The IB Diploma is built to be demanding. Six subjects across different groups, an Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge, and CAS requirements — all assessed within a framework that rewards critical thinking, international mindedness and the ability to make connections across disciplines. That combination of academic rigour and breadth is what makes the qualification genuinely valuable. It is also what makes preparing for it one of the more complex revision challenges a school student will face.
Students who approach IB revision the way they would approach preparing for a set of single-subject national papers often find the process harder than it needs to be. The volume alone is challenging. The range of assessment styles across subject groups adds another layer. And the simultaneous demands of EE, TOK and coursework run in parallel with everything else. Without a clear system, revision drifts — the most manageable subjects get the most attention, the most important subjects get whatever is left.
This guide covers what effective IB revision looks like in 2026, and where AI tools fit into that picture.
Start with the syllabus, not the textbook
The most common early mistake in IB revision is working from course textbooks rather than the official subject syllabuses. Textbooks are written to support teaching — they cover more material than any examination will test and often present concepts at a level of detail that exceeds what the IB Diploma Programme assesses at any given point. A student who revises from textbooks alone is preparing for a broader and less specific examination than the one they will actually sit.
Each IB subject has a published syllabus with clearly defined topic areas, assessment objectives, paper formats and command term expectations. That document — available through the IB directly — is the primary revision target. Before working through a topic in Economics or Biology or History, a student should know which papers assess it, what question format applies, and what the command terms used in those questions require in terms of response structure.
Studiely addresses this directly. The platform requires students to identify their curriculum as IB and their specific subject before it generates any support. The notes, flashcards and exam practice questions that follow from that selection are shaped around the IB specification rather than around general subject knowledge.
Managing the workload across six subjects
The unique pressure of IB revision is scope. A Level students typically manage three subjects. IB students manage six, plus additional requirements. Without deliberate planning, revision time gravitates naturally toward subjects that feel more comfortable and avoids those that feel more difficult — which produces exactly the wrong distribution across a profile.
An effective IB revision schedule is built backwards from the examination timetable, not forwards from a general study plan. Identify the date and paper format for each examination, map the topics each paper covers, estimate the time each subject needs, and then distribute that time across the weeks available. The schedule will require regular updating as some subjects progress faster than expected and others slower, but having a map prevents the common pattern of arriving at the final month with several subjects still largely unstarted.
AI tools help with the efficiency of each individual subject rather than the scheduling problem. Generating structured notes for an IB Economics topic takes seconds rather than the forty-five minutes of reading and condensing a student would otherwise spend. That efficiency compounds across six subjects over several months of preparation.
Subject group differences in revision approach
Group 1 and 2 subjects — languages A and B — are assessed primarily through literary analysis, written commentary and oral work. Revision should focus on the studied texts, key themes, stylistic features and the analytical frameworks appropriate to the course level. Flashcards work well here for key quotations, critical vocabulary, structural techniques and thematic connections. Exam Practice is particularly valuable for building the extended writing fluency that commentary and analysis tasks require.
Group 3 subjects — individuals and societies, including History, Economics, Geography and Psychology — typically involve essay-based and structured response papers. These assess not just knowledge of content but the quality of argument construction, the use of evidence, and the application of relevant theoretical frameworks. Quiz helps identify content gaps. Exam Practice builds the argumentative fluency that these papers reward.
Group 4 subjects — the experimental sciences — combine detailed content knowledge with data analysis and practical application. Summary Notes help with the conceptual and factual material. Quiz exposes whether students can apply concepts to unfamiliar data rather than simply recognise them in familiar contexts, which is where many marks are earned and lost.
Group 5 subjects — Mathematics — are primarily skill-based. Understanding can be built with notes and worked examples, but performance is built with practice. The more questions a student works through — and works through without checking answers before they finish — the stronger their examination performance tends to be.
How Nyla supports IB revision specifically
Studiely includes Nyla, a built-in AI study tutor that remains anchored to the student's chosen curriculum context. For IB students — many of whom are studying in international school environments where after-hours teacher access is limited — the ability to ask a curriculum-aware question at any point in a revision session is genuinely useful.
A student working through IB HL Chemistry at ten in the evening who reaches a concept they cannot resolve can ask Nyla for clarification without leaving their revision flow. That continuity matters more than it might initially seem. Each interruption in a revision session increases the likelihood that a student does not fully return. A tool that reduces those interruptions extends the productive period of each session.
Exam technique is a separate preparation task
A point that deserves more weight than it typically gets in IB preparation: the difference between knowing content and expressing it in the way the IB rewards is the difference between a 4 and a 7 in many subjects.
IB uses specific command terms — analyse, evaluate, compare, discuss, examine, justify — and these terms have precise meanings within the IB assessment framework. A student who responds to an "evaluate" prompt with a "describe" response has not demonstrated the skill the question required, regardless of how much content they included. Learning to read command terms correctly and structure responses accordingly is not a generic writing skill. It is specific to IB assessment, and it requires deliberate practice.
Exam Practice within Studiely is designed to build this kind of preparation — giving students repeated exposure to the format and demands of their specific examinations rather than generalised essay or question practice.
Putting it together for the final preparation period
The clearest principle for IB revision timing is this: AI tools are strongest in the middle phase of preparation. They help students build organised knowledge across all six subjects, establish active recall through spaced flashcard practice, and check understanding efficiently. Past papers are strongest in the final phase, when students need to simulate examination conditions as accurately as possible.
Using Studiely to cover the knowledge-building and recall-testing phases across all six subjects, then transitioning to full timed past paper practice in the final four to six weeks, gives IB students both the content foundation and the examination fluency to perform well.
The IB Diploma rewards students who approach it seriously and systematically. In 2026, that means using the best available tools — including AI-powered revision support — with the same deliberateness that the qualification itself demands.
IB Diploma students can start free at studiely.com.