Read enough examiner reports and the same sentence appears every year: candidates described when they were asked to explain. Command words are not stylistic preferences — they tell you the shape of the mark scheme.
State / Give / Name
- Wanted: a single fact or term, no justification.
- Common mistake: writing a paragraph. Extra material cannot earn marks here, and a contradiction inside it can cost the mark.
Describe
- Wanted: what happens, in sequence, with the relevant detail. Use the data if data is given.
- Common mistake: giving reasons instead of observations, or describing a trend without quoting a value from the graph or table.
Explain
- Wanted: a causal chain — because X, therefore Y — using subject terminology.
- Common mistake: restating the description. If your answer contains no 'because', 'so' or 'therefore', it is probably not an explanation.
Compare
- Wanted: linked statements covering both things in the same sentence.
- Common mistake: two separate paragraphs with no comparative link. Examiners cannot award the comparison you did not make.
Evaluate / Discuss / Justify
- Wanted: both sides, weighed, ending in a supported judgement.
- Common mistake: listing advantages and disadvantages and stopping. Without a conclusion that picks a side and says why, level-of-response answers stall in the middle band.
Calculate / Show that
- Wanted: working set out line by line, correct units, sensible significant figures.
- Common mistake: a bare answer. With no working, an arithmetic slip loses every mark instead of one — and error carried forward cannot rescue you.