit at exactly these more abstract extensions – relativity, thermodynamics, electromagnetic induction – rather than being spread evenly across the syllabus.

Assessment

DP Physics is assessed through external written papers (including a data-based and practical-skills paper) plus an internally-assessed scientific investigation, which sits inside the 40/60-hour experimental programme alongside practical work and a collaborative sciences project shared with the other group 4 (experimental sciences) subjects. Strong performance depends as much on interpreting unfamiliar data and justifying experimental method as on recalling the five themes above.

For a paper-by-paper exam-day plan – Paper 1’s data-based-question strategy, data-booklet fluency, and a worked uncertainty-estimation scenario – see the exam preparation guide.

What each theme actually covers

Theme A, Space, time and motion, opens with kinematics and forces and momentum – the description and explanation of motion – before extending, at HL only, into rigid body mechanics and Galilean and special relativity, where the same underlying ideas about motion are reconsidered at very high speeds. Theme B, The particulate nature of matter, moves from thermal energy transfers and the greenhouse effect through gas laws to current and circuits, treating matter’s bulk behaviour and electrical behaviour as different expressions of the same particulate model, with thermodynamics reserved for HL. Theme C, Wave behaviour, builds from simple harmonic motion through the wave model, wave phenomena, standing waves and resonance, and the Doppler effect, establishing a mathematical language for oscillation and propagation that later themes reuse. Theme D, Fields, applies that language to gravitational, electric and magnetic fields and to motion within them, with induction reserved for HL. Theme E, Nuclear and quantum physics, closes the syllabus by applying the course’s accumulated models to the atomic and subatomic scale, covering the structure of the atom, radioactive decay, fission and fusion, with quantum physics reserved for HL.

The experimental programme

Alongside the five content themes, all students complete an experimental programme – 40 hours at SL and 60 hours at HL – made up of hands-on practical work, a collaborative sciences project shared with students from other group 4 subjects, and an internally assessed scientific investigation. This programme is not a separate add-on to the five themes but a parallel strand running throughout the course, since the practical skills it develops – designing a fair test, identifying and reducing sources of uncertainty, interpreting unfamiliar data – are directly examined in the written papers as well as in the internal assessment itself, so strong performance in DP Physics depends as much on this experimental fluency as on recalling the five themes’ content.

Why HL-only content clusters where it does

HL-only content – A.4 and A.5 in Theme A, B.4 in Theme B, D.4 in Theme D, and E.2 in Theme E, alongside HL extensions elsewhere – is not distributed evenly across the syllabus but instead clusters at points where the course’s core models are pushed into more abstract or more extreme territory: relativity extends mechanics to speeds approaching the speed of light, thermodynamics extends the particulate model of matter to systems and energy transfer in more general form, and electromagnetic induction extends the treatment of fields into a genuinely new phenomenon rather than a direct extension of SL field content. Recognising this pattern helps HL students anticipate which parts of each theme carry the extra conceptual weight, rather than assuming HL content is simply “more of the same” SL material at a faster pace.

Data-based and practical-skills assessment

DP Physics’s data-based paper specifically tests the ability to interpret graphs, tables and experimental data the student has not seen before – including identifying trends, estimating uncertainty from given data, and evaluating the validity of a conclusion drawn from it. This is distinct from simply recalling content from the five themes, and it draws directly on the skills developed through the experimental programme rather than on theme-specific factual recall. Because this paper rewards a transferable skill rather than theme-specific knowledge, practising unfamiliar data sets – not just past-paper questions from a single theme – is a more efficient use of revision time close to the exam than re-reading content that is already secure.

Command terms across the five themes

As with other DP sciences, Physics uses a hierarchy of command terms that scales with the demand of a question: state or define requires a precise recalled fact; describe requires an accurate account of a pattern or process without explanation; explain requires a reasoned account of why something happens, often supported by a named physical law or principle; and evaluate or discuss requires weighing the strength of a model, method or conclusion, including its limitations. Because Physics content is unusually formula-heavy, a common error is treating “explain” as though it only requires stating and applying a formula – full marks typically also require stating the physical reasoning the formula represents, not just the calculation itself.

Source

International Baccalaureate Organization, Physics guide (Diploma Programme), first assessment 2025.