Best IB Physics Question Banks for HL and SL (2026)

What makes a good IB Physics bank?

The current DP Physics course was first taught from August 2023 and first assessed in May 2025. The IB describes it as an experimental science with a mathematical approach, significant data analysis, and practical and investigative work. A good bank therefore needs more than short formula drills: it should expose you to diagrams, graphs, uncertainty, units, unfamiliar contexts, and written explanations.

HL and SL share the broad themes of space, time, and motion; the particulate nature of matter; wave behaviour; fields; and nuclear and quantum physics. HL adds scope and depth. Confirm the course version before spending hours on material from an earlier syllabus.

Best benchmark: official IB material

Start with the official Physics subject brief, guide, specimen material, released sample papers, and mark schemes available through the IB or your school. These are the safest way to learn the expected paper structure, command terms, data-based style, and level of written communication. They also help you distinguish a genuinely current resource from one that has simply kept an IB label on an old syllabus.

Official material should anchor your practice, but it will not give you unlimited targeted repetitions. Use one paper diagnostically, identify whether the problem is modeling, algebra, interpretation, or communication, and then select a bank that gives you enough similar but not identical questions.

Physics is easiest to diagnose when you separate conceptual and mathematical errors. A correct formula with a wrong diagram is still a modeling problem. A correct model with an incorrect unit conversion is an execution problem. A good question bank should let you practise both, then make you explain the result in words. Keep the original question beside your correction so you can see whether the same error returns in a different context.

• Best for: authentic assessment calibration.
• Not best for: generating a custom daily set from one narrow skill.
• Do not assume: a third-party site is IB-affiliated because it hosts IB-labeled content.

Best digital guided practice: Revision Village

Revision Village offers an IB Physics question bank organized by the course themes and subtopics, with questions arranged by difficulty and accompanied by mark schemes and solution videos. That format suits students who need to see the full chain from selecting a model to substituting values, checking units, and interpreting the result. It is especially useful after a first attempt has shown exactly where the reasoning broke.

The platform is strongest when you want guided digital progression and detailed walkthroughs. It is less compelling if your revision workflow is built around printing a small number of source-filtered questions, writing by hand, and keeping a paper error log. Pair it with official papers rather than treating a commercial bank as the assessment authority.

• Best for: students who want difficulty progression and video explanations.
• Useful for: mechanics, circuits, waves, fields, and data interpretation practice.
• Not best for: a simple printable archive with minimal interface overhead.

Best concept support: Save My Exams

Save My Exams combines IB Physics revision notes, topic questions, answers, practice papers, and tools-focused material. Its Physics resources cover mathematical and experimental skills such as vectors, units, dimensional analysis, uncertainty, graphing, and processing data. That is useful for a student whose missed marks come from a concept or technique gap rather than from a lack of exposure to papers.

Use this strength deliberately. Read the relevant note, close it, and solve a question without looking back. Physics rewards a repeatable process: draw or interpret the model, state the relationship, substitute with units, assess the result, and answer the wording of the question. Notes support that process; they do not replace it.

• Best for: learners who want written explanations beside question practice.
• Good complement: official papers for timing and authentic difficulty.
• Not best for: students who already understand the course and only need rapid paper filtering.

Best online topical workflow: Exam-Mate

Exam-Mate is a reasonable option for students who want to select IB Physics questions by topic, paper type, year, or season, and save custom lists. The questions are displayed online, with ordered or randomized practice and access to official mark schemes described on the topical page. This is useful when you are building a short session around one weak theme such as fields, circuits, or wave behaviour.

The limitation is important for Physics: Exam-Mate says its questions are not downloadable. If you need a printed set for calculations, diagrams, and handwritten explanations, another bank will fit better. Also distinguish an official mark scheme from any AI-generated solution and use the former for final checking.

Best focused paper practice: PastPaperPrep

PastPaperPrep fits the middle of the revision cycle, after you have learned the physics but before you rely only on full timed papers. Its separate HL and SL routes are /banks/ib-physics-hl and /banks/ib-physics-sl. Topic and source filters help you collect real questions on a precise skill, while answers and mark schemes are available where the source provides them. Printable sets support the habits Physics needs: drawing diagrams, writing equations, tracking units, and explaining assumptions.

One bank costs $6 per month or $48 per year. Two to five banks start at $10 per month, with $4 for each additional bank, or $84 annually for two, with $36 for each additional bank. Six or more are $25 per month or $216 per year. Check the live pricing page before purchasing. PastPaperPrep is not the best choice if you need video teaching, extensive revision notes, flashcards, or a guided course sequence.

A Physics revision plan that uses the bank well

Begin with a short official paper section or mixed diagnostic. Label each lost mark by cause: wrong model, formula selection, algebra, units, graph or uncertainty handling, or written explanation. Practise the narrow cause in a topical set, then remove the topic label and mix the skill with other themes. Finish with a timed paper and compare the pattern across attempts.

For HL, include multi-step and unfamiliar-context questions earlier because recognition alone will not carry the extra scope. For SL, do not neglect data analysis and practical reasoning just because the algebra looks manageable. In both courses, an answer that reaches the right number with missing units or unsupported reasoning is not a reliable success.

Keep a short error log with the question source, the first failed decision, and the correction you want to remember. Revisit it after a few days without opening the solution. That delayed check is more informative than a same-minute reread, because it tests whether the reasoning has become available independently.