IB maths tutor in Germany

Source: KMK, Vereinbarung über die Anerkennung des "International Baccalaureate Diploma/Diplôme du Baccalauréat International", Beschluss vom 10.03.1986 i.d.F. vom 15.06.2023, current German text with Anlage 1 as at 26 March 2026 and Anlage 2 as at 22 May 2026, read alongside the KMK's unofficial English translation, downloaded from kmk.org on 3 November 2026. Up to and including exam year 2024, the version of 24 March 2022 applies. Up to 2020 the agreement named the older courses, Mathematics SL or HL.

Read the table from the bottom up and one thing is clear: in Germany, maths is not just one of six subjects. It is the only subject the agreement names twice, once as a required subject and again in a footnote on its level. A pupil who chooses Standard Level maths in the first Diploma year is making a decision that the KMK text treats as consequential for what she can study later.

This is not legal or admissions advice, and we give none. The agreement is applied by universities and the Länder, and its text names an advisory committee of the KMK's Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) to review whether the IB still meets the criteria. If a choice of course matters for a particular degree, ask the university, and the school's IB coordinator, before the subject choice is fixed.

For a pupil the practical upshot is a three-way choice. AA HL keeps the most options open and is the hardest course. AI HL is also Higher Level and suits a pupil whose strength is modelling and statistics rather than proof. A Standard Level course is a sound choice for many pupils, especially at a listed school or with a clear plan outside the sciences, but it is a choice to make knowingly, not by default.

The formula is N = 1 + 3 · (P_max − P) / (P_max − P_min), where P is the IB total, P_max = 42 and P_min = 24. Bonus points are added into P, and a pupil with 42, 43, 44 or 45 points is given the top grade, 1.0. The agreement adds that the average is calculated in the country where the Diploma is issued. Put the numbers in and the formula simplifies to N = 1 + (42 − P) / 6: each extra IB point improves the German average by 1/6, about 0.17.

That is a straight line, and a straight line can be read in both directions. Most pupils ask "what grade do my points give?" An IB maths pupil can ask the more useful question, "how many points do I need for the grade I want?", by inverting the function: P = 42 − 6 · (N − 1).

import math

def grade(points):
    if points >= 42:
        return 1.0
    return 1 + 3 * (42 - points) / (42 - 24)

def points_needed(target):
    return math.ceil(42 - 6 * (target - 1))

for p in [24, 30, 35, 36, 39, 44]:
    print(p, "points ->", round(grade(p), 3))
for n in [3.0, 2.3, 1.5]:
    p = points_needed(n)
    print("for", n, "or better: at least", p, "points, giving", round(grade(p), 3))

Formula and constants from the KMK IB agreement, as amended on 15 June 2023. The results are our own arithmetic. The agreement itself does not say how the result is rounded; the general KMK rules on overall grades for foreign qualifications apply, and we do not restate them here.

The inverted line has a trap, and it is the lesson. For a target of 2.3 the formula gives P = 42 − 6 · 1.3 = 34.2. IB totals are whole numbers, and a higher total gives a better (smaller) grade, so the pupil needs at least 35, not 34: 34 points give 2.333, just outside the target. Rounding the wrong way is the mistake; the check is to put the answer back into the original formula.

In AGIS's own words, every member is an IB school with IBO authorisation running one or more of the four IB programmes; it adds that English is the shared teaching language, and that the IB Diploma, with the prescribed subject combinations, is equivalent to the German Abitur. Its directory pages list the IB Diploma Programme, or the IB generally, for member schools in Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover and Stuttgart, among other places. Some German Gymnasien also offer the IB Diploma alongside the Abitur, according to the same directory.

We mention these places only as context. We are not connected with AGIS, the IBO or any school, and no school sends pupils to us. A pupil at any IB school in Germany, or at a school abroad, learns the same course with us, because the IB syllabus is the same everywhere.

Germany is on MEZ, UTC+1, from 25 October 2026 and on MESZ, UTC+2, from 28 March 2027, as the Einheitenzeitgesetz sets out; India keeps UTC+5:30 throughout. These rows illustrate the gap only; we do not publish fixed batch times.