COMMAND WORDS · BIOLOGY
What the instruction
is asking you to do.
Each command word has a short meaning, a frame or a method, and one way to build the answer. A frame is a scaffold. It is not compulsory wording, and it is not a mark scheme.
- Sample questionAdd/Label
Put the missing name or unit onto a diagram or table the question has already given you.
- Sample questionAssess
Weigh the factors that apply here, say which matter most, and give a judgement where the question needs one.
- Sample questionCalculate
Work out the number from the data, show the working, and include the unit.
- Sample questionComment on
Bring together more than two pieces of information and use them to make a judgement.
- Sample questionCompare and contrast
Give at least one similarity and one difference, with both things in the comparison, and do not add a verdict.
- Sample questionComplete/Record
Fill the gap in a table, diagram or equation, or enter the reading in the form the question asks for.
- Sample questionCriticise
Inspect a plan, a set of data or a statement, say what holds and what does not, and back each judgement.
- Original practiceDeduce
Draw the conclusion that the printed information allows, and do not import one it does not force.
- Original practiceDerive
Combine two or more relationships to produce a new equation, rather than putting one number into one formula.
- Sample questionDescribe
Give a linked account of what happens or what something is like, without adding a reason you were not asked for.
- Sample questionDetermine
Find a quantity from the stimulus and show the route by which you reached it.
- Sample questionDevise
Plan a procedure from principles you know, with the variables, the measurement and the controls clear.
- Original practiceDiscuss
Name the issue, then develop more than one side with a reason and with what that reason changes.
- Sample questionDraw
Produce the diagram the question asks for, with clear lines and labels that touch the structures.
- Original practiceEstimate
Give an approximate value, show what you approximated, and do not add precision you do not have.
- Original practiceEvaluate
Review the evidence, include a strength and a weakness, and reach a judgement that follows from those points.
- Sample questionExplain
Build a clear chain of cause and effect.
- Sample questionGive a reason/reasons
Give the reason that makes a statement already in the question follow, and give only as many reasons as were asked for.
- Sample questionGive/State/Name
Recall the fact these three words are asking for, and do not explain it unless the question adds that.
- Original practiceIdentify
Select the key piece of information from the stimulus, rather than writing everything you know about the topic.
- Original practiceJustify
Give evidence that supports the stated claim, not a nearby one.
- Sample questionPlot
Mark the data accurately on a scaled grid, and add a line of best fit only when the pattern supports one.
- Original practicePredict
Say the result you expect from a pattern or a principle, and keep the condition attached to it.
- Sample questionShow that
Prove the number the question has already stated, to at least one more figure than it printed.
- Original practiceSketch
Draw the shape freehand, and for a graph label the axes and mark the important features without a measured scale.
- Sample questionState what is meant by
Give the meaning of the term, in any wording that still includes the features that make it that term.
- Sample questionSuggest
Apply an idea you can defend to a situation that may be unfamiliar, and keep the suggestion the size of the evidence.
- Original practiceWrite
When this taxonomy says Write, produce the equation in the form that was asked for, not a paragraph.