Parents and exams
State, Describe, Explain, Evaluate: The Command Word Is the Question
Knowing the topic is not enough if your answer has the wrong shape. Read the instruction first.
Students sometimes say, “But my answer was correct.”
Often, the knowledge was correct. The answer was not.
That distinction matters because the command word is not a polite suggestion attached to the end of a question. It is the instruction that tells you what kind of evidence the examiner can credit. If a question says describe and you explain why, you may write more than you need and still leave the asked-for answer missing. If it says evaluate and you list facts, you may show knowledge without making a judgement.
The command word is the question. Everything else tells you what to use to answer it.
Cambridge defines command words to help students understand what an assessment asks them to do, while also noting that subject-specific wording belongs in the syllabus. That is why a generic list is useful only when you turn it into a response habit.
First, separate four commands students keep blending together
| Command word | What it asks you to do | A useful answer shape | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| State | Express the answer clearly and directly | Answer, then stop unless another instruction asks for more | Writing a paragraph to hide uncertainty |
| Describe | Give the main features or what happens | What you observe, in a logical order | Explaining causes when the question wants features |
| Explain | Give reasons, relationships, how or why | Point → because → scientific or subject-specific consequence | Repeating a fact without the link that makes it a reason |
| Evaluate | Make a supported judgement about value, quality or importance | Criteria → evidence for → limitation or counterpoint → judgement | Listing advantages and disadvantages with no verdict |
These are not magic templates. The mark allocation, question context and subject still matter. But they stop you from sending the same answer shape to four different questions.
State: do not bury the mark
When a question says state, the examiner is usually asking for a clear piece of recall or a concise conclusion. Give it cleanly.
If the question asks you to state one reason, write one reason. Do not add three unasked-for claims in the hope that one will be accepted. Extra writing creates extra opportunities to contradict yourself or waste time.
The discipline here is confidence, not brevity for its own sake. You are showing that you know which point matters.
Describe: tell the reader what happens, not why it happens
Imagine a graph rises sharply, levels off, then falls. A description names that pattern. An explanation tells us why the pattern happened.
Students often give an explanation because it feels more intelligent. But an answer that is more advanced than the question is not automatically more creditable. If the question asks for a description, use the data, the visible change, the sequence or the key features. Save the cause for when it is asked.
One quick check is this: could someone draw, observe or identify the point from your answer? If yes, you are probably describing. If your sentence begins with “because,” you may already be explaining.
Explain: build the bridge
An explanation is not a longer description. It is a relationship.
For a science answer, that often means cause and effect. For a business or economics answer, it may mean a decision, its mechanism and its consequence. For humanities, it may mean an event, the reason it mattered and the outcome it produced.
The useful structure is:
point → because → therefore
For example, rather than writing, “The rate increases at a higher temperature,” write the chain that makes the statement meaningful: particles have more kinetic energy, successful collisions happen more often, therefore the reaction rate increases.
The exact subject language changes. The principle does not. An explanation earns its marks by connecting two things that would otherwise sit separately on the page.
Evaluate: make a judgement, not a shopping list
Evaluation is where many answers become a pile of points with no decision inside them. Students list one advantage, one disadvantage, perhaps another advantage, then run out of time.
Evaluation asks for a judgement. A judgement needs a basis.
Use this sequence:
- Say what you are judging.
- Give the strongest reason or evidence in favour.
- Give the material limitation, condition or counterpoint.
- Decide which matters more in this case, and why.
The word in this case matters. The strongest evaluation is rarely “it depends” and never “both sides are equal” by default. It uses the facts of the question to decide what matters most.
Train command words before you train full papers
Most students only meet command words inside a full past paper. That is late. You should practise the command word in isolation first.
Make a one-page command-word sheet for each subject. On the left, write the exact wording from your syllabus. On the right, write a response shape and one sentence you have checked against a mark scheme.
Then take five questions from past papers and cover everything except the command word and marks. Before answering, say aloud: “This question wants a description,” or “This question wants a judgement.” It feels basic. It changes the way you read.
After marking, do not only ask whether your knowledge was right. Ask whether the answer had the right shape. A wrong answer caused by a missing fact needs revision. A wrong answer caused by the wrong command-word response needs a different habit.
This is one of the few exam techniques that improves every subject at once. You are not learning a trick. You are learning to read the assessment as a set of instructions.
Before the next paper, write these four words at the top of your rough page: state, describe, explain, evaluate. Next to each, write one verb: answer, show, link, judge.
The content may change from Chemistry to Economics to Biology. The question is still telling you what a complete answer looks like.
Source note
Cambridge International’s current command-word definitions: Understanding command words in exams. Check the syllabus for the exact words and assessment context for each subject.
One thing to do