What Examiners Mean by Describe, Explain, Discuss and Evaluate

Two candidates know exactly the same thing. One writes three marks worth, the other writes seven. The difference was not knowledge. It was that the second one read the first word of the question and the first one did not.

That first word is called a command word, and it is an instruction, not decoration. It tells you how much to write, what kind of thing to write, and where the marks are. Ignore it and you will write something true that scores badly, which is the most frustrating way to lose marks because you will never understand why.

The ladder

Command words form a rough ladder of demand. Each rung asks for everything below it plus something more.

Command	What it wants	Rough length
State, name, list, give	The fact. Nothing else.	A word or a line
Define	The precise meaning, in accepted terms	A sentence
Describe	What happens or what it looks like, in order	Several sentences
Explain	Why it happens. The mechanism or reason	Several sentences, linked
Compare	Similarities and differences, both, explicitly linked	A paragraph
Analyse	Break it apart and show how the parts relate	Extended
Discuss	More than one position, fairly represented	Extended
Evaluate, assess	Weigh it and reach a supported judgement	Extended, with a conclusion

Two rules follow from the ladder, and they cost marks in opposite directions.

Writing below the command loses marks. Asked to explain and you describe, you have answered a different, easier question.

Writing above it wastes time and earns nothing. Asked to state and you write a paragraph, the extra sentences score zero. Those minutes came out of a later question that needed them.

Describe against explain, which is where most marks go

If you fix one thing, fix this pair. It appears in every subject and it is the most common confusion in the hall.

Describe answers what. The temperature rose. Unemployment increased. The character withdraws from her family.

Explain answers why. The temperature rose because the reaction is exothermic and releases energy to the surroundings.

The practical test is simple. Read your answer back. If it contains no because, no so, no which means, no therefore, you have almost certainly described when you were asked to explain.

Marks for explanation are usually awarded for the links, not the facts. Two correct facts sitting side by side score less than the same two facts joined by a reason, because the joining is the thing being tested.

Discuss and evaluate need a position

These sit at the top of the ladder and they are where strong candidates separate themselves.

Discuss requires more than one view, each represented fairly. An answer that argues one side and ignores the other has not discussed anything, however well argued it is.

Evaluate requires everything discuss requires, plus a judgement you actually commit to. Presenting both sides and stopping is the single most common way to lose the top marks. The examiner is waiting for you to decide, and to say why the evidence points that way.

Structure that reliably works for evaluate:

1. State your position in the first line. Do not build to it.
2. Give the strongest evidence for it.
3. Give the strongest case against it, honestly, not as a straw figure.
4. Say why the first outweighs the second.
5. Restate the judgement, now earned.

Point three is where candidates are timid. Representing the opposing case at full strength and then defeating it is far more convincing than pretending it is weak, and examiners consistently reward it.

Compare means both, together

A compare question wants similarities and differences, and it wants them linked in the same sentence.

The weak version writes a paragraph about A, then a paragraph about B, and leaves the reader to do the comparison. That is two descriptions sitting next to each other.

The strong version says: both A and B do this, whereas A does that and B does the other. The comparison happens on the page rather than in the examiner’s head, and the linking words are doing the work.

Let the marks tell you the length

The mark allocation is the other instruction in the question, and it is more reliable than any rule about paragraphs.

A rough working assumption: one distinct point per mark. A question worth four marks wants four separate creditable things, not one point expressed four ways. Candidates lose marks by writing beautifully about a single idea when the paper asked for four ideas.

Before writing, glance at the mark and count what you are about to say. If a six mark question is getting three points from you, stop and find three more before you start writing, not afterwards.

The same discipline protects you at the other end. A two mark question receiving a page is a time transfer from somewhere else in the paper, and in a ranked competition that transfer can be expensive. More on that in how a concours actually works.

The small words that reverse the question

Beyond the command word, a handful of ordinary words change what is being asked, and they are easy to read straight past.

• Not, except invert the question completely
• Most, best, main want one answer, the strongest, not a list
• Briefly is an instruction about length and it is marked
• Using the data, with reference to the passage means marks depend on citing the source, and an answer from memory alone will not score
• Other than excludes something already given, and repeating it scores nothing

Underline these as you read. It takes a second and it prevents a whole category of error that has nothing to do with what you know.

How to practise this

Command words are learnable quickly because there are not many of them, but only if you practise deliberately.

1. Take a past paper and only classify. Do not answer anything. For each question write the command word and the marks. Twenty minutes.
2. Notice the distribution. Most papers lean on two or three commands. Those are the ones worth drilling.
3. Take one topic and write it at three levels. Describe it, explain it, evaluate it. Same content, three answers. This teaches the difference faster than anything else.
4. Mark yourself on the command, not the content. Ask whether you did what the word asked, before asking whether you were right.

Where examiner reports are published, read them. They say plainly and repeatedly that candidates described when asked to explain, and listed when asked to evaluate. Very few students ever open them.

Command words in maths and the sciences

Candidates often assume command words are an essay subject concern. They are not, and in mathematics the distinctions are sharper because they decide whether working earns credit.

• Write down means no working is required. The answer alone scores. Spending three minutes deriving it is time given away.
• Show that means the answer is already printed for you and every step is the mark. Jumping to the given result scores almost nothing, because the result was never the point.
• Prove demands a complete argument with no gaps. A worked example is not a proof.
• Hence means you must use the previous part. An independent method, even a correct one, can lose the marks.
• Hence or otherwise permits either route, and the previous part is usually the shorter one.
• Estimate expects an approximation with reasoning, not a precise calculation.
• Sketch wants shape and key features, not plotted accuracy. Plot wants the opposite.

The word hence is the one that costs most marks, because it looks like a linking word rather than an instruction. When a question says hence, the examiner is testing whether you can use what you just proved. Solving it another way answers a question nobody asked.

In the sciences, watch for suggest, which signals that you are being asked to apply what you know to an unfamiliar situation where there may be more than one acceptable answer. It is not a trick. It is telling you that recall alone will not reach it.

Questions candidates ask

Do command words mean the same across subjects?

Broadly, yes, and the ladder holds everywhere. But depth expected varies, and some subjects use commands the others do not. Where your syllabus defines its command words, that definition beats any general guide, including this one.

What if a question has two commands?

Answer both, separately and visibly. “Describe and explain” is two tasks and usually two groups of marks. Candidates often blend them into one paragraph and satisfy neither. Do the describing, then do the explaining.

Does handwriting or presentation matter here?

Only in that an examiner has to find your points. Separate paragraphs, and starting a new line for each distinct point in a multi mark question, makes the marks easy to award. Nobody is scored on neatness, and everybody is affected by whether their answer can be followed.

Is it worth memorising the definitions of command words?

Memorising the list is nearly useless. Practising the difference is what works, which is why the three levels exercise above is worth more than reading this article twice.

Try this now

Take one topic you know well. Write three answers on it: describe, explain, evaluate. Give yourself five minutes each.

If all three come out looking similar, you have found something worth a great deal of marks, and you have found it while there is still time to do something about it.

More technique in Exams and Past Papers, and the method for making it stick in our twelve week revision plan.