IGCSE Command Words: What Each One Actually Wants

Most lost marks are not lost because a student didn't know the content. They're lost because the question said explain and the student described. Or it said compare and they wrote about one side only. Or it said suggest and they recited a memorised definition instead of applying anything.

Command words are the first two or three words of almost every exam question, and they are instructions. They tell you exactly what the examiner will award marks for. Learn them properly and you stop donating marks you'd already earned the knowledge for.

Why command words decide your grade

Mark schemes are written command word first. When an examiner marks a 4-mark "explain" question, they are looking for four linked reasons — not four facts. A student who writes four accurate facts can score one or two marks, or zero, while feeling like they answered well.

This is why two students with the same subject knowledge can be two grades apart. One is answering the question; the other is answering the topic.

The content gets you into the room. The command word decides whether you're paid for being there.

The four that cost the most marks

If you only fix four command words before your next paper, fix these.

Describe vs explain

This single pair costs more marks across IGCSE and A-Level than any other confusion.

• Describe — say what happens, or what something looks like. No causes needed.
• Explain — say why it happens. The mechanism, the reason, the "because".

A useful test: if you can't put the word because somewhere in your answer, you haven't explained anything.

Question	Weak answer	What earns the marks
Describe the trend in the graph	"It goes up because of temperature"	"It rises steadily from 10 to 40, then plateaus above 40"
Explain the trend in the graph	"It rises then plateaus"	"It rises because more particles have activation energy; it plateaus because the enzyme denatures"

Notice both weak answers contain correct science. Both would still lose marks.

Compare vs contrast

• Compare — similarities and differences. Both.
• Contrast — differences only.

For compare, examiners want linked statements, not two separate paragraphs. "A is faster than B" earns the mark. "A is fast." followed later by "B is slow." often doesn't, because you haven't made the comparison explicit.

Suggest

Suggest means: apply what you know to a situation you have never seen. It signals there is no single memorised answer, and that a sensible, scientifically or logically valid response will be credited.

Students panic here because it feels like the syllabus failed them. It didn't — the question is deliberately unfamiliar. Say what you'd expect and why.

Evaluate

Evaluate wants a judgement, supported both ways, ending in a conclusion. An answer that lists advantages and stops has done half the task. The structure that scores:

1. Points in favour, with reasons
2. Points against, with reasons
3. A conclusion that actually commits to a position

An evaluate question without a conclusion almost always caps below full marks.

The full command word reference

Grouped by what the examiner is actually asking you to do.

Recall — no reasoning required

Command word	What it wants
State / Give / Name	A short factual answer. No explanation, no working.
Define	The precise meaning. Learn these word for word.
Identify	Pick out the relevant item from information given.
List	Several items, no detail, no sentences needed.
Outline	The main points only, briefly. Resist the urge to write everything.

Reasoning — show the thinking

Command word	What it wants
Describe	What happens or what is observed. No causes.
Explain	Why it happens. Reasons and mechanism.
Suggest	Apply your knowledge to an unfamiliar context.
Deduce	Reach a conclusion using the information provided, showing the logic.
Justify	Support a stated choice or claim with evidence.
Comment on	Make relevant observations about data or a statement.

Judgement — take a position

Command word	What it wants
Evaluate	Weigh both sides, then conclude.
Assess	Judge the importance or value, with support.
Discuss	Explore more than one view before concluding.
Analyse	Break something into parts and examine how they relate.
To what extent	Argue a degree, not a yes or no. Commit at the end.

Quantitative and practical

Command word	What it wants
Calculate	A numerical answer. Show working — method marks live here.
Determine	Obtain a value from data, a graph, or an experiment.
Show that	Work towards the result you've been given. The answer is not the point; the route is.
Estimate	An approximate value, with reasoning for the approximation.
Sketch	An approximate shape with the key features labelled. Axes still matter.
Draw	An accurate diagram or plot, using instruments and a sensible scale.

For anything numerical, the working is the marks. If you're sitting A-Level Maths, our guide to picking up method marks covers exactly how M, A and B marks are awarded when your final answer is wrong.

Let the mark allocation tell you the length

The number of marks is an instruction about how much to write. Students routinely write a paragraph for 1 mark and a sentence for 6.

Marks	Roughly what's expected
1	One point. One short sentence, or a single word.
2	Two points — or one point plus its reason.
3–4	Three or four distinct, developed points. Linked, not repeated.
5–6	A structured answer. For evaluate or discuss, both sides plus a conclusion.
8+	An essay with a clear line of argument. Plan it before writing.

• 1A single word or one short sentence.
• 2Two points, or one point plus its reason.
• 3–4Three or four distinct points, linked rather than repeated.
• 5–6For evaluate or discuss: both sides, then a conclusion.
• 8+A clear line of argument. Plan it before writing.

The most common failure at 5+ marks is making the same point three times in different words. Examiners award each distinct point once.

What changes by subject

The command words are shared, but what counts as a good answer isn't.

• Sciences — precision of vocabulary carries marks. "The particles move faster" and "the particles have greater kinetic energy" are not equally credited. Explain questions want a mechanism, not a restatement.
• Maths — command words are mostly about working. "Show that" and "prove" mean the destination is given and the journey is marked. Never skip lines to save time.
• English — analyse and evaluate dominate. Marks come from linking a specific quotation to a specific effect on the reader, not from spotting the device.
• Humanities and business — evaluate, assess and to what extent decide the top bands. Conclusions must commit; a balanced non-answer scores below a clear judgement that's well supported.

Where those marks sit differs by paper. The subject guides break it down for IGCSE Biology, IGCSE Chemistry, IGCSE Maths and IGCSE English.

How to actually practise command words

Reading a list like this does very little on its own. What works is drilling the distinction until it's automatic.

1. Sort by command word, not topic. Take a past paper and group the questions by their command word. Patterns appear immediately.
2. Write one paragraph per command word from memory. Then check it against the mark scheme's structure — is your explain answer full of reasons, or of facts?
3. Rewrite your own weak answers. Take an answer that lost marks, identify which command word you mishandled, and rewrite it to the right shape.
4. Say the requirement out loud before writing. "Explain — so I need reasons." Two seconds, and it prevents the most expensive mistake in the paper.
5. Log the ones you get wrong. If you consistently lose marks on evaluate, that's a revision task, not bad luck.

This pairs directly with proper past-paper practice — our past papers guide covers the marking and error-log method that makes this stick, and the week-by-week IGCSE revision plan shows where to fit it in.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Writing a description when the question said explain
• Answering only one side of a compare, evaluate or discuss question
• Finishing an evaluate answer with no conclusion
• Making one point repeatedly to fill a 6-mark space
• Skipping working on calculate and show that questions
• Treating suggest as a memory test and leaving it blank
• Ignoring the mark allocation entirely

Knowing where the marks sit is half of exam technique — our guide to IGCSE grade boundaries shows how few raw marks usually separate one grade from the next. Command words are often exactly where those marks go.

Practise command words with feedback

The hard part of command words is that you can't easily mark yourself. You know the content, so your answer looks right to you — which is precisely why the mark was lost.

• Paste or photograph a question and Solve works it through in mark-scheme language, showing which part of the answer the command word is asking for.
• Ask the AI tutor to set you explain and evaluate questions on a topic, then tell you which marks your answer would and wouldn't earn.
• Turn your notes into study sets and drill definitions until state and define questions become free marks.

Command words are the cheapest marks on the paper to fix. The content takes months; this takes an afternoon. Start a free trial and rewrite three answers you lost marks on tonight.