Command words checklist

The command word tells you what kind of answer to write. Get it wrong and you can know the topic perfectly and still lose most of the marks, because you wrote the wrong sort of answer. Both lists below are the official ones from the Cambridge syllabuses.

O Level Economics 2281: nine command words

• Analyse. Examine in detail to show meaning, identify the parts, and show how they relate to each other.
• Calculate. Work out from given facts, figures or information. Always show the working.
• Define. Give the precise meaning. One clean sentence, and never use the word itself in the definition.
• Describe. State the points of a topic, or give the characteristics and main features. No reasons needed.
• Discuss. Write about the issue or topic in depth, in a structured way. Both sides, then a judgement.
• Explain. Set out purposes or reasons, make the relationships between things clear, say why or how, and support it with relevant evidence.
• Give. Produce an answer from a given source, or from memory. Usually one or two words.
• Identify. Name, select or recognise. Very short answer.
• State. Express in clear terms. Short, and no explanation required.

AS & A Level Economics 9708: seventeen command words

The nine above all appear again, with the same meanings. These eight are added:

• Assess. Make an informed judgement.
• Comment. Give an informed opinion.
• Compare. Identify or comment on similarities and differences.
• Consider. Review and respond to given information.
• Demonstrate. Show how, or give an example.
• Evaluate. Judge or calculate the quality, importance, amount or value of something.
• Justify. Support a case with evidence or argument.
• Outline. Set out the main points.

The pairs students mix up

Describe and explain. Describe gives the features. Explain gives the reasons. If your sentence has no because and no so in it, you have described when you were asked to explain.

State and explain. State is one line. If a question is worth one or two marks and says state, do not write a paragraph. You gain nothing and you lose time you need later.

Analyse and discuss. Analyse wants a chain of linked steps in one direction. Discuss wants both sides and then a judgement. If you only argue one way on a discuss question, you cap your own marks.

Assess, evaluate and justify. All three want a judgement, not a summary. Answer the question directly, say what the answer depends on, and back it with something you argued earlier.

Outline and describe. Outline wants the main points only. It is not an invitation to write everything you know.

How to use this in the exam

Underline the command word before you write anything. It takes two seconds and it stops the most expensive mistake in the paper.

Then check the marks. Marks tell you the length. One or two marks means a line or two. Six marks or more means a proper argument with steps, and on a discuss or evaluate question it means both sides and a judgement.

When you get a marked paper back, look at any answer that scored badly and ask whether you answered the command word that was actually there. More often than not, that is where the mark went.