Exam Command Words: What Each One Actually Wants
A large share of lost marks in written exams have nothing to do with not knowing the material. They come from answering a different question than the one asked — usually because the command word was skimmed over.
Command words are not decorative. They specify the task, and examiners mark against that task. Below is what each of the common ones actually requires.
State / Name / Identify
Give the fact. Nothing more. These are typically low-mark questions and adding explanation wastes time you need elsewhere. If a question worth one mark asks you to name a process, write the name of the process.
Describe
Say what something is like, or what happens, in sequence or detail. Describing does not require reasons — it requires accurate, ordered content. "The liquid turns blue and a precipitate forms" is description. "Because the copper ions react with..." has moved into explanation.
Explain
Give reasons or causes. The word "because" (or an equivalent) should appear in your answer, explicitly or in structure. A very reliable check: every point you make should answer "why?" at least once.
Describe versus explain
Describe: "Coastal erosion increased along the southern shore between 1990 and 2020." Explain: "Coastal erosion increased along the southern shore because sea defences upstream reduced the sediment supply, leaving the beach unable to absorb wave energy."
Analyse
Break the subject into its components and show how they relate to each other and to the whole. Analysis is not a list of features — it is an account of how the parts interact and what follows from that.
Compare / Contrast
Set two or more things against each other on shared criteria. The critical structural requirement is that comparison must be explicit. Writing a paragraph about A followed by a paragraph about B is not a comparison; it is two descriptions side by side. Use linking language — "whereas", "by contrast", "similarly" — in every paragraph.
Evaluate / Assess
Make a judgement, and support it with evidence on both sides. An evaluation that only presents supporting evidence is incomplete regardless of how well written it is, because the task includes weighing alternatives.
Structure that reliably works: state the position, present the strongest case for it, present the strongest case against it, then explain why you still hold the position (or why you have qualified it).
Discuss
Present multiple perspectives on an issue, with reasoning. Closer to evaluate than to explain, but often with less pressure to land on a single firm verdict — though a conclusion that says something is almost always stronger than one that shrugs.
Justify
Give reasons in support of a specific position or decision, usually one you have already stated. Unlike evaluate, you are not required to give equal weight to alternatives — but acknowledging and dismissing the main objection strengthens a justification considerably.
To what extent...
This phrasing is asking for a degree, not a yes or no. The expected answer form is "largely, because..." or "only in certain conditions, because...". Answers that treat it as a binary lose the marks allocated to nuance.
Practising this
Take a single topic you know well and write four short answers to it — one describing, one explaining, one analysing, one evaluating. The content will overlap heavily; the structure should not. Doing this once makes the distinctions much harder to forget under pressure.