Selective hiring, under 2% accepted
Fewer than 2% of tutor applicants meet our standards. We verify credentials, subject-specific IB and AP experience, and teaching ability before anyone meets a student.
Published standards for families in the USA and Canada
The Hack Your Course Standard
This page states, in writing, how our IB and AP tutoring service actually works: who teaches, how tutors are vetted and matched, where the academic-integrity line sits, and how billing stays simple. Every claim here is one we are prepared to be held to.
No guaranteed grades or outcomes, ever. What we guarantee is the standard of the service itself.
Four pillars
What every family can expect
Since 2015, about 90% of our students have been in the IB Diploma Programme, with the rest in AP and other advanced coursework. That focus is only possible because the service is built on four fixed standards.
Mostly career tutors, never current undergraduates
Most HYC tutors are career tutors who earn their living primarily through tutoring. The wider roster also includes certified teachers who tutor outside school hours, IB-trained or credentialed educators, IB examiners, university instructors, and experienced professional tutors and subject specialists. Categories overlap and credentials vary by tutor. We do not hire current undergraduate tutors: every tutor has completed at least a bachelor's degree, and many, but not all, hold master's or doctoral degrees.
Meet our Math & Science tutors · Meet our Language & Humanities tutors
Our main investment: tutor quality
Hack Your Course's main investment is recruiting, supporting, and retaining its career tutors and wider educator roster. That company priority shapes our selective hiring, tutor resources, active management, and long-term relationships with educators.
Managed matching, one flat rate
Hack Your Course assigns the best-fit tutor for each student. Every tutor, examiners included, is billed at the same flat rate, so the match is driven by fit, never by a price tier.
Monitored quality
We read every session report, stay in close contact with tutors, and personally know our client families, so problems surface early and matches improve over time.
The integrity line
Guidance always; ghostwriting never
The IB requires authentic student work in every essay, Internal Assessment, and exam. Our boundary is written into how every tutor works, in every subject.
Tutors always
- Teach course content, assessment criteria, and command terms.
- Train essay, problem-solving, and exam technique on practice material.
- Ask planning questions that sharpen IA, EE, and TOK thinking.
- Run timed past-paper practice and explain what a stronger answer includes.
- Comment on student-written drafts without rewriting them.
Tutors never
- Write, rewrite, paraphrase, or line-edit assessed work.
- Choose a student's IA or EE topic, sources, or argument for them.
- Generate any essay, commentary, or investigation for submission.
- Guarantee a mark, grade, predicted grade, or admission outcome.
Students should also follow their school's rules for external support and disclosure. Read the IB's academic-integrity guidance.
Simple by design
Pricing and billing, stated plainly
Families should never need to negotiate, decode tiers, or commit up front to find out whether tutoring works for their student.
Pay-as-you-go billing
We do not sell packages, prepaid hours, or subscriptions. There are no long-term contracts. Families are invoiced monthly for the sessions already taught, with an automated payment method on file.
One flat rate for every tutor
$70 USD per hour online for American clients, $90 CAD per hour online for Canadian clients, and $120 CAD per hour for in-person sessions in Vancouver and Toronto. There is no examiner surcharge and no credential-based tier.
First Session Satisfaction Guarantee
For long-term engagements where Hack Your Course selects the tutor, a family that is not satisfied after the first session is not charged for it.
Clear cancellation policy
Sessions cancelled or rescheduled with at least 24 hours' notice are never charged. The same clear rule applies to every family and every tutor.
Straight from Google
The standard, graded by families
We wrote the standard; the families grade it. These are real Google reviews, quoted as written, with the names and photos the reviewers made public on Google.
I write this review wearing two hats, one as an IB trained educator and the other as a parent of a high school IB student and AP student. Both of my daughters have benefitted from the highly skilled Hack Your Course team whose knowledge about the IB curriculum and AP courses was thorough and exceeded my expectations as an IB trained teacher. … We also appreciated how quickly the team responded to our requests for support even when timelines and assignment deadlines were tight.
Farah Babul Verified Google reviewWe have been using Hack Your Course for the past 18 months and have been really happy. … I appreciate the reports I get after each session (she did them all on Zoom), and so I am aware of how things are going. I would recommend. Masoud, the general manager, is super attentive and helps with advice.
Tom Darlow Verified Google reviewI have both my children doing IB and both had Hack Your Course tutors. Both of them got good grades and they both were accepted by the University they wanted. All tutors were very good and helpful. The communication with Hack Your Course was excellent. I highly recommend.
Bia L. Verified Google reviewAria (tutor) and Hack Your Course have been the most professional and thorough resources we could have asked for to help prepare for IB and AP courses. Aria’s style of coaching makes complex concepts engaging, accessible, and genuinely enjoyable for students. Well done Aria and Hack Your Course. Thank you for the outstanding work!
P S Verified Google reviewMy son has been using Hack Your Course AP & IB Tutoring Service for over a year tutoring him 3 high school courses, he is very happy with the services and the results. The tutors are great, very knowledgeable on what they teach, and flexible for schedule change if need to.
Eugene Ye Verified Google reviewQuotes are excerpts from public Google reviews, reproduced as written. Read every review in full, independently verified, on Trustindex.
Verify the standard
Our integrity boundary follows the IB's own expectations, and our track record is public. Reviewed August 20, 2026.
Questions about our standards
Will a Hack Your Course tutor write my IA, Extended Essay, or TOK work?
No. Tutors teach, plan, question, and comment on student-written work; they never write, rewrite, paraphrase, or line-edit assessed work. The student remains the author of every submission, in line with IB academic-integrity expectations.
Learn more: IB academic-integrity guidance
How selective is tutor hiring at Hack Your Course?
Fewer than 2% of tutor applicants are accepted. We verify credentials and subject-specific IB or AP experience, assess teaching ability, and keep monitoring quality after hiring through session reports and close contact with tutors and families.
Learn more: Meet our Math & Science tutors · Meet our Language & Humanities tutors
Who chooses the tutor, and do IB examiners cost more?
Hack Your Course manages the matching: we assign the tutor whose background best fits the student's course, level, and needs, and we re-match if the fit is not right. Every tutor is billed at the same flat rate, so an examiner or senior teacher never costs more than any other tutor.
Learn more: IB & AP tutoring in the USA and Canada
Are there long-term contracts or prepaid packages?
No. We do not sell packages, prepaid hours, or subscriptions. There are no long-term contracts. Families are invoiced monthly for the sessions already taught, with no hidden fees.
What does tutoring cost?
One flat rate for every tutor and subject: $70 USD per hour online for American clients, $90 CAD per hour online for Canadian clients, and $120 CAD per hour for in-person sessions in Vancouver and Toronto.
Is there a satisfaction guarantee?
Yes. For long-term engagements where Hack Your Course selects the tutor, a family that is not satisfied after the first session is not charged for that session. The guarantee is designed for engagements where we choose the match and can demonstrate our value over time.
What tools do online sessions use?
Online sessions run on interactive whiteboard platforms, and graphing tablets or equivalent stylus input devices are required for all Math and Science sessions so tutors and students can work through problems properly in real time.
Where is Hack Your Course available?
Tutoring is offered online across the United States and Canada, with in-person sessions available in Vancouver and Toronto. Founded in 2015, Hack Your Course serves families in Greater Vancouver, Toronto, and Seattle and holds 200+ 5-star Google reviews and a Consumer Choice Award.
Learn more: IB & AP tutoring in the USA and Canada
Hold us to this standard
Tell us the student's courses, levels, and goals. We will match the best-fit tutor under exactly the terms written on this page.
Contact Hack Your Course